The lamps in the hallway were installed Sunday, 21-Dec-25 20:52:00 CET

Sunday, 28-Dec-25 21:36:09 CET

More gypsum boards in the barn

This week, I finished mounting gypsum boards on the barn's walls and window boxes.

Monday 22 December

It is Monday, and I have a holiday! You would think it feels fantastic, and indeed it does, but there are gnarling issues. So let's mention all of these issues. To begin with, I had decided to wake up without an alarm clock. That is the luxury of holidays, don't you agree? Well, if you read last week's blog, you will see that I tried out the double-tap issue with the space bar on Bluetooth keyboards. I turned on my old A70 phone, and, as you already guessed, the alarm clock app is still active. It woke me up! Now that is turned off.

The good thing about getting up early is that you can enjoy sunrises, and you know I love those. If it weren't for that, I'd have set the DSLR to medium-quality photos when I set up the Yule tree, so now I have medium-quality images of the sunrise. Darn, I am not up to the game. Forgetting the photo settings on the camera. That is not good.

 

Another issue is that I still have not uploaded last week's blog. Why is that, Jens? Well, I wanted to make a stop-motion video of me setting up the Yule tree. I thought that would be fun. Well, less so right now. My blog laptop has 4 GB free on the disk, and after installing the Microsoft Clipchamp app, there was no space left for the time-lapse photos.

It is Monday, so LinkedIn wants me to follow Bill Gates, even though Melinda clearly said the reason for divorcing him was his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. How clear a message do we need? I decided to turn off LinkedIn email notifications because creepy billionaires do not make me happy. How difficult can it be? Well… There are 14 notification categories. In each category, there are 8 to 15 subcategories, sometimes spread across one or two tab pages. There are easily 150 places to turn off email notifications. I did some, and then I gave up.

I had to use my heavy-duty development laptop to produce the stop-motion movie. On that laptop, I could install Clipchamp. It is a simple "free" video program from Microsoft. Unfortunately, it is not that flexible. It can only make videos in a handful of aspect ratios. The Nikon DSLR produced images at 3696 by 2448 pixels, which is not exactly 3:4. I realized I had 432 pixels too many on the right side of each image. I could let IrfanView batch-crop all 218 images. I use Clipchamp so seldom that I usually forget the app's name. I try to recall it, play with sounds, "Chipmunk?" No, it was something else. Clipchamp lives half in the cloud and half locally. It is hard to know which parts live where, and sometimes the program itself does not know either.

At lunchtime, I took a break from blogging and from making a time-lapse video. We had a lunch walk! We passed the house that burned, and I got an answer to the question: what insulation material had been used?

	Idelco insulation board.

 

The insulation used was the Idelco insulation board. I looked up the product, and it has a better fire rating than our Pavatex insulation. Idelco ignites at 500 degrees Celsius. Pavatex ignites at 200 degrees Celsius, but the burning is more predictable. Pavatex forms a charcoal shell that slows down the fire. The Idelco is also putting out some fires, though once it starts melting, the process becomes more unpredictable. I tried to ignite Pavatex but failed. On the inside, we covered everything with fire-resistant gypsum boards, so it is unlikely that a fire will start from within.

After the walk around the area, I continued on the time-lapse video. A video without sound isn't really a video, so I created a Yule song to accompany the time-lapse, and I set it to end when the song did. DW thought the song was cringe, but I find it really funny!

Here is the masterpiece!

This was a relaxed day, with no DIY activities at all. I just sat on my bum and programmed and blogged. I worked on the activation page of lyrics-editor.com. We take it from the beginning. The user signs up for the service. Provides a codename, email address, and password. The entries are all validated. If the user's fields are valid, the request is sent to the server with the values. On the server, the fields are validated again because a hacker might try to compromise the system and send corrupted data. We cannot have that. When the server deems the fields acceptable, it stores them in the database, but not the password. Oh no. Here, I am using the methodology suggested by the movie I discussed last week. This way, it is impossible to hack the passwords. I also calculate a couple of other fields, such as the activation URL code, the activation short code (three digits), and the email address reset code. All this stuff is stored in the database. Then an email is composed with a link to the activation page, which contains the activation code. Hee hee. Are you still with me? Well, the email is sent to the address the user provided.

