Mounted the winch Sunday, 31-Aug-25 21:23:27 CEST

Sunday, 07-Sep-25 21:12:05 CEST

Renovation of root cellar roof

This week, we renovated the roof of the root cellar at our cottage in Sweden. DF had a heart operation that went well.

Monday 1 September

Time goes by so quickly; before you know it, it's September. In the morning, I found a green woodpecker in the garden. They are a little less common than the regular woodpecker. I have not seen this bird here before.

We continued with the construction of the root cellar roof. The weather was fantastic, neither too cold nor too warm. The trailer was loaded with things we could take to the recycling center. It was mostly

At the recycling center, there was an area where people could drop off items, and you could also take something if you liked. We found jars that we could use for pickling, a stainless steel liter gauge, and a large cooking pan. Great!

I worked on the gap between the wall and the roof. We decided to fill the gap with a plank. Or rather, so I understood DW's suggestion. Then cover the plank with tar paper.

Implementing the gap solution took a considerable amount of time. I had to cut planks on the wall to get the tar paper in place. It was finicking. While I worked on the gap, DW filled the trailer with non-broken tiles from behind the barn.

After lunch, we could start setting up the tiles. It was a rewarding feeling to see the construction return to a tiled state again.

We left the northeast side unfinished. I will build the side of the roof to coincide with the edge of the last tile.

The other side of the roof is more like a ruin than a roof. We will see when we are fixing that part. I dare to say we will find a construction in a much worse state—first things first, such as finishing the current southeast part of the roof.

The farmer who holds cows on our property came this afternoon to move them to a new area. It is similar to how we move our sheep from one area to another. This time, the father, Lars, came to help his son Peter with moving the cows. They hold 8 cows here. They expect the cows to stay at our property until October.

Tuesday 2 September

It was a rainy Tuesday. We took DM out on a city tour. DF was still at the hospital. He got the next operation on Thursday. We tried to make a tour with DM so she could get out and do other things and perhaps have some fun. We went to Erikshjälpen in Värnamo. It was great. I bought sweaters, t-shirts, and shorts—more glass pots.

We had lunch at Vandalorum, the local museum. All three of us had a risotto dish. It was delicious. We did not visit any exhibition. DW had seen a book in the museum shop the last time we went there that she wanted —a handbook on Indigo dying —but it was sold out. She wanted specifically the Swedish version by Kerstin Neumüller and Douglas Luhanko. DW found the book online, but it could only be delivered in Sweden.

After lunch, we went to another second-hand shop. EFI. They had a tenth anniversary celebration. Throughout the day, it continued to rain consistently. I did not take a single photo today.

In the evening, I worked on the phoneme project. I reached line 87387.

Wednesday 3 September

We had tea in bed in the morning, and I worked on the phoneme project. I do wonder if I still can finish this project before I am completely fed up. Lately, I have come to realize that earlier I inserted consonant patterns into vowel patterns. I remove these now. It still works. I am surprised that now it feels like an obvious error, but back then, I thought it was a good idea. Has my thinking about the project improved, or was I having a weak moment back then? When the program got stuck on 91652, I put the computer away.

The first task for today was to lift off the front door and prepare it for painting. DW started painting it on 12 September last year. It needed another layer, but we didn't have time for it until now. Today it was going to be nice weather, so it was a good moment to give it the final layer! DW worked on this while I continued on the roof of the root cellar.

Before lunch, the door was painted. I was not finished with the roof. After lunch, I went to the hardware store to buy gutters. The roof of the barn has some leaking gutters, and the roof of the root cellar we built now also has a gutter that needs to be replaced.

I bought a few more items at the hardware store. That could happen to anyone. So now I have more work to do. I bought a downpipe for the east corner of the house. We will see when I mount that.

While I was getting the gutters, downpipes, and things around that, DW painted primer on the planks visible on the roof of the root cellar. The other side of the roof is still in horrible condition. We decided that this holiday was not long enough for the other side of the roof. Things take longer than you would like. I feel insufficient about this. DW wants things to be done properly, and I get impatient.

It was beautiful weather today. At golden hour, the light played joyfully through the branches of the treetops.

The front porch shone bright white from the last time I painted it. The ornament is still in the right place as it should be.

I might go to DF to see him at the hospital tomorrow or on Friday. He will have the heart operation tomorrow. He gets a double-length operation because his heart requires it. I do wonder if they send him home straight after the operation or if he will be held under observation for a while. I prefer the latter. We will see.

