Finished mounting the cement boards Sunday, 21-Jul-24 23:22:41 CEST

Finished the boards project Sunday, 04-Aug-24 21:27:58 CEST

Sunday, 28-Jul-24 21:06:11 CEST

Gravel under the boards

This week, I put gravel under the boards. It looks nice.

Monday 22 July

This morning was magical. Lately, I have come to appreciate early mornings especially. DS borrowed DW's bike this morning at 06:00 am, and I could not continue sleeping after that.

Merida had not come to our bed this morning. She is getting more independent, as it appears. We had a regular breakfast, and then I had time to work in the garden. I transplanted the only celery root plant from the seeds we received from the Vreekens seeds company on 3 April. These were sowed on 5 May. The celery root was lousy at sprouting. This is the only plant we got from this entire envelope. It makes me think we should stop ordering seeds from that company. We are happy with some things, but not all are doing equally well.

I also transplanted the remainder of the chervil plants that we had as rests from the first dinner with friends. With this, the sprouting table is vacant and can be used for other things.

I worked from home today. After work, I emptied the fly traps. We had pots with some substance in them attracting flies. It was time to renew these traps. I buried the dead flies, reloaded the traps, and put them back. So, that means I have already done something substantial this week!

After dinner, I went for a walk with Merida. We did not get far until we bumped into the neighbor's cat, Hunter. We were still on our property, but it felt like we had trespassed into Hunter's home area. At some point, I was standing in between the two cats. Merida was not sure what to think about this. After a while, I went home, and Merida came with me. Hunter stayed behind us.

Tuesday 23 July

I worked at the office today. Olaf was there as well. He wanted to sit on my lap, and I let him do it. It was not a good idea because I was rewarded with him trying to bite my hands and feet. I don't know him well enough to be sure this was just playful behavior and nothing serious.

My socks and pants have traces of sheep and Merida and whatnot. I am sure it is interesting for Olaf. I will try to ignore him a little more from here on. We will see how that goes.

In the evening, I searched for slugs again.

Wednesday 24 July

The weather was beautiful this morning, and we harvested the first courgette!

I worked from home in the morning. In the afternoon, we first went to the veterinarian for larger animals. We picked up fly strike prevention for our sheep.

This veterinarian is not in our hometown but further away in the countryside. They also take care of cats, dogs, and smaller animals. This veterinarian could theoretically care for all our animals, including Merida, but then we would have to drive there more often. That is not handy. Our cat veterinarian is not doing farm animal care.

When we came home from the farm veterinarian, we had to go to Merida's veterinarian. This was to give her vaccination and a blood sample to determine how well her anti-epileptic medication was dosed. We came one hour too early. We had to go home again and then come back one hour later.

The veterinarians are not housed in fancy buildings, that is for sure.

I had time to fill up the gravel below the plates this afternoon. The gravel originates from a neighbor who changed their driveway; they got this leftover. It has been lying so long that grass is now on the heap. The heap is lying near the beginning of our driveway. I hope to use this gravel to fill up below the plates, and if I need more, I will figure out how to deal with that later. This afternoon, I moved two wheelbarrows of gravel.

After dinner, we gave the sheep their flystrike prevention. It is applied in the wool on their skin to be absorbed by their bodies. They will be protected for 12 to 14 weeks from now.

Then, we moved the sheep to a new grazing area. We let them go on the border between the properties of our northern neighbors. We keep a path back to their home base under the rain roof. I noticed that one corner of the rain roof was damaged. I hope to fix that before the next storm. It looked nice when they grazed in the new area.

In the evening, I did not feel well. Not so that I am sick, but I have something. It has to be worse before I can call myself sick. There have been a couple of cases of Corona here and there, so I was curious if I got it. I found our self-test kits, and they all expired last autumn. I decided to find out if I was feeling worse tomorrow morning.

