Installed the Murphy bed Sunday, 04-Jan-26 21:34:18 CET

Sunday, 11-Jan-26 21:43:18 CET

Plastering the ceiling of the barn

This week, I plastered the barn's ceiling.

Monday 5 January 2026

Today we had severe snowfall. I cannot remember the last time it snowed like this. The plan was that DW would go to the office, but she changed her mind. Moments later, it started snowing really heavily. I was pleased she would not be standing in the cold, waiting for a bus or a train that would not arrive. The post does not arrive, and packages are not distributed—all logical consequences of the snow situation.

After lunch, we had a walk in the snow. It was partly sunny, and everything looked spectacular. In the photo, you can see our house and barn in the distance.

Tuesday 6 January

Today is a new day with new adventures. I’m going to work, and it is minus 3°C, and the roads are in poor condition. Well, that’s not entirely true; this road I’m driving right now is not that bad at all. In the trunk, I have a shovel in a bucket of sand. Right now, most people are careful in traffic. Where people typically drive 90 kilometers per hour, they are driving just over 60, and there is no ice or snow on that road.

Not many people were out and about. Outside the office, a busy road runs. At noon, the road was mainly empty. I have never experienced that before.

Today, the sun set with a magnificent glow.

I’m on my way home, it’s 15 minutes past six and minus 0.5°C. A couple of people worked from home, but many were in the office as well, including Nicole, Erica, Franco, and Ed. 2025 ended with the rollout of the new product line, and we encountered a couple of minor issues, which we have since fixed. It is a little bit of a question: are you going breadth-first or depth-first? We are doing a little bit of both.

Wednesday 7 January

I worked from home today. DW had an appointment at the hairdresser's. I brought her there and then back home again. It was snowing heavily today.

I worked from home in the morning and a bit into the afternoon. Today, we rolled out the Polish product line!

I cleared up tools in the barn in the afternoon.

Thursday 8 January

Good morning! It's 8:24 AM, the temperature is 1.5°C, and I’m driving to work.

I must admit that I worked hard on the barn during my holiday. I only programmed my lyrics project once. Well, I perhaps overdid the physical work, so I’m resting my body a little. This snow is putting a blanket on my blogging, it seems.

This is a special week: it’s the 350th consecutive week I’ve been blogging. Surely I've blogged before, but it is now 350 weeks in a row that I blogged consistently, and that’s an achievement, obviously. We can’t have that. I’m stopping blogging right before the achievement that would be really bad.

The roads are in good condition, with traffic, though not too heavy. The weather forecast says it will be cold for the next 2 weeks, with not much snow, so we will see how that goes.

So, two evenings in a row, I programmed the lyrics editor. I’m done with the user interface for the sign-up dialogue. So right now I’m working on the page you arrive at when you click the link in the activation e-mail. Things are going well, I’m doing remote debugging, so that's great.

It's 6:40 PM, and I’m driving home. It was a long product day. There were plenty of people in the office. Today, we started rolling out the Norwegian product offering. Not only that, we started introducing more features to the already rolled-out country offerings. The customers are loving it! The statistics show we're ahead of the competition, and that is lovely.

Friday 9 January

Today I have the day off, and I am in the barn plastering the ceiling with coarse mud. DW is working from home. That is good, as public transport is not entirely reliable given the current weather conditions.

During the holidays, when I started this plastering project, I hadn't thought through how I would tackle it. I stood there in my wool shirt plastering, with gypsum up to my ears. The shirt didn't look good. Since then, I have been peeling off chunks of gypsum from the shirt. My newly arranged table with my screw collection was also covered in a thick layer of white dust and gypsum plaster chips. My hands were sore from working with the plaster. I had not thought everything through, and by the end of the holiday, I felt a slight twinge of misery.

I was embracing the progress rather than the issues it brought. I also got questions from DW, such as "Is it not better to put protective plastic over your speakers?" The situation with the tool tables was impractical. I had to lean over the table to reach the ceiling, so I stood in awkward poses, especially when reacting to the corner of the ceiling above the table. I had five tables along the wall. During the holiday, I did half the workshop hall of the barn.

This week, until today, I have had time to think through the next phase of plastering. What can I improve before plastering the second half of the workshop hall? I put the tools in two large tool chests. One I got from BIL when they moved to an apartment. The other one I got from PIL when they moved to an apartment. On both chests, the wheels were in dire need of restoration. PIL's chest got entirely new wheels. BIL's chest got the wheels screwed on. I could fit almost all power tools in the chests.