So now the user reads the email, hopefully. What happens next? The user clicks a link in the activation email. Now a page opens on the server. This is the page I am busy with right now. At first, I was just about to say "Thank you!" and register the user as activated. Still, I realized that if I do that, I open the server to a denial-of-service attack because the server makes a database lookup to find the user. It is possible to generate thousands of fake activation URLs and fire them at the server; the server will be swamped trying to resolve them, leaving regular users unattended. That is not a good idea. My solution is to include a second activation code in the activation email. Just a short three-digit code. When the page appears, the user must enter the three-digit code and press the "Activate" button; the server then begins activating the account. As a result, it is more challenging to launch a denial-of-service attack against this part of the sign-up process.

Are you still with me? Oh, that is good! All this technical stuff may not be the most interesting reading. I try to make it interesting to read, but I am not sure I got all of you with me.

DW made a bag for the blood pressure monitor! She sewed together patches of various fabrics. Then she made a bag from the fabric. The way this bag is made is absolutely magic, according to DW.

She tried to explain it to me a couple of times, but I failed to grasp it. It has to do with the fact that some parts are done inside out. That much I understand.

The blood pressure monitor works magnificently. I have low blood pressure. Now the monitor can live in a bag, which is neat. DW told me that the publisher Saara produced a trilogy about Estonian knitting. The first book is about Estonian knitting in general. It is from the first book that she learned about the magic project bags.

It is a large book with magnificent photos and descriptions of how to do different things. DW did not buy the second book about stockings and socks. That was not in her interests to do socks with Estonian patterns. The third book, however, about mittens, is DW's favorite knitting. Socks are invisible clothing, whereas mittens are visible. It is more enjoyable to knit mittens that way. DW also likes to knit sweaters, but they are larger projects, and they take longer to make than mittens.

Tuesday 23 December

This morning, my phone did not ring the alarm. My old phone did not ring an alarm. All was fine then? Well, DW's phone rang the alarm! This was my only chance this week to wake up without an alarm.

Since I sat on my bum the whole day yesterday, I decided to work in the barn today. DW worked on her wool projects. She is preparing yarn to make a sweater.

I wanted to tidy up in the barn, not just remove garbage but also do things that still need to be done. I have remnants of gypsum board standing in the way because I still need to apply gypsum around doors and windows. I mounted gypsum around the south door, the double doors, and the north door. I am working clockwise, so next up I will tackle the windows on the barn's east side.

The work in the barn made me tired. I did not work on the lyrics-editor.com today.

Wednesday 24 December

In Sweden, the day is called Yule evening, and the festivities really begin in the afternoon and evening. In the Netherlands, tomorrow is a festive day. I had hoped to wake spontaneously today, but Merida came to bed purring loudly, and that woke me. There went my plan to wake up on my own one day during this holiday, without an alarm clock.

Today we went to Ijselstein. It has a tower called the Gerbrandi Tower. It is 366 meters high. Nothing in the Netherlands towers over this tower. That is impressive. The tower had stabilization cables with lamps, so it looks like a Yule tree at night—Europe's largest Yule tree!

We went to a secondhand shop. The only sign of activity was that they were also a DHL delivery and pick-up point—nothing about second-hand. DW did not like this. She said it might not be secondhand at all, and I told her the surprise would be even more exciting if it were a secondhand shop.

It was a second-hand shop! It had no DJ stuff, so that was not fun at all. In general, this was not a second-hand experience with exclusive products. Usually, we can discern the area's prosperity level by the quality of its goods. I read it so that this was not a high-class area. We found two glass jars and some coasters.

After the second hand, we did grocery shopping. It was cold and sunny. Behind the store, hundreds of windmills stand. On these windmills, cameras and AI software are installed to detect white-tailed eagles. When the white tailed eagle is flying in the direction of one of these windmills, the blades are stopped.

These windmills are ginormous. The hub height is at 150 meters above ground. In total, they are 220 meters high. A blade is typically 70 meters long. At the time, they were the tallest windmills of the Netherlands, but the next generation will be 260 meters tall. Still, for some time, the Gerbrandi tower may be the tallest construction in the Netherlands, but one day it will be surpassed by a windmill.

Thursday 25 December

Today we were going to a dinner in the evening. It was at DD's friend's house. His parents and sister were invited, along with DW, DS, and me. It was great. Before we got there, though, DW made cheese quiche. She was busy with that pretty much the entire day.

I was busy in the barn. I put gypsum boards along the sides of the windows and the window boxes. That significantly improves the building's fire protection.

In the late afternoon, we packed the food in the car and drove to DD and her friend. The father had already arrived. His contribution to the food was chicken. Then the sister arrived, bringing Tiramisu; finally, the mother arrived, bringing salads. We brought two cuiches and gluhwein. There was also tempe.

