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

Worked on the board project as much as possible Sunday, 01-Sep-24 20:06:46 CEST

Sunday, 25-Aug-24 20:23:55 CEST

Continued on the boards of the tiny house

This week, I worked on the boards of the tiny house. I harvested 4½ kilos of grapes from the grapevine.

Monday 19 August

It's a new week with new possibilities. Yesterday evening, when I edited last week's blog, it was a full moon. I had problems converting the Word document into HTML. The extraction of the films did not work as it should. Merida sat beside me, purring, genuinely happy, while I debugged my Python program to convert the Word document into HTML.

It turned out that when the MP4 file had spaces in the file name, it didn't work anymore. Eventually, I converted the file and uploaded it. DW went to bed earlier; she was tired.

Merida slept beside me on the couch. She had a nightmare at some point, so I woke her up. She got really irritated about that. I understand that it's annoying that someone wakes you up when you're having a nightmare, but I didn't want her to have a seizure. So what do you do? Usually, she gets her seizures when she is having a nightmare. She got so annoyed that she wanted to fight. She moved away and sat on another couch while she calmed down. After 15 minutes, she forgot about our quarrel and returned to me, lying on the pillow beside me, purring loudly. As if she wanted to say sorry.

All this was yesterday before we went to bed. It is a beautiful morning but less magical because you can hear more traffic than the weekend.

Last week, my uncle-in-law died. I think it's called so. Dad's sister's husband. I mailed the daughter my condolences, but she did not reply. Perhaps that is a little sad, but we haven't had much contact over the years. Perhaps the email did not work. The email did not bounce, but that does not say much.

I collected strawberries and put them in a bowl while blogging for breakfast. I had left the bowl behind me, and Merida was checking on what I was doing. I collected a few more berries and wanted to return and pick up the bowl. It was a bit narrow there. Merida also backed, and she backed into the bowl and crushed one strawberry.

Although it was a full moon last night, I could sleep well. After preparing breakfast, I checked the garden beside the driveway. I have been less stringent on slug prevention lately, and I can see slugs emerging there; they are especially interested in the flowers of the courgettes. Most of the plants we are growing there now reached such maturity that the slugs cannot kill them so quickly; I think we are good.

Our Ola Gabriella courgettes look like they're coming to an end, at least in front of the container. Behind the container, the Ola Gabriela plant can still produce more courgettes. The Ola Gabriela in the front garden currently has about 20 courgettes in the making and more flowers on the way. The Western Sunrise courgettes in the front garden will produce a lot of fruit but will still need to grow larger.

At lunch, I repeated my experiment with making tea from leaves in the garden. I took two leaves of fresh black currant, a small mint leaf, and a salvia leaf. It was delicious!

I am done with today's work and am on my bike to the alternative grocery store. I am blogging, obviously. Last week was so much fun. I blogged a personal record of 7000 words. I even think I got some nice things said and some exciting reading, footage, sounds, and film. This week, both DW and I will commute to work on the same days. I'm not so confident in my blogging that I can do that publicly, so to speak. Perhaps that's the next thing I need to learn to do. We will see. Perhaps I can muster some strength and do that. It is sunny but hazy; we cannot call it overcast, but it's not entirely cloud-free either.

I'm biking along farmland towards a large futuristic barn adjacent to the alternative grocery farm shop and food cafe. I think I will call it a farm shop from here on.

I also checked out the mini sheep at the grocery store; they happily grazed behind the shop. I took a photo of the large barn, which is quite impressive. Right now, DW is making a charred quiche. A sizeable, colorful bug sat on a leaf when she picked the chard. I biked the same way back home, hungry and empty of energy.

On the way home, I passed a parrot in the garden at a house, making many irritating noises. I don't know if I would like to live there. I know I would not like to live there. Would I like to have a jacuzzi in my garden? Definitely not. Would I like to have a working tiller machine? Absolutely. There are differences in priorities in life.

It occurred to me that more than 40% of the US population in August 2024 still supports this disgraced conman. That is a disaster for the entire world. How is it possible?

