Where those little wooden horses are made

See story below of Vasa Loppet,

Ingemar Åkerström is a likeness of King Gustaf Vasa in his (Vasa's) 60 pound armour, which protected him in battles against the invading Danes.

Elder Johnson stands next to a 500 year old weapon of mass destruction....28 notches on this wild looking spear and sword combination.

1540 copy of the Holy Bible is told to be the oldest of its kind in Scandinavia. It lies under protective glass in the old log museum.

Another highlight of visiting Darlana was to visit the area called Ornässtugan (see inside information above) where elderly Borlänge Ward members are curators. Brother Ingemar and Sister Ann Åkerström were our guides with the other missionaries in the district. They are truly amazing being so active in their '80s. We want to be like them when we "grow up." He kept saying that they have been trying to "poison" the missionaries for many years, and they haven't succeeded yet. What a sense of humor!

Chickens are also on the painting tables and are almost as popular as the hästar. This one is particularly nice, and LARGE.

The shelves are now being filled for another season of tourists. Colors range from orange, gamla orange, white, off white, navy blue and black. Roosters come in similar colors.

The painting room is small but the women are expert toll painters, each sitting at a station doing their specialty. It looks like "gold" ones will be coming out next season. It takes weeks to finish just one piece.

The wooden cut-outs are whittled by hand into smooth wooden figures, ready for priming and painting.

One man is at a jig saw station cutting away. He can keep a crew busy doing the finish work.

At Nils Olsson's hand made wooden horse factory, we witnessed first hand the entire process. It takes many hours and days to make one of those little works of art. Naturally Elder Johnson had to check out the herd of nearly full grown horses. No feeding, no horse shoes and no training. I like that!

The real intention of our trip was to be present at a district missionary meeting. After the missionary gathering, we were, however, privileged to a private tour of the ancient museum. In the early 1500's, King Gustaf Vasa stayed in this old log building waiting for a chance to garner troops and drive out the attacking Danes. He was forced to flee ( he actually escaped through the backroom privy) the building as the aproaching army neared. He raced with his small army toward Norway....on skies. Several days later, he was convinced to turn around, gathered a much larger army and drove the Danes into the lakes. His moment of glory had arrived. One can read about the Vasa Lopp (on google) which is celebrated every year in memory of the rousting of the invading Danish Army. The Vasa Lopp is the largest sky race in the world, consisting last year (2009) of over 17000 skiers in one race....40,000 total for several days of racing!