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

Started mounting boards below the tiny house Sunday, 18-Aug-24 22:35:36 CEST

Sunday, 11-Aug-24 22:11:27 CEST

Insulated the pipes of the tiny house

This week, I insulated the pipes of the tiny house.

Monday 5 August

It is Monday morning and a new week. I work from home, and DW went to the office.

I listened to Legal AF this morning with Michael Popok; he said that the Rupert Murdoch-controlled newspaper, Washington Post, had an editorial saying that Donald Trump should stop alienating women voters. That is obvious and has been clear to me many years ago, but that is not the exciting part here. Rupert Murdoch is not interested in truth in itself; it is when the truth is helpful for his goals, which can be spelled out in an article like this. So the question is, why is it in Rupert's interest to let Washington Post say that the 78-year-old rapist suddenly is alienating women? I don't have a definitive answer to my own question. Still, I can imagine that somewhere in Project 2025, something will make Donald Trump's possible presidency inconvenient for Rupert's business. When elaborating on that, I think a president without any policy framework around him is a useful idiot. On the other hand, a president with policy guidelines to guide him in what he is going to do and not do is less valuable. Perhaps in project-2025, there must be something inconvenient; it's perhaps even a threat to Rupert.

News these days always serves a purpose; you're reached by specific news because that is useful for someone. It is the same with news you don't hear; that is also because it's helpful to someone. When you turn on the news sender, someone owns it, and the journalists present the news the owner wants to hear because it is helpful to the owner. Don't believe that the editorial room is a daycare for any opinion. The opinion is based on what is profitable for the owners, and the journalists manufacture the news to support this opinion. Nothing else.

The same goes for DJs at a music radio station and what they say between the tracks. If they are spewing out skepticism against the current climate catastrophe, that's done because it's useful. After all, the owner wants you to think there is no climate change disaster. I have heard it so many times, but I've never heard the opposite. Only that in itself proves that this is a pattern.

Merida thinks it is okay to have me working from home, but I may not walk around while thinking. Too much walking, and she grabs my feet. She gets annoyed if I am not cautious, and I have her claws in my ankles. I have a tough life. When I was a kid, we had an animated character called Professor Balthazar on the television. It was a Yugoslav animation of a professor who, when thinking about a problem, walked back and forth and solved it. He never had a cat hanging at his feet, annoyed by the walking; I cannot recall seeing that. Here is an episode on YouTube about Professor Balthazar and the riddle of the missing right shoes. There you have it; that is how I solve problems. I pace back and forth, run to my laptop, drag a lever, and solve the problem. Zlatko Grgić started animating the series in 1967, the same year I was born, and he continued until 1978. The series has been displayed on national television around the world.

At lunchtime, we had the civil defense siren test. It worked; I could hear it. That was a signal that it was time for lunch. The authorities helped me remember that every first Monday of the month. They make an extra effort twice yearly and send a signal to my mobile phone. Then I really know it is time to eat.

I had been sitting behind my desk all day, so it was refreshing to go to the shop by bike to pick up a package and buy groceries. It was a lovely afternoon.

In the evening, I worked on the blog engine. I wanted to make it possible to have an image that is over the entire page width. The image of the bike path, when I biked to the grocery store is perfect for a full-width presentation.

Last week, I was apparently more productive than 92% of all Grammarly users worldwide. That is not bad at all. I had excellent fun writing about everything going on in my life.

Tuesday 6 August

It is a beautiful morning. It is already 20°C when I'm driving out of the driveway. Today, DW is working from home. This morning, I harvested courgettes and three strawberries. We have several western sunrise courgettes, but they are not producing any fruit. It's a really strange courgette. On the one hand, it's disappointing to have giant courgette plants not producing any fruit, but on the other hand, we would need to harvest something like 10 or 20 courgettes per day at this pace if they had been productive. So, in a way, it is acceptable that we have four courgettes that only try to look like Yule trees.

DW and I have discussed the future of the garden along the driveway. Keeping the garden there will be impossible when we have a shed there. In a way, DW and I have different ways of doing the garden. She likes the no-dig method; it is simple and requires less effort. I want to be able to produce vegetables in a scalable manner; for the things I want to do, the no-dig method is a little challenging.