I worked on the phoneme project and stopped at 91652.

Thursday 4 September

In the morning, we had tea in bed. I worked on the phoneme project until I reached line 98612. The phoneme project is progressing nicely. I am still going through the second round of the file. I will need to go a third round. Bear with me.

Today I wanted to mount the new gutters. This would significantly decrease the moisture entering the barn. The old gutters had holes in them, and that has caused most of the damage to the roofing of the root cellar. We received the scaffold on 18 February this year. Since then, it has been lying idle. This was the perfect moment to use it.

	I loaded the trailer with the scaffold parts.
	I set up a frame to hold the standups.
	Then I secured the construction with a second horizontal layer.
	I had to use an extra ladder for the tip of the gutter.
	A creative solution to extend over the root cellar roof.
	Here, the scaffold is taken down again. DW painted two layers of white paint on the end planks.
	Here I mounted the gutter on the southeast roof of the root cellar.
	Fairly straight.
	The northwest part is ignored chiefly, except near the wall. There, I rebuilt the roof entirely.

Today, DF had his heart operation, and it was successful! He will come home tomorrow. When he comes home, we will go there and see him. He will probably still be weak but in a good mood.

This evening, it looked like it would rain the entire day tomorrow. That was unfortunate.

Friday 5 September

DF had complications during the night. It was not clear if he could go home today. He was not in for a visit at the hospital, but DM went there to see him. It is a one-and-a-half-hour drive, which is not a small trip for her. When she visited him, he had time for a checkup by the doctors, and they could not find any issues. It was decided he could be dismissed from the hospital anyway. Now DM drove him home. They took it calmly, driving on roads where they could stop if necessary. At one point, they had stopped and bought an ice cream. That had been nice.

In the morning, the forecast had changed. It would rain in the afternoon.

I decided to fix the gutter and downpipe of the east corner of the cottage. The previous owner had hung up a gutter but mounted no downpipe. The plan was to use the existing brackets, but that plan would not work. The original brackets were hand-forged. They provided no adjustability. If I wanted to reuse them, I had to reforge one of the brackets. I gave up on that idea. Instead, I went to the city and bought four adjustable brackets, and at the same time, I bought another elbow. Now I had all the parts for mounting the gutter and downpipe.

In the old situation, a stream of water fell from the gutter onto the lawn. At the place of impact, there was a hole in the lawn. The robot mower had issues with that hole. Now I can adjust the lawnmower's path so that it doesn't get stuck at this location.

I was finished moments before the rain started falling from the sky. I was happy I got this done. This missing downpipe has irritated me for several years. I am getting better at mounting gutters and downpipes.

Then we had a visit to the neighbours. While we were there, DM called and told us that DF had come home. We went straight to DM and DF to talk to the recently released patient. He was lying on his bed in the bedroom and told about the operation. He had been awake during the operation. It was, in a way, interesting to hear how the doctors had operated on his heart via a cable through his arm. I had no idea. He could see what was going on on a big screen. The nurses had informed him about what was happening, and he could ask questions. They had been operating for three hours. It was nice to be able to meet him in this good mood. It was much better to be able to see him at home. He will need to take it easy for the coming fourteen days. Then he is allowed to work hard in the way that suits him. Could it be that I inherited his workaholic attitude to life? He insists that playing and having fun should be a coincidence of working hard and doing important things. I am not following that. I can do things just because they are fun. I am less predictable that way.

In the evening, I worked on the phoneme project, just for fun. At line 134531 of the second round, I decided to change the algorithm. Until now, the composite expressions have been at only level one. That is now changed so that they match the current parse level, as do all the rest of the sounds. This way, one composite sound can be given a higher priority than another. This might be useful. I reached the last line of the file at 10 PM. Now I have started the third round.

Saturday 6 September

During the morning activities, making the usual smoothie, I managed to get the phoneme program to reach 15834 on the third round. I do hope this round will be quicker.

This morning, I rearranged the ground cable that defines the outer perimeter of the lawn mower robot. Previously, the ground cable avoided the pit generated by the water falling into the lawn. That made this spot into a robot trap. Now I arranged the cable in a gentle curve around this area. Much better.

Every time the robot gets stuck, DF and DM need to rescue the poor thing. For their sake, I would like the robot to work as flawlessly as possible. I filled a couple of holes it had dug for itself. Filled up with gravel in some places because gravel gives greater friction and makes the wheels spin more easily.