Thursday 25 July

I was okay enough to go to work today. It was overcast today, but it did not rain much. After work, I went to the city center to buy fresh Corona self-test kits. It was the first time I had been there in a long time. It was a blast from the past. I drove to a parking garage. Then I went to the shops in the city. I wondered if this would be another failed shopping experience, as I usually find shopping these days. At the first drugstore, the self-test kits were sold out. I had to walk through the city to the next drugstore. Already doing this made me feel better. I should not be sick if I can survive a bad shopping experience. The next store had kits to sell. I bought two kits.

I have carried around with a wallet for as long as I can remember. Today, I bought a new case for my phone, and with that, I can keep my ID with my phone, and I can also pay with my phone. I will stop using coins. Many of the loyalty cards I have fit in my Google Wallet. I must carry some cards on holiday, but I am okay with that. Then, I will take the wallet with me again. A simple thing like this may seem so mundane, but it makes a big difference in the everyday life. Less clutter.

When I came home, I used one of the self-test kits. It turned out to be so that I did not have any Corona. That is good because I really do not want to get Corona. Until now, I have been able to skip it.

DW made a courgette salad from the newly harvested courgettes. Slices of courgette, with a dressing sprinkled with parmesan cheese. That was good.

Although I was not feeling well, I was unsure; I searched for slugs with a lamp in the dark.

Friday 26 July

I was feeling a lot better already. Today, the weather was also better; there was even a faint sun. There were not many people in the office. Many work from home, and there are holidays. I heard today that Olaf's mom was not feeling well as well. So I figured maybe I know where I got this from.

I picked up blue cheese and some other groceries on the way home. I felt very lightweight when I could pay for the groceries with my phone. It is not so that I started to pay with my phone today; I have been doing that for a couple of months already. It is because now I don't have an additional wallet. DW had decided to harvest chard to make chard quiche. Merida helped me unpack the bag. She made sure I had not forgotten anything in the bag.

The quiche were delicius. The leaves went into the quiche, and the stems she shopped in pieces and boiled in water that she had salted with the homemade herbs salt.

When we went to the veterinarian, she told us Merida was (a little) on the chubby side. Until now, we have given her 70 grams of dry food daily. We will make that a little less. Actually, she got a little belly as well. I teased Merida about it, and she got angry with me.

When the veterinarian came to vaccinate our sheep on 14 May, she told us the sheep were on the heavy side. We stopped to give them supplementary entirely. Now, you would think only our animals need to mind their weight; unfortunately, that is untrue. We have started to see over our weight as well. We stopped eating snacks in the evenings and using milk in the coffee. It looks like it is working. The idea is that we will get a little lighter so that when there is an occasion that a colleague or family has a party, we can go and enjoy it as well. I am active, moving around heavy wheelbarrows, etc., so I am losing weight quicker, but we are working on this project together. Losing weight when people around you eat many snacks is infinitely challenging. So we stopped with that. We will see how this goes.

This week, Kamala Harris started her campaign. During this week, we are slowly getting the hope that the 78-year-old criminal will not get back to the white house. I am intrigued by the media that supports this unhinged liar. It is worrying that similar media is dominating in Europe as well. The insurrectionist and convicted felon has now chosen his vice president candidate, and he is a profoundly creepy person.

In the evening, I went around eliminating slugs. We do notice a difference, and that is logical. There has to be a difference if you eliminate up to a hundred slugs every evening throughout the summer. We have crops growing that we can harvest. Many in this area don't have that. All has been eaten by slugs.

Saturday 27 July

This morning, it was magical to go out into the garden. It was tranquil; the bees were humming, and a citrus butterfly pollinated the red runner bean flowers. I want to collect moments like these and put them in a jar, which I could open in the middle of the winter and continue enjoying. That is impossible, but we can put the garden's fruits in jars and pots.

We harvested three courgettes this morning.

The plan for today was for me to move wheelbarrows of gravel to the bottom of the plates. I did a few barrows last Wednesday, but today, I had the chance to continue on this project. I listened to podcasts while digging out gravel and filling up the wheelbarrow.

