Cooling off with a...

Summer Sauna

Julius and Terrie Aho's sauna is an attractive outbuilding close to their house.

The dog days of summer linger across the parched landscape with a suffocating presence leaving one to wonder the best way to escape the oppressive heat. A cool dip in a nearby lake, or 15 minutes in a hot, steamy sauna?

If you're like the full-blooded Finnish population nestled around Sebeka, Menahga and New York Mills, you'll opt for the sauna (pronounced sow'na) in a heartbeat. History claims that Finnish settlers in these parts built the sauna first and then the house. And that may very well be true as one begins to understand the impact the daily ritual has on a people who have grown up immersed in this tradition.

Passed down through the generations, it is truly a family experience for the Raphael and Linda Aho clan. Sue Keskitalo and Julius Aho are two of 18 Aho siblings who grew up taking two or three saunas a week — regardless how high the outdoor temperature climbed.

Outside sauna

Julius, his wife, Terrie, and their five children live in a comfort-able home tucked in the edge of the woods in rural Sebeka. They take saunas daily. On Saturday nights, Terrie and Julius invite members of their extended families over for supper and a sauna.

After filling up on deep fried fish (fresh from Julius' afternoon fishing trip), fried potatoes and Finnish flatbread, everyone takes turns going outside to the sauna.

A handcrafted stone path leads to the Ahos' newly built sauna a few yards from the house. Smiling black-eyed Susans and colorful petunias adorn the entrance with a mix of lofty oak, basswood and ash providing a woodsy backdrop.

"We built our sauna with the door of the wood stove on the exterior in order to keep the inside cleaner," Julius says, pointing to a box of firewood near the opening for the stove.

The 8- by 12-foot sauna consists of two rooms. A changing room — complete with a wooden bench, fresh towels and rugs — has small windows that let in slices of sunshine. A door divides the changing room from the steam room , which seats three to six people. The dim lighting creates an atmosphere of peace and relaxation.

"When it reaches around 130 to 140 degrees, it's about right for the kids, but when it's just me, I like to run the heat up to 150 or 180 degrees," Julius admits.

Buckets for washing or rinsing, a ladle for throwing water on the stones, soaps, towels and a long-handled cedar brush complete the basic supplies. A bouquet of fresh birch branches, called vasta or vihta, is a unique sauna accessory used to gently beat or massage the body. The sauna stove is surrounded by two large metal bins filled with water that heats up when the stove is fired.

Large, plastic green tubs are stacked on the wooden benches and as the first group of kids shed their clothes, Terrie mixes a tub with cold water from the faucet and hot water from the stove.

"OK, Leah, you're first," Terrie says, checking the water temperature with her fingers. Leah Aho, almost 5, climbs in the tub, content to splash and play with toys until it's time to be scrubbed with soap and rinsed off, excess water escaping through the floor drain. Donning damp hair and clean clothes, Leah and her sisters run barefoot back to the house, making room for an energetic group of young boys.

"The sauna is more than just a family tradition. It really has many beneficial effects, and even on the hottest days, I feel cooler after my sauna," insists Julius. Terrie nods in agreement.

The average sauna takes about half an hour. Water splashed on hot rocks on the stove creates steam, vaporizing and adding moisture in the little wood-lined chamber. Bathers sit on elevated benches, their heads near the ceiling to get more heat.

Some Finns believe the sauna goes far beyond relaxation. For them it's a healing therapy, relieving the common cold, arthritis or headaches. Studies show as heat stimulates blood circulation in the skin, respiration frequency increases as well. Sweating, which is unavoidable, is as essential to health as eating and breathing, accomplishing three important things: ridding the body of wastes, regulating the critical body temperature at 98.6 degrees F, and helping keep skin clean and soft.

"Eiko se tuna hyvalta!" or "Doesn't that feel good!"

In-house sauna

Over at the Keskitalo household southwest of New York Mills, the electrically-heated sauna is tucked in a base­ment corner with a beautiful glass door etched by Sue. Sue's husband, Mike, a carpenter, built the Ahos' sauna and has a list of requests to build for others.

With six children filling up the Keskitalo home, here too, it's a matter of carrying on family traditions, a way of life that also includes a deep faith. Grounded in the Apostolic Lutheran Church, each admits their belief in God is foundational in strengthening the family unit and their love for each other.

In the always-busy kitchen, older children help with the little ones. The smell of Grandma Keskitalo's freshly baked flatbread lingers in the air. Daughter Kelsey, 16, is an example of the next generation eager to continue the traditions of her heritage. In ninth-grade, Kelsey and friend, Justine Kupfer, highlighted their Finnish back-ground in the Future Leaders of America Star Event, where they earned a gold rating at state competition with their presentation, "Letting Off Steam ... the Finnish Way."

"Our kids would rather sauna than take a shower. I guess the combination of a rural Minnesota lifestyle and Finnish culture blends into Finglish," laughs Sue, evidenced by a list of

Sauna rules posted at the sauna door.

1. Sit on top pench at yuu own rdisk (Sit on top bench at your own risk.)

2. Memper Tis: Tuu muts teem kets yuu reel tissy. Yuu dumbel town ant prake yuu pones at own rdisk.

( `Member this: too much steam gets you real dizzy. You tumble down and break your bones at own risk.)

3. If svet kets in yuu eyes, chust plink a coppla dimes. (If sweat gets in your eyes, just blink a couple times.)

4. If yuu ket suffer in yuu packside from ta pench, ton't holler tuu lowlt. Naypers vil tink vee putsering a pic, ant be lokken for pork sops next ta, ant ritavay be asken: vhen ta het ceese pe ton?"

(If you get sliver in your backside from the bench, don't holler too loud. Neighbors will think we butchering a pig and be looking for pork chops next day and right away be asking: when the head cheese be done?)

5. Vhen yuu all ton (or if yuu lip on ta sop) pud it pack inta sop tis. Ton't leef it mel den onta pench. (When you all done [or if you slip on the soap] put it back in the soap dish. Don't leave it melting on the bench.)

6. If yuu ket tuu hot, ko chump in ta lake! (If you get too hot, go jump in the lake!)

And there lies the answer to the question at the beginning of this story!