Finished moving out Monday, 20-Jun-22 21:44:56 CEST

We received the stairs Monday, 04-Jul-22 21:11:59 CEST

Sunday, 26-Jun-22 21:11:27 CEST

Final preparations for the stairs

This week we did the final preparations for the stairs, and we also prepared for the transfer of our house.

Monday 20 June

This morning I discovered that harvesting the salad another time will be possible! The salad that I harvested last week continues to grow. It is magic!

It is such a joy walking around in the garden. I usually do a walk in the morning before work and in the evening after dinner.

Talking about garden discoveries, I discovered that the first calendula is about to bloom. This flower survived the slug attack, just barely. It was the first plant to get a 9v battery-driven slug fort. It became a square fort; since then, I have made them round. I have also experimented with copper tape, which also works, but is costly. These efforts to keep the slugs away have given back the hope for DW to gardening. That is the most significant achievement.

The Malva Sylvestris from last year is majestic! The two new plants are doing fine, but they are small in comparison, and there are bloom shoots on the way but still no flowers. It will be grand when they add to the flowers of this place. The two new plants came from the seeds I sowed on 5 February.

This evening we decided to bike around in the neighborhood. It was a beautiful evening.

Tuesday 21 June

Today we had a full day of work. I went to the office, and DW worked from home. In the evening, I went on with my weeding project. I removed thistles along the road. Here I found a plant that is actually beautiful but nasty, so it has to go. It is Common Ragwort; oh well, it is removed.

After weeding, I collected books on appliances in the old house. It was a surprising amount of books. The oven, microwave, fridge, thermostat, and so on. With this pile, we are done! There are no more tasks before the transfer of the house.

Wednesday 22 June

Today I worked a half-day in the office. In the other half, we got two different visitors simultaneously. That was a little too much, actually. The veterinarian came to give our sheep the q-fever jab, and the electrician came to mount fire detectors. Since the electrician could work independently, I went out with DW to help the veterinary with the jabs. It turned out to be more difficult than anticipated.

The ladies were not appreciating this action. I managed to put Hannah and Bea on the rump, but this failed with Selma. When demobilized, it was easy to administrate the jab; it took just a few seconds. That means that now the rump stats are as follows:

Selma	3 times (unchanged)
Bea	3 times
Hannah	3 times

 

I did not know that the veterinarian needed to return for a second jab in a few weeks. She will do that, and then Selma will get her first injection.

It worries me that I don't have earned respect from Selma to put her on her rump. We were chasing around, but it was pointless. I called it off; we were just making the situation worse with Selma. She did not like it at all, and neither did we. I had hurt my back in the process.

The veterinarian suggested we give them 50 grams of supplementary per sheep and day. They are right now on the heavy side.

We also got homework to do. We should build a tighter area to make handling the sheep easier. The sheep need to get used to that configuration by having their supplementary given at the narrowest part.

When we groom the sheep, we should teach them that we lift their feet. With those two things, it would be easier to work with them when they need maintenance.

The veterinarian left, but the electrician was still at our house. He was not in a hurry, but my back hurt, and I was not exceptionally social after the failed sheep mission. He got the fire detectors mounted, which is a good thing. Then we are one step closer to having the house finished. Next week we get the stairs, then I believe we can call the house livable.

When the electrician left, I cleaned up the fountains in the pond. There is work to do with stuff growing in the water.

We went for a walk in a nearby forest with many willow trees. They are spreading their seeds right now, so there was a lot of willow wool hanging in the trees.

I did not bring my DSLR with telelens, which was a pity because I noticed a tiny brown bird. Perhaps it was the willow tit that would have been suitable. Perhaps I must go there again to see if I can get a photo.

Thursday 23 June

We worked from home the whole day. It was a warm day today, but the cooling of our house was activated. That happens automatically. This worked very well; I could concentrate on my work without problems. The old house was a little less lovely working from home on warm days.

In the afternoon, we went to the staircase builder to choose the form of the balusters in our railing.

Perhaps DW was on the less ornamental side, and I was on the more ornamental side. We found one shape that had a little of both.

The rail itself will be flat with rounded corners. We want all the details in white.

It was just a short visit to the staircase builder, then we went back home and continued working.

We received preview images of the staircase.

	Total image.
	The stairs from above.
	The stairs from below. I do hope the ventilation pipes will not interfere.
	The first step is larger than the other steps.

 

This is all theory. The stairs will be produced, and we will see what it looks like in reality next Wednesday.

It was a beautiful evening. We had coffee and pottered around harvesting compost from the garden. We don't have any cozy place to sit and drink coffee. I hope we will have time to make something for that.

Saturday 25 June

We did nothing spectacular on Friday, so I skipped that day: I worked from the office and went out eating with colleagues in the evening. That was nice, though.

I found out today that the Malva Sylvestris I sowed on 5 February is blooming! There will be hundreds of purple flowers here. Lovely.

Talking about blooming. The runner beans are flowering as well! That orange color looks stunning with the background of the sea container.

Today we worked on the assignment we got from the veterinary. We created a narrower corner in the sheep area. For this, we used 3 building fence segments. We got our building fence lent out to a neighbor on the west side.

	Open.
	Closed.

 

We will feed the sheep in this area and groom them here, so they get used to being with us there. The sheep will also need to get used to that we bring in tools that look a little like a tool the veterinary brought to give the sheep their q-fever jabs. We will also try to feed the sheep together with foreigners.

Sunday 26 June

Today we got visitors, and it was about time to create a place to sit outside in the garden. It is all elementary, but that does not matter. I cut the grass with the brushcutter and then spread wood chips. While at it, I created a path to the vegetable garden. Then we can walk to the garden more conveniently from the living room.

I created a holder for the left door. It has a pin that you can lower with a handle. This way, the door can be held in place while open.

We got visitors today. They had a child of around 4 years old, and she loved it with the sheep. We gave the sheep leaves to eat, and we even had a walk in the field where the sheep were grazing; it was exciting. I think that mom and dad also liked it very much. The thistles were not so funny because they had spikes, which hurts. Luckily the visitors got sturdy boots, so that was not much of an issue.

Here ends this week's blog of our activities in and around the new and old house. It was an "in-between week" in that not much extraordinary happened this week. It is excellent to have a "boring" week. I am looking forward to many more boring weeks.