While working on a project like this, I often think about things I would like to blog about. When I get a chance to start blogging in the evening, many of the brilliant things I was thinking about during the day are long forgotten. I thought that it was possible to get a dictation application? Microsoft Office for Mobile claims it can dictate, but how do you turn it on? Could not figure it out. Gboard (A Google keyboard) can dictate, but I quickly found I have to have the screen on. Turning off the screen and working on the wheelbarrow while dictating is impossible. One has to stare at the screen for this to work. So, I refrained from putting down my thoughts via a dictation application. Instead, I listened to podcasts.

Today, I listened to one of the more informative, but unfortunately very long podcasts, the "Ukraine, Without Hype" episode 87 from 26 July. You can get it from any podcast platform. This episode explains the connection between the South African Apartheid white elite, the Pay Pal technology CEOs, and current-day JD "shady" Vance, the profoundly creepy vice president candidate to the 78-year-old criminal and former resident of the white house.

Although Anthony and Romeo came close to the core, they did not touch on questions I have been pondering for some time: What brings different far-right (and even far-left) together? I do think the overarching theme is the cult leader. That is where it all starts. Then, there is a hierarchy below the leader, which is the central idea. Perhaps I can sit down one day and write more about this. For now, I leave it at poundering.

	First, I finished the gravel along the south wall. I was proud!
	Then, I finished the west wall. Now, I was happy with my progress.
	Finally, I finished the north wall right before dinner. Now I was exhausted but happy.

I think the gravel will sink in, and it will be necessary to fill in more material, but that is fine; I will do that in due time.

We harvested potatoes from two plants. DW had planned to make potato salad.

The potatoes were beautiful! DW made a salad from the courgettes as well. Tonight's dinner was looking good, and it had all sorts of things we harvested. So nice!

As you can imagine, I was rather tired in the evening. I still managed to write on the blog, and I was able to try to repair an electric fly catcher. That failed, though. The on switch was broken, but when I had replaced it, the thing was still broken. We have had this flycatcher for almost twenty years. It is okay to buy a new one.

We had a walk over to neighbors borrowing our scaffold. They need some more parts of the scaffold. I will see what we got. This evening, we did not go after any slugs.

DW talked to MIL about their Corona. They still have it. That means our visit to them is postponed another week.

Sunday 28 July

Since the compulsory visit to PILs was canceled and I achieved a large part of a milestone with the board project, we decided to take the day off. It was lovely weather, so a bike or a walking tour would be nice.

It was a marvelous morning, inspiring us to walk in Knarbos Oost. This route is 18 kilometers in total but is divided into three loops. We decided on the first loop. I took my regular walking shoes, which was fine, although it was a bit wet on the outside at times, but I had no problems with that inside the shoes, and I was surprised by that.

	We parked near the Lakenvelder cattle. It was not reassuring to walk amongst these cows.
	We followed the orange arrows.
	It was a little wet, but not too bad.
	I found a stick. Perhaps I could use it to defend myself against the Lakenvelders?
	A field of potato plants.
	Hogweed. The regular hogweed.
	Potato flowers.
	Potato flowers as long as you could see.
	Trees with ivy.
	A narrow bridge over a deep creek.
	"HERE NOW" stone. No idea what this is about. Found this at 52.42103990296401, 5.500706737110255
	Open field.
	A place to sit.
	Blackberries.

 

I made a little film of myself walking over the creek on the metal bridge.

After walking in the forest, we drove back via a garden center and bought a new electric fly catcher.

It was an exciting week. Kamala Harris collected 200 million dollars for her campaign and got ahead in the polls. The convicted felon, insurrectionist, and aspiring dictator grew back a fully blown-off ear in just one week. I thought he could use the bullet hole for a fancy earring, but the ear is not missing; there is no hole, not even a scratch. These were some things I thought about while we walked in the forest.

When we came home, we rested. I "repaired" the rain roof. The broken corner got a reinforcement with a beam. All other bolts were fastened. Now, I hope the rain roof survives a little longer.

This ends this week's blog. We had plenty of magical mornings this week. I finished three sides of the board project.

See you next week!