I was inspired by my blogging friend Maria from Sweden and her beautiful post about lake to share what my brother is up to right now.
As I’m writing this, he’s somewhere deep in the Swedish wilderness, completely off-grid. Tents, campfires, no electricity… no extras … just nature.
This isn’t a one-time adventure either. He and his friends have been making this trip for several years now. They carefully buy all the necessary fishing permits and follow all the local regulations so they can fish for wild Atlantic salmon in Sweden’s famous rivers.
Sweden has many wild salmon rivers, and every year I eagerly wait for my brother to send me photos. The scenery is incredible—untouched forests, roaring water, and not much else. Maybe few bears 🙂
One of the rivers they’re fishing carries around 500 cubic meters of water every second. For my U.S. readers, that’s about 17,700 cubic feet of water per second (or roughly 132,000 gallons every second!). It’s hard to imagine that much water rushing by.
The nature there feels truly wild, and every year the weather is different. Sometimes it’s warm, sometimes it’s rainy, and sometimes it’s downright cold.
This year, their “bathroom” is simply the river itself… and the water temperature is only 12°C (about 54°F)!
I honestly don’t know how they manage it. That’s far too hardcore for me! I’d be wrapped in a blanket with a hot cup of tea instead.
Have you ever gone completely off-grid for a few days? Or is there one food you love that you think you’d get tired of if you had to eat it every single day?
Ilze
P.S. I’d love your feedback! One reader mentioned that my site is full of ads and that they find them annoying. I honestly had no idea that was happening. Do you see a lot of ads when you visit my blog? Also, a few people have told me that the Like button is missing or never loads for them. Have you experienced that too?
Unfortunately, getting help from tech support has been frustrating. It’s all AI responses, and although they promise someone will get back to me, I never seem to hear from a real person. So your feedback would really help me figure out whether these issues are widespread or just affecting some visitors.
Discover more from a day in the life of a latvian mom
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Happy Summer Solstice., would love to be in Riga, maybe next year. I don’t see any ad’s, but I have an ad blocker. I got so fed up of the amount of ads on everything.
I hope you had a nice Summer Solstice 🌿 We have to meet if you come to Riga! What do you think?
Hey Ilze,
What your brother is doing there looks like great fun. Fishing itself isn’t really my thing, but spending time out in nature like that? Where do I sign up? 🙂
As for the website, as IT you should know this as well, but unless you’re using a free WordPress.com site connected to a custom domain, your own website shouldn’t be displaying ads. And even then, you have no control over what might be happening on someone else’s computer, browser (infected) , extensions, or network . My guess is that the issue is more likely on the visitor’s side than on yours.
I don’t see any signs of ads on my system at all, although that’s Linux for you. 🙂
Regarding the Like button, that part is correct + the reply box as well. I can see it trying to refresh, the little spinning circle appears, but it never seems to complete the process.
I replyed via the WordPress reader – there the like and reply box work.
Thank you for the detailed insight. I’m confused, cause I don’t have free plan! The summer solstice celebration has ended and I will look into all this!
It sounds like what I’m hearing might be platform-related or even device-specific for some visitors.
The Like button issue is especially confusing since it behaves inconsistently. Is the like button working now?
Thanks, Ilze. Yes, the Like button and comment box is working – It only failed one day.
The Like button and comment box are exactly the kind of things that occasionally break on WordPress, whether it’s a free or a paid site. Small bugs tend to appear after updates or changes, and WordPress seems to roll those out quite regularly. Proper testing doesn’t always seem to be part of the process.
As for the ads that one of your readers reported seeing, I’m quite certain that’s something on their end. Paid WordPress sites simply don’t display ads, so the cause almost certainly lies elsewhere rather than with your website.
OMG – I can SO understand your brother wanting to go, cold or not – you can rug up. The scenery is breathtaking, the sport a huge fun challenge and I would give anything for natural fresh salmon – in Australia all the poor fish are grown in overfilled sea pens in a harbour in Tasmania, fed an abysmal artificial diet and given so many medications and have so many die in the tanks – the fish are more a health hazard than a prime food . . . oh, we eat the stuff but hate the situation . . . lucky you > I do hope he brings a few back for you also . . .