We learned to know them, and they learned to know us. It is a sweet family. After dinner, we even played a game. It was a word game played on a mobile phone. I liked the idea. At some point, once I figure out the basics on the lyrics-editor site, I would like to add game elements as well!

It was late when we arrived at home. We went to bed right away, and I slept really well.

Friday 26 December

In the morning, I worked in the barn. It was darn cold today. At most, it was minus 6 degrees Celsius. I finished gypsum boarding the window boxes!

After lunch, we went to the PILs. DS came with us, and DD also came. It was nice to meet them. DW had made a cake that we brought with us. FIL was born in 1928; he is now 97. MIL was born in 1928; she is 96. She is in better shape, but they are having a great time in their new apartment. There are creative activities and gatherings. FIL is not that interested in the social stuff, though. His ability to speak was harmed a couple of months ago. MIL can talk nonstop, it seems, but it is tiring. She will not admit that, but I can see it on her.

After visiting the PILs, we went to the BILs. There we had a drink and some snacks. DD went elsewhere, but DS came with us. It was icy outside. We did not stay for the evening.

We came home much earlier today. DW had made more cheese quiche than we could eat. Social stuff is good, but it is also a bit tiring, we have to admit. Some people get energy from social things, but for DW and me, it's a bit draining.

Saturday 27 December

Today, DW worked on her wool projects, and I continued tidying up the barn. In the afternoon, I set up the light system. It looked nifty!

The carrots I sowed this summer have been looking great! That was until the temperatures fell below freezing point this week. I decided to dig out the remaining carrots. The only issue was that the topsoil was frozen. I then dug up cakes of soil with the carrots in it. I placed the soil cakes in a box and placed that box in the barn. There, the temperature is above the freezing point. I will look into separating the soil from the carrots tomorrow when the soil has thawed.

DW and I talked about arranging a party. I suggested a New Year's Eve party, but DW did not like that idea. She wanted a quiet New Year's Eve, knitting and lighting a fire in the woodstove, and toasting in dry Prosecco. I am all in for that. We decided on a party for the Neighbors on 17 January. DW wanted to serve snacks and have people bring their own drinks.

Sunday 28 December

Today I wanted to do three things. Finish the party advertisement and circulate it. Liberate the carrots from the soil and receive the Murphy bed we ordered on 5 November.

I started with the carrots. That was easy! The thing is that the soil is sticky, and you never really know for sure when you've finished washing a carrot. What would it be like to put carrots in a bucket and use the pressure washer to clean them? Would that be fantastic or a nightmare experience? I have to find out.

It could be cool to grow more carrots next season. I have proven I can do it. The thing is, potatoes and carrots are vegetables we could grow and sell locally, since amateur gardeners are less likely to grow them here. It might not be true. If true, we would have a competitive advantage. The bottleneck for carrots is to clean them, but I can figure out how to do that.

Overall, we already have a competitive advantage because we managed to take control of the slug situation, and many don't. Whatever they put in the ground is eaten before they can harvest. Another part is the sheep manure. That is valuable! The soil still needs more sand for my liking. I will fix that before next season.

A bus backed into our driveway! It came from opklapbedkopen.nl. It is a company that produces Murphy beds in the Netherlands. They came from Eastern Europe, but I don't recall precisely where: Bosnian, Serbian, or something like that. Now they had built the bed we ordered, and here it was. The man bringing the bed was powerful. He brought some of the parts into the workshop in the house, and I brought some in as well. The outer frame is crafted from thick, solid oak.

The metal brackets are made of 4 mm steel. Everything feels heavy and solid. It is delicious to work with for someone like me.

I put the link to the site where we bought the bed because it looks good.

Instead of putting the bed together, I started working on the party advertisement. I took the movie I shot yesterday and added text using Chipmunk. Chipapp. Clipchamp. Yes, that is what it is called. Clickshamp. I shared the movie in the group app for this area. I made a poster and a QR code for the barn windows. People were enthusiastic. That was great.

Then I started on the bed. It got late, but we didn't manage to assemble the bed tonight. The middle beam holding up the mattress was 5 millimeters too short. I will put a shim in to solve this. That was the only thing I could complain about, but I will not complain. I like this bed.

Here ends this week's blog. I finished mounting gypsum boards on the walls and in the window boxes. All gypsum boarding is not complete; there is more to do in the ceiling.

I started building the Murphy bed, and it's going great.

It was a lot of social stuff this week. It is generally not that easy to blog while also doing social things. I also wrote 3012 words this week. That is not bad at all!