In the evening, I got pain in my ribs on the right side of my back. It came entirely as a surprise. I have no idea about what caused it. Ooh, that hurts.

Tuesday 20 August

This morning, both DW and I went to the city; DW went to the train station and further on to her office, and I went to my office. I considered biking today, but I decided the commute together was better since it would rain in the afternoon.

Although it was overcast and rainy today, the AC had to be turned on for the entire day. I don't think it was turned off a single moment the whole day. A full day with an AC somehow influences my mood negatively. The pain in my back was not that challenging, but I felt pain in my neck at the end of the day. My joints hurt when I am in a cold room for too long, not working with my muscles but with my brain. Today, there was too much AC for my liking.

We went home together, but DW was not in any way up for a husband in a bad mood who was complaining about neck pain and AC usage.

It took some time to recover and return to my jolly regular Jens when I came home. In the evening, it rained more.

I listened to Ukraine: latest from the UK by the Telegraph, but I don't think they provided me insightful news about the Kursk incursion. In defense of the journalists, they do their best to verify what they report to avoid spreading unverified news. One challenge for them is that they are audio only, and it is challenging to explain what is going on in a way people understand easily. Try to describe a map verbally yourself to see what I mean. They also have another handicap: They don't report on things happening on the weekend.

I found this YouTube channel, Reporting from Ukraine. He laid out how Ukraine pulled off this incursion. I said before on this blog that Putin is trying to merge his mostly lobotomized country with a country of ingenious, creative people who want to stay free. Ukrainians can effortlessly blend into Russian society. Here, the channel explained how Ukrainians called people in the Kursk area, ordering them to evacuate. That caused roads to be blocked so that the convoys of Russian soldiers could not get to the front. It is so simple yet genius!

Wednesday 21 August

It was a lovely morning with sun. It had rained 16 millimeters last night. I picked strawberries for breakfast, and Merida sat on the chair in the morning sun. She got polka dots shadows from the chair.

Today, I worked from home in the morning. DW was having a day off, as she usually does on Wednesdays. I was able to concentrate quite well on work this morning. I was still annoyed by the thoughts on the AC from yesterday, but I think I have a solution. First, I need to tell people about my rheumatism and what it does to someone when it is cold. Secondly, I will try to adjust the airflow above my head at work; it is the easiest solution. After work, we had lunch.

Eventually, I started Today's DIY project, putting boards below the tiny house. Now, I mounted the final bracket along the side, and with that, I could start mounting the first board. I took a cardboard to trace off the shape of the board. I wanted the board to fit snugly next to the former wheel case of the tiny house.

When I was busy with the cardboard, Merida was around me, and she almost caught another mouse. It slipped away, but it was near where she had got a mouse!

Then, I wanted to cut the board, but the jigsaw machine did not cut nicely through the cement world. The saw was worn out.

Somewhere at the time here, it was time to get to the veterinarian for Merida. We prefer to make appointments like these during my free afternoon. We put Merida in the pet carrier and drove to the veterinarian. They took a blood sample of Merida, which was over €160, so things are going okay with Merida. She behaved well. She was 4113 grams. She was not heavier than last time; she was exactly the same weight, which was interesting. Perhaps we should lower her food portion slightly. This blood sample aimed to determine if that switch to ¾ tablet was good. After a while, the veterinarian called us and said that Merida's blood values were now on the high end. The veterinarian would get advice on how to proceed with the medication and get back to us with the decision on what to do.

We were just in time to get our food package from the food cooperative when we came home, but now we switched to biking. On the way to the food cooperative, we went to another shop to buy a replacement saw for the jigsaw machine. It is a luxury to have that kind of shop in the neighborhood. We biked to the food cooperative. Biking gives me an excellent feeling of freedom. I don't have that when driving a car. When we came home, I continued working on the board. Now, I had a functioning jigsaw, which was nice.

I managed to mount one board! It was a little tricky to aim the screw to the angle brackets, but I got it done. Next up, I will augment the board that is already mounted; I have no idea how.