Next up, I arranged the hand tools in tool buckets and placed them in another chest. These plastic tool buckets got handles, so they are supposed to be handy, but I actually don't like them. It will be awkward if I need any of the tools when they are tucked away in chests. I got three tables removed like that. The fourth holds the screw collection; it is still standing. Then there is a workbench that can be dragged around. I might put wheels under it as well.

I bought plastic to cover the speakers and placed them on a trolley. I bought gloves. I found a button-down shirt large enough to slip over my regular shirts.

When all this was done, I plastered three buckets of course mud. That means the first layer of course mud has been applied over the entire ceiling. I even unmounted one lamp in the ceiling to get better access to the seams. I am feeling great.

In the evening, DD arrived. She will attend a clay workshop together with DW tomorrow. Her friend brought her. He had a cup of tea, then continued to his other appointments.

Then DS came, and all four of us had pizza. I started a fire in the woodstove. Outside, it snowed; inside, it was warm. It was nice and cosy. DD tried to convince DS that he should have a cat. She is doing that every time she sees him. It is funny, actually.

Saturday 10 January

Good morning! We had a really slow morning. That, in itself, was strange because I was really stoked about continually working on the ceiling in the barn. Obviously, I had to do the dishes from yesterday, but DW and I have interesting talks about what's going on in the world and things about crafting versus art.

I'm going to try new things today. I'm trying to dictate using Word on my laptop, and that is new. I notice the microphone keeps turning off automatically, which is irritating. Apart from that, it works beautifully. I use the laptop because its larger screen lets me stand farther away from the computer and still dictate. When I searched the Internet for answers on why it's turning off, I can see people complaining in 2021, and it's now 2026. Especially Word, developed by Microsoft, is a 99% good product, but it leaves the 1% of annoying stuff. On Android, with a Bluetooth keyboard, you need to press the spacebar twice to insert a space, but only in English. Like in Word for the desktop, you cannot save your copy-paste action setting. No one cares at Microsoft.

Well, the current political situation is such that if the United States leaves NATO, we in Europe can no longer use American products. We need to replace Microsoft Office 365. It will be annoying, since I mostly prefer Microsoft's offering if they could fix those final 1% issues.

I put glass fiber meshes over the metal brackets on the ceiling. Then I mixed a bucket with coarse mud.

Here, I began another chapter of my life. In Dutch, there is a specific term for applying plaster in patches rather than plastering the entire wall. Until now, I have been plastering patches, but today I was attempting to plaster the entire ceiling for the first time. In English, I am not aware of the variation in terminology on the two methods of plastering.

When plastering entire walls, or in my case, the ceiling, one has to use another technique. When things go well, this method requires less work. I managed to plaster one-third of the workshop ceiling.

In the afternoon, DD and DW went to a course on wheel throwing. That is the process of letting a chunk of clay turn on a wheel and then forming it, usually into a cup or bowl. DD was satisfied with the outcome, but DW was a little unhappy. I suggested she attend another workshop to gain more experience at the wheel table.

While the ladies had fun with pottery, I plastered the ceiling.

In the evening, DD and DW cooked together. They made a dish of gnocchi and pumpkin, with plenty of grilled garlic; it was magnificent! Mother and daughter had a lot of quality time this weekend. I was a little jealous, to be honest. On the other hand, I made progress with the ceiling, so that was fine.

Sunday 11 January

Today I started working in the barn a lot earlier. I cleared out the other half of the workshop to give uncompromised access to the ceiling. It is much more efficient to work with an empty floor.

The barn's hall rests on two metal beams. This divides the room into three equal-sized parts. I plastered the first section on Friday and Saturday. Today I finished the second section.

In the evening, DD's friend came by and picked up DD. They also had another, and all 5 of us had a cup of tea before they left.

We had leftovers to eat, and after dinner, I went to the barn to plaster again. I finished the 25-kilo bag of MP75 course plaster. I will need to buy a new bag before I can continue on the ceiling.

Here ends this week's blog. I wrote 1856 words, which is a little meager for such a special week. This is the 350th consecutive week of blog writing. I plastered the ceiling, and DD came to try out the Murphy bed, and she liked it! Welcome back next week!