When using a tiller machine, you can process the compost produced by the sheep over the winter very efficiently, and I like that a lot. So, with that, I suggested that we expand the garden in front of the house to an area that I can use for my methods. With the shed configuration, the sheep will have more space to graze the little patches near the shed. One of the ideas of having a garden along the driveway was to use that space since the sheep could not graze there.

That said, it might be possible to solve those things differently: having the car and the sheep in the same grazing area. DW's idea is that when we keep the garden activities together in one area, it is easier to maintain and keep an eye on, and there is less walking between patches. Having all our garden activities in one place is much easier, and I agree with her.

Now I arrived at work. I think it's going to be 28°C today. It will be a hot day. We have air conditioning at work, so that is fine. It is only a problem when the air conditioning makes it too cold. I cannot concentrate well when it is too cold.

Now it is a lunch break, and I'm on my way to the city because I want to buy a mobile phone holder for my bike. I got this idea yesterday when I went to the grocery store by bike. I thought that it was actually charming to bike. I've been driving to work for a long time, which is not so good for me and the environment. So, I will try to get on the bike a little more. Now, if I had a mobile phone holder, I could dictate the blog while biking, just like I am doing right now while driving the car, dictating the blog, and eating lunch simultaneously.

Perhaps I can try this configuration for the first time on Thursday. It will be an exciting experiment.

Now I finished working, I am on my way home with the car. Perhaps I cannot bike on Thursday. DW is going to the office, and it would be nicer to commute together, but we have to talk about it.

Today, Kamala Harris announced her vice president candidate, Tim Walz.

There were many people in the new office, lovely. People returned from holidays. We even went to the large canteen in the building and had lunch together. I came a little later because I had bought the mobile phone holder. A new colleague started today. I must say I'm happy with the new office. And now I'm gliding in our street at home at 15 kilometers per hour, as you should drive on our road.

When I came home, the first thing I tried was to put on the mobile phone holder. Looks like it can work. Sounds from the wind can disturb the dictation, but I wrote some words while biking. It is possible.

The evening was intense. Neighbors had metal fence parts to give to us. We loaded these into the large trailer, drove to our house, and unloaded fence parts.

Then, we loaded scaffolding parts onto the trailer at our house, drove back, and parked the trailer with the scaffold. Writing took two sentences, but we were busy the whole evening with this. They bought more feet, so now they can have a scaffold on two sides of the house. In a couple of weeks, they will fill their walls with hempcrite. They are into building an ecologic house.

Wednesday 7 August

This morning, I worked from home. After lunch, other neighbors came to borrow more scaffold planks. They brought a package of eggs from their own chicken! It is a smaller chicken, so they make smaller eggs. So cute! We have the scaffold lent out to two different families. It feels like we have a good club of people doing things together. I like that.

When the neighbors left, DS's coach from the municipality arrived. The coach sat talking for a long time in the tiny house, and I thought it was not so good to start working under the house while she was there.

I had to wait. When the coach left, I could start working on this new project. I installed the table saw on a temporary table and prepared things so that I could cut stripes of the insulation material.

Then, I came to sit at the tiny house on the ground with three curious ladies. Selma was irritating; she really wanted to nibble on the insulation material.

I tied two stripes of insulation with the pipe sandwiched in between the insulation. There is not so much space under the tiny house. I crawled under the house to mount the insulation. I might have insulated half of the pipes today.

Merida had been busy today and was tired in the evening. She looked so peaceful when sleeping on the couch beside me while I was blogging.

Thursday 8 August

I listened to the Ukraine: the latest podcast this morning and learned two expressions: Is the juice worth the squeeze? And The sport of kings. We will see if I can incorporate these expressions into the blog.

After breakfast, I took the bike and started biking towards work at 8:15 in the morning. I am curious to see how this will work. I tried biking when we had just moved here to the new place. That was not a great feeling. I'm thinking that now I will try to make biking to work something special. It is a way of enjoying nature and exercising at the same time. I discovered that having the headset in the ear will not work. There's too much wind noise, making it impossible to dictate. The solution is to hold the earplug in the hand, which works well. The bike saddle is leaking water, making it a little inconvenient. I have to look into that, perhaps buy a new saddle. There are grand parks near our home. When I want to get to work, I need to bike through these parks and Woodlands. I am passing a golf course on the right and cabbage fields on the left.

