Saturday, 31-Dec-22 22:32:46 CET

Last week of 2022

On Monday, we had guests. I got influenza. The rest of the week, I slept a lot.

Monday 26 December

The guests were planning to arrive in the afternoon, so we had plenty of time for the last-minute preparations. One of the things to look into was the chairs. Was there a comfy chair for everyone? We decided to make the garden chairs presentable. We got bright orange cushions on the chairs, so that is good. The problem was that the small wooden armrests were in less good condition. Nothing that a little sanding and a thin layer of wax could fix.

So I started working on the chairs. It worked very well; I managed to create smooth surfaces. We still had a can of wax for the floor of our previous house. That surprised me; I thought we had given all the floor things to the new owners. Anyhow, I used this stuff on the armrests. Not much, just a little bit. The chairs were just fine. Now we were ready to receive the guests.

Well, I had been sanding molded wood and inhaling those particles. I got a tinkling feeling in my throat. This happened almost instantly while working on the chairs, but it did not go away, which surprised me. So eventually, the guests arrived, and we had a fantastic evening. We could even light a small fire in the wood stove. Outside it was just above freezing point.

DW had prepared three pies: broccoli, spinach with blue cheese, and leek with three swiss kinds of cheese. It was delicious. The stove delivered the pies right on time from the two ovens. As a dessert, apple cake from the stove. The apple cake was in the oven while we ate the pies. We had strawberries and cream with the apple cake.

I enjoyed meeting the whole clan to show the house. Receive admiration for the work we have done so far. The only thing that puzzled me was that the itchy feeling in my throat would not go away.

Tuesday 27 December

This was a regular work-from-home day. However, I had fewer. I was not capable of working. I slept. While sleeping, brutal rainy wind gusts battered the house.

When my temperature rose, I felt intense cold. When my temperature declined, I felt it was hot. The temperature went up and down.

Wednesday 28 until Thursday 29 December

I slept, and outside, the wind kept roaring. On Thursday, DW made soap. It has to cure one day.

Friday 30 December

I was getting better, but I had issues with my temperature levels. Everything caused intense heat flairs, so I had to continue resting.

In the morning, we noticed a bus parked at the entrance of our area. A man was selling deep-fried doughnut balls. DW went to the bus and got us a couple of these treats.

Today DW opened the soap to see how the result was. I got out of bed to take photos of this.

Late in the evening, DW told me that she had pain in the throat, and she had taken over the relay.

Saturday 31 December

DW woke up. I brought her tea to bed, and she was not feeling well. All was calm until 6 in the evening. A firecracker exploded above our house, and Selma ran into the net and got seriously entangled. She was lying there being electrocuted. Her sisters Hannah and Bea ran to our house and started bleating, calling for help.

I opened the window from the kitchen and tried to find out what the situation was. I could not see one sheep. Called DS and DW for help, especially DS, but he did not show up immediately. I heard people walk up and down the stairs, but no one came to me. This was rather frustrating, I must say. I abandoned the plan of getting help from DS and DW and went out to find the missing sheep; on the way out, I turned off the electricity. I have no idea how long it took from when Selma got entangled until I turned off the electricity, but it can be two or three minutes.

It was Selma who was missing. She was lying on her side very still when I came to her. I got back into the house, fetched a scissor, and started cutting her loose. DS and DW had now taken action and looked at what I was doing. So now Selma was loose. I got her on her legs again, and she joined the group. The sheep were calm now but loose, and the fenced area had a big hole.

I cut off the broken part to create a clean cut on both sides of the hole, and then I tied the two ends together. Now we had the fenced area closed again. Now we could start to get the sheep into the fenced area again. I had to open the area at a regular seam. DW tried to walk them home with a bucket of their food supplement. It worked very well until DS came from the other side. I requested him to walk behind the sheep; this way, we got the sheep back into the fenced area.

There were still things to do to keep the poles well-ordered again. The sheep reacted to every explosion.

DW suggested the sheep be kept inside their hut and closed off with sturdier fence parts; that way, they could not run around and get entangled. That meant we had to convince them to get into the hut. Two of the sheep went inside without a problem. The thing was that I thought I had all three inside, so I tied the fence to the hut. When the hut was secured, I discovered that one sheep was hiding outside the hut behind it. We got her inside without the other two escaping, so they could not run around and get tangled in the net. They also got a large hump of hay and water, and it looked like they liked this situation much better outside the hut.

Then I went to neighbors asking them to refrain from lighting fireworks, and one neighbor stopped immediately while the other agreed to walk 50 meters away from our house. This made it possible for our sheep to calm down and get used to the situation until the grand moment came in the new year. Our sheep did not get any more panic attacks. No fireworks were exploding above their heads either, so that was good.

I usually let the blog run weekly, but this time I end at the end of the year. The last week of the year was not that pleasant, and New Year's Eve was no fun. I hope we will recover quickly from this evening and that next year will be happy.