DD wanted us to bring oak planks with us. I found a couple of nice boards. I cut the boards so that they fit nicely into the back of the car. They were two inches thick, about five centimeters, and I cut them so they could fill the back of the car. One hundred and sixty-five centimeters long. There was a crack in one of the planks, but that is just an extra. Perhaps DD fills that with golden epoxy, what do I know?

DM asked for help adjusting the schedule of their lawn mower, and I helped her figure out how to make changes to the robot's weekly program. Now I think she will be able to make the change from here on. It was not that difficult after all.

The trailer of the lawnmower at our cottage has been defunct because the wheels have been flat. I tried to fix them, but the new replacement tyres got flat again. DM had two replacement wheels I could get from her. That was brilliant because I could use it for bringing in the garden furniture with the help of the trailer, that is, if it had properly working wheels. The new wheels are bright yellow. That is to indicate they are tireless. I suppose. I built the trailer for the lawnmower before I started blogging regularly, so I cannot recall exactly how old the trailer is.

DW cleaned up in case we would get any guests in the cottage, you never know. We don't rent out the cottage regularly, because that would be too much of a strain on DF and DM. We make the cottage available for friends and family. That is a much smaller market, but it is easier for all of us.

I cleaned up the spaces outside and in sheds and barns. All these tidy-up activities took a surprising amount of time. It should not be surprising because I felt the same every time we left the cottage. At 3 PM, we were ready to drive away.

It was absolutely brilliant weather, epic autumn weather. Nice for sitting, reading a book in the garden. But we were not sitting in the garden, we drove off to the Netherlands.

We had a little detour before we headed south. We went to a little town near the cottage. DW had ordered a book about coloring with Indigo, and it had arrived at a grocery store 15 kilometers from our cottage. That is near enough for Swedish measurements. The bookshop would not send the book to the Netherlands because it would be too far away; it is all a question of perspective, I suppose. DW was delighted she had the book. It features many beautiful pictures and interesting recipes for Indigo dying.

At 6 PM, we drove onto the Öresundsbridge. From this point on, the sun started to get lower. From the Öresundsbridge, we drove down through Denmark in an arc that pretty much matched the movement of the sun. Except the sun got lower and lower. More and more annoying.

At 7 PM, we passed the Stora Bält bridge to the island of Fyn.

We had booked a room at the Scandic hotel in Odense. DW was delighted by the environmentally friendly approach of this hotel. The breakfast was largely garbage-free last time. We will see if the stay is as good as last time. It is special that we get to revisit the same hotel.

Sunday 7 September

We had set the alarm for half past six in the morning. That way, we would be able to arrive early for breakfast. We had left the window open, so we woke up with a fresh amount of oxygen in our blood, feeling fresh and revitalized.

The shower was normal. I think the water smelled a little funny at first. All sorts of ideas about Legionella disease and the like floated through my mind, but I think everything was fine. But Jens, did you not taste the shower water? Absolutely not!

The breakfast was luxurious compared to most hotels we visited lately. The price of the hotel is also on the upper side of the hotels we visited over the last couple of years. You would not think that such an ugly hotel from the outside would be luxurious on the inside.

The breakfast buffet was well-stocked and delicious. Indeed, there was very little plastic wrapped on the buffet. Nothing actually. DW likes this concept. The guests were all sorts of vacation goers. Many came from Denmark. This was not like the previous hotel, which more resembled a factory canteen.

We checked out and drove off in the direction of Germany.

	We passed the small bält bridge at 8:50 AM.
	At 10:20, we passed the Rader high bridge. This time, I paid attention to the speedometer so that I would not incur a ticket. It succeeded!
	At 11:30 AM, we drove into the Elbe tunnel.
	When we came out of the tunnel, we could see the Hamburg harbour with the impressive cranes.
	Usually, we drive below Bremen. This time we rounded above Bremen, and some bits right through. Here is the Bremen Walle TV tower. This was at 1:30 PM.
	We arrived in the Netherlands at 2:45 PM.
	At 4:20 PM, we passed the Ketelbrug.
	We came home at 4:50 PM.

It was lovely to be home. Merida was delighted, and so was DS.

We had a simple dinner of things we harvested in the garden. There were some giant zucchinis, but we mainly ate from the corn. Then we had a quiet evening.

This week I wrote 3018 words. Welcome back next week for more words, photos, and adventures.