Yesterday, when I worked on the insulation of the pipes under the tiny house, the sheep were curious about what I was doing. Selma was incredibly persistent; she wanted to nibble on the insulation material. I pushed her away, but she came back.

I'm biking over a bridge, and getting there is quite steep. You can tell I'm not used to riding this bike because instead of lowering the gear, I put the gear higher. Now it started raining. Another bridge. It is a light rain. I think I will let it be. I brought rain gear with me, so if I want, I can stay and put it on, but I will try to continue.

Now, the funny part with Selma was that she started to prepare to charge me; at that moment, Hanna came in from the side and head-butted Selma. It was as if Hannah wanted to say: leave my guy alone, mind your business. That was sweet of Hannah.

I've passed an industrial terrain, biking into a residential area. Crossing a bus lane, entering a park along a canal.

The insulation material is quite itchy. The exciting thing is that I can bike several different routes, which are all beautiful. I could not dictate a memoir on one trip to work, but I could tell a little anecdote about Selma and Hannah. The bike journey took 36 minutes.

I have a nice view from the window at work. At the previous office, I had a view over a roof from a school. Here, I can see grass and a broader, grander view.

Now, I am on my way home. This is nice weather for biking. The toilet in the new office is not that large. I bump into the wall every time I go to the toilet, and many of my colleagues are taller and broader than me. How do they feel in a small space like this? Although the bathroom is tiny, it is fitted with a giant toilet paper dispenser. At one moment, I was sitting there, and the dispenser flung open and almost crashed into my head. It stopped one inch from my head. What?

Luckily, most of my male colleagues have good hygiene, but we share the bathroom with other companies, and until now, they seem to behave well, too. When I am using a toilet dispenser like this, it feels like I'm pulling out toilet paper from the butt of a male colleague. Everybody understands what I mean by this.

I am biking through a park with little bridges; it is so beautiful here. I might want to buy a headset with the microphone on a stick.

Lately, I have been busy with the election in the US, but it feels like it is going the right way now. I still want to see Donald suffer the consequences of accountability, so that feeling is not going anywhere. In the UK, there are riots. People get in front of a judge. They opened courts 24 hours per day. The thugs will get a trial from a judge working day and night. It is like the 6 January insurrectionists in the US; it takes a while to get them in jail, but eventually, they get there. Accountability is for everyone. No one is above the law. And then we have the war criminal Putin. It will require a massive effort from the world to take care of Putin. Putin is also an older man; he will not live forever; he's draining the resources of Russia to conquer Ukraine. The world cannot have dictators win; that's not the way forward. I am now almost home, and this bike tour still feels fantastic. The bike saddle is leaking water, which is inconvenient, but it is fantastic for the rest.

This afternoon, DW made pickled cucumber! I don't know the exact recipe, but she used salt and vinegar in some form. These are the first cucumbers we harvest this year. I am curious how they taste.

I edited the text I had dictated for the last few days in the evening. After that, Merida suggested we walk in the dark with the lamp, searching for slugs. When I write this, I get two things in my mind: "How can Merida suggest that you go for a walk? She has not started talking to you?" I let her out, and she walked out and sat on the doorstep. Then I checked on her, and she looked at me as if she wanted to say something. But she did not want to go inside. I took the lamp and went for a slug hunt, and she came with me.

What is the other thing I am thinking about? It is Findus, the cat from Pettson and Findus. That cat also had orange fur, but he was dressed in suspenders. Pettson could talk with the cat, which is remarkable. Here is a film on YouTube of Pettson and Findus going fishing. It is only Thursday, and I am already on my second animation movie. Where will this end?

Friday 9 August

This morning, we had strawberries in the breakfast smoothie! It rained at night, which is good because it has not been raining sufficiently.

I took the car to work today. As I have been doing lately, I dictated on my way to work. Unfortunately, the text was not saved when I arrived at work, so that is lost. Why did that happen?