I really feel what you’re saying about the salmon situation in Tasmania—it’s heartbreaking when food production loses its connection to nature like that. Wild river salmon in Sweden does feel like something rare and almost sacred in comparison. If you could choose, would you prefer wild food adventures like this, or more comfort-based travel experiences?
Your brother is made of sterner stuff than me — a 12°C river as the only bathroom would have me booking the nearest cabin with a kettle! We’ve done a few off-grid stretches as a family and the kids always adapt faster than the adults; it’s the parents who miss their coffee. That 500-cubic-metres-a-second figure is staggering. And a food I’d never tire of? Fresh bread, every single day.
I laughed at the “nearest cabin with a kettle” because that would absolutely be me too 😄 I love that kids adapt so easily compared to adults—it’s so true. And fresh bread every day is such a good answer. If you were to try off-grid again, what comfort item would you absolutely refuse to leave behind?
Beautiful pics, Ilze. I don’t have a problem with ads on your site but the like button often won’t load 🙂
Good to know the ads aren’t showing on your side, but the Like button issue seems to be more common than I expected. It helps me narrow things down a bit. When it doesn’t load for you, does it happen on specific posts or completely randomly?
It seems pretty random. I had no issues with it today.
The ad’s can only be controlled by the type of plan you have. I have a premuim plan so I can turn ad’s off. As far as the like button, probably a WP issue. Use Copilot, I use them when I have WordPress questions.
I’ll definitely look more into WordPress options later this week. Do you think most readers prefer ad-free content enough that it changes whether they stay on a blog?
Personally it does. Everyone is different.
Ads are normal, not too much. Like buttin dome days yes some no.
Silly like button, right?
Sweden is so beautiful! I follow Maria too, and for several years when she lived here in Las Vegas and in California. I have never once seen an ad on your site, Ilze, but I also use a very good ad blocker. I use Firefox on the MacBook. The native browser is not good.
It’s fascinating how different browsers and systems completely change the experience—Firefox with adblocker seems to be the smoothest combo so far! I’m starting to see a pattern here. Do you think most people don’t realize how much their browser setup affects what they see online?
Also, I didn’t know Maria lived in Las Vegas and California! Her blog is year old! Are there other blogs?
Oh, wow that is nice view!
Thank you 🌿 I’m glad the view came through even in a simple way like that. Was it the river or the forest that stood out most to you?
I lived in Sweden for a while and went with a friend to catch salmon. Your lovely pictures remind me of this outing. Thank you.
I don’t see any ads. I use a MacBook and Google Crome.
Klausbernd 🙂
That’s wonderful—you’ve actually experienced salmon fishing in Sweden yourself, so you really know the feeling I’m trying to describe. I love that this brought back memories for you. Was your trip more about the fishing itself or the nature around it?
Yes, we did it all, fishing salmon, catching crabs, but not shooting moose.
Happy weekend
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Sounds like quite an adventure. Beautiful photos tell a great story. Don’t see ads, but on the browser the ‘like’ button swirls… using the WordPress reader to comment. Have a great day.
Yes, that spinning Like button seems to be a recurring theme—I’m starting to think it might be a WordPress-wide glitch rather than my site specifically. Glad you could comment through Reader though! Do you usually prefer using Reader over visiting the actual site? Reader is nice for blogs I follow.
Certainly an adventure….
I don’t see ads on your blog and do see the ‘like’ button when using Chrome (both on my work computer and at home, no issues with my iPad). Last week though all the notifications of my regular bloggers posts went into my email spam filter! No idea why.
That’s interesting about email notifications going into spam—that seems like a completely separate but related system issue. It really shows how many moving parts there are behind a simple blog. Do you think email notifications or Reader is more reliable for following blogs?
An inspirational post. I don’t get the ads. Maybe because I have adblocker
Thank you, I really appreciate that 🌿
That would be lovely, I’m working on it for next year. My relatives are in Zanzibar, so celebrated the summer solstice in Africa.
Oh wow! In Zanzibar!? Nice.
That does look like a gorgeous place! Thank you for sharing his story and photos 🙂 I don’t get any ads when I visit your site.
Thank you for such a nice comment. Thank you for letting me know about ads 🙂