DD came to work in the afternoon. I showed her the new office. Then, we drove to the veterinarian to pick up more medicine for Merida. We decided to go to Falafel and Zo, but it was closed. Instead, we picked up pizza at the grocery store and had it for dinner, DS, DD, DW, and me. We ate in the garden, and it was lovely.

Have you noticed the silence? Do you have people around you who have got more silent lately? Before, they talked about Biden's age. Now, they are silent. They knew all the MAGA talking points from their heart and had no idea what good things Joe accomplished. Kamela and Tim are gathering ever bigger crowds, and Donald's crowds are getting smaller and smaller. There is joy and enthusiasm when Kamela and Tim talk, and over at Donald, the malignant narcissist, there is unhinged doom, name-calling, racism, and bullying. Who would like to be associated with that?

Saturday 10 August

This morning, Merida came and slept in my armpit. She was purring and, in general, happy with the situation. On 5 July, she had her last seizure. That was four weeks ago. Hopefully, she can stretch it a few weeks until the subsequent seizure; that would be nice.

We moved sheep nets to a new area before we even had breakfast. We decided to make a patch along the dyke, opening up to the larger field on the south side of the house.

After breakfast, we went on a shopping tour with DD. We went to the oldest part of the town near a harbor where we had not been for almost ten years. I wanted to look for a new bike bag because the one I have is ancient, over thirty years old. The bike shop was closed for the holiday. DW wanted to buy new shoes, but the shoe shop was (also) closed for the holiday. DD wanted to buy fabrics, and that shop was opened.

The fabric shop had a grey parrot at the entrance. The parrot was free and looked like it was not going anywhere; it was happy. The bird's name was Yaram. Purchasing the fabric with a card was impossible, so I had to take money from an ATM. It was the first time I did that, just with the help of my phone. The ATM displayed a QR code, and I finished the transaction on my phone. When it was finished, the money was dispensed from the ATM. That went well, withdrawing money with just my phone.

When a shop only accepts cash, you can think they are into money laundry. Now, we are thus supporting criminals.

Then we went to another part of the city. I parked at the old office and still had access to the parking space! We went shopping for shoes. I've been repairing my sandals, and they are in a horrible state. I found a pair of Birkenstock that suited me well. After the shoeshop, we went to the market. Usually, there should be someone selling fabrics at the market as well. I've not been to the market for 10 years. Well, it is challenging if you don't know where to find the stuff. We went back and forth, but the fabric sellers were not there.

We gave up on finding a fabric stand at the market. Then we went to an outdoor sports shop. There, we bought bike bags and ordered new shoes for me. After the sports shop, we were hungry and went to a terras. We went to the restaurant via a really long detour.

With that, we went home, and I had a well-deserved nap on the couch while DW and DD prepared the fabric for sowing. The fabric had to be stitched along the sides and washed before they could start sowing garments.

I have been predicting the end of the city center, but today, I am not sure. There were a lot of people. Well, the fact is that it is not going well for many shops. Online shopping is taking over. What you see, though, is that people want to go out eating and to things where you need to be present; those shops are thriving. Just today, we had several shopping failures, which proves my point.

On the other hand, perhaps people get used to the worsening of shops. Remarkably, two shops had the luxury of closing the shop during holidays. Had not thought that.

DW and I went to the falafel restaurant this evening to prove our point. That was not in the city center, though. DD and DS did not join us; they did not feel like it.

Sunday 11 August

We had a slow morning, and with that, I usually mean we stayed in bed for a long time. Now it's 9:30 in the morning, and I'm walking around in the garden. I can hear the bees humming around the flowers. We have runner beans in orange and red colors. This is the magic moment of the day before the lawnmowers are shattering the silence. There's already a neighbor a little further away, but luckily, he's not using any power tools. Walking around in the garden in silence is magical and fantastic. I'm wondering why I am not planning to get up earlier to enjoy it longer. Perhaps going to bed earlier is not such a bad idea. I found strawberries red and sweet. They are sparkling in the sun like jewelry. I also found strawberries with a few tiny slugs, which is unfortunate. I suppose you have to share some of the valuable treasures with others sometimes.

Talking of sharing, I don't think many strawberries will be left for the smoothie, especially not when I'm eating them right away.

The chard has colorful stems with stunning colors.

I have not been weeding extensively lately; you can see that in the raised bed. In a way, I am slightly more egocentric this morning, eating strawberries and not rushing to do any breakfast. Instead, I'm enjoying this magical moment of silence in the garden, weeding the raised bed just because it's such a beautiful moment. Later today, it will be 27°C, which can very well be awfully hot.

The soil in the bed comes from the beds I previously had on the other side of the house on the north side. We had nettles there. I just got stung by a little nettle plant sprouting from nettle seed. I've been in the garden for 30 minutes, and it's still magical.

I recorded the sound of the garden. Unfortunately, an ancient car came driving while I was recording.

After running around in the garden, saying it was magical and fantastic for half an hour, I got a little bored, and my back ached from weeding the bed. Note to myself: Why not bring a chair? So I decided to go in and make some coffee; we got a cloud of little flies erupting in the kitchen. With this experience, the magic of this beautiful morning evaporated. While I was digging a hole for the bokashi, the neighbor kid started practicing on his drum set with an open window; of course, that was a surprising way for the magic to be shattered. I was convinced it was going to be a lawnmower.

DW made breakfast. We even had the mini eggs from the neighbors. It was delicious. We showed the visualization of the shed to DD. She liked it!

Eventually, I started working on today's main activity, continuing the pipes' insulation below the tiny house. It was scorching, but clouds made the situation bearable occasionally.

While working on the insulation, I listened to Ukraine: the latest, the episode from Friday, 9 August, two years and 172 days since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. I learned a new expression: If someone cannot see the wood for the trees.

In this episode, they talked about the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk in Russia. Russian units are fleeing and dying. Ukrainian troops reached 35 kilometers into Russia, and the Kremlin declared a federal emergency. The Ukrainian troops will perhaps reach a natural gas pipeline terminal in Russia. This pipeline provided the EU with 15 billion cubic meters of gas 2023. That is half of the European gas import from Russia. It is impressive that we had no clue that Ukrainians would do this. This episode of Ukraine: The Latest was interesting to listen to.

When I finished the insulation, I started to prepare for boards. The southeast corner of the tiny house had a stand resting on a tile off-center. Before covering the tiles and the stands, I want to have all stands in the center of their tiles because they use maximum pressure on the ground. I used a jack to push up the house, and then I could remove the stand, dig around the tile to give it the correct position, and put everything back. I am using the jack I blogged about on 3 October 2020. Back then, we slept on insulation material at the new house.

So when I put the tile back, I noticed I was standing on one of my earbuds! It had fallen out of my pocket, and I had been standing on it. It was crushed. That is not good, especially when I want to dictate while biking. I had to go to the shop and buy new ones.

I noticed that I get hiccups in the dictation of words, and it can very well be that my phone cannot handle documents of over 400 megabytes. No worries. I'll make a new blank document that I will dictate, and then I can copy the text into the main document when I am back home editing the blog. I am an absolute fan of dictating on the phone.

DS and DW have been sewing. DS is going home this evening, and I don't think she can finish her garment. That is fine, though, because we might see her return sooner. After all, I suppose she wants to finish sewing the garment.

Going to the shop on Sunday afternoon and buying new earbuds is a luxury. Luckily, I did not get a lousy shopping experience this time. When I went into the shop, it struck me that I felt freer this week after I started biking more. It is a happier feeling. There were no microphones on sticks mounted on slick headphones.

When I came home, I adjusted the height of the tiny house so that the door opened much more effortlessly. That is great. DS liked it a lot. With that, I can start working on mounting boards under the house, but that is next week. With the boards, the wind shouldn't be blowing freely under the house.

Now we had dinner, ricotta courgette quiche that DW made. After dinner, I drove DD to the train station. It was great to have DD stay over the weekend.

I have written a lot this week. It has not been challenging at all; it has only been fun. I have no idea what I will do next week. I could get the question, why are there so many words? But I don't need to argue about what I write and how much I'll write. I am experimenting with introducing more things about news events that interest me. I will continue doing those things.

This concludes this week's blog. The pipes of the tiny house are insulated. That is great. Next week, I might be able to start working on the boards.

It was great you read the entire blog of 4839 words. Amazing!