We then had dinner with a chard quiche, courgette pasta, and beetroot salad with yogurt dressing. It was all a so wonderfully colorful and delicious meal. It is going well with our goals for weight control. Both DW and I are progressing steadily. It is a straightforward yet effective method. We don't consume snacks or candy between meals, and we use no milk or sugar in the coffee. For the rest, eat until satisfied at regular meals. That is it.

After dinner, I gathered all my tools and brought them inside. DW was sewing, and I went on an excursion with Merida. We walked around the edge of the entire property. Along the dyke, I inspected the flycatcher hanging in the twisted willow and found the protective nets around a couple of willows had become too tight. When Merida and I had completed the tour around the edge of the property, I went to the workshop and took a plier with me, and then I went on a second round. Merida was less eager to follow me around this time. I fixed the nets around the willows, and with this, I had earned myself a well-deserved evening rest.

When I walked around the property with Merida, I noticed Selma limping. She had pain in her right front foot.

In the news, I heard that Ukraine expanded the incursion to 1250 square kilometers. It is a staggering area. Russia is shrinking, and the borders are compromised. Putin cannot handle the situation; he is a loser. In the US, the Democratic National Convention is held, and we are already on day 2 of this event. I still have this nagging feeling that too few are addressing that more than 40% of the US population is supporting a:

• 78-years old, farting, flappy hands, sleepy creep.
• Disgraced, two times impeached former president.
• Liable for sexual abuse, he is a rapist and, at the same time, likes to take away the reproductive rights of women.
• He defames people and has to pay a fine for it.
• He is out on bail for committing persistent fraud.
• He is a malignant narcissist.
• He is guilty of 34 accounts of falsifying business records to influence the 2016 election because he wanted to hide his relationship with a porn star.
• He is an insurrectionist. He should not even be on the ballot according to the US Constitution, as I read it.
• He is a bully. He even calls people by nicknames as if he is still in a schoolyard, six years old.

This list is not even exhaustive. You can go on and on, making the list really long. More than 40% of the US population supports this person. It is literally insane. This is far from a normal situation. This person is unfit to be in any leadership position, and anyone can see it. And yet, here he is. He got more than 40% of the US population behind him. Wealthy figures support him, ensuring he is only given softball questions. It is unfair.

I cannot vote in the US, so what is it here that makes me feel so strongly about this? I don't like unfairness. For me, people need to be accountable, especially public figures. That someone can act only for his personal interest and get away with so much evil. It annoys me. He is an inspiration for other figures around the world. He is bad.

Thursday 22 August

Today, I blogged very little. Before going to work, we looked at Selma's foot in the morning.

Left	Right

The right foot had a little splinter. That could be the cause of the pain. We decided to work on her foot in the afternoon, after work.

So we did. DW and I went to our offices.

After work, we created a sheep chute. We got the halved building fences that we can connect in various configurations. Now, we made a chute big enough to barely hold Selma. Oh dear, she is strong! But I am stronger. DW cut away the loose part, which we thought was causing the pain, and Selma did not like the treatment. She got her favorite chunks as a snack after the treatment. She liked that a lot.

The vet of Merida called and proposed half a pill for Merida in the morning and ¾ of a pill in the afternoon, so we started with that regime in the evening.

Friday 23 August

I'm picking strawberries for breakfast. I must say that the strawberries refuse to give up. First, it was more we who gave up on the strawberries when they were eaten by slugs. Still, some strawberries are eaten by slugs, but generally, they look good. They are not very big strawberries, but they keep coming, and somehow, when you keep picking them, they keep producing and producing more and more. I have an assistant, Merida, who is controlling my work.

I picked so many strawberries and raspberries that we had to put some in the freezer.

After breakfast, we had a cup of coffee while we checked the garden. DW checked the front garden, and I checked the garden along the driveway. One courgette was ready to be picked. We had so many courgettes in the fridge that I brought four to work. If no one wants them, I will bring them back home again, no worries.

For a while this morning, it looked like gorgeous weather. It was tempting to bike to work, but the weather forecast said it would rain in the afternoon, so I took the car.

Now I am on my way home, and as the weather is now, it had been totally acceptable to bike. It has rained a lot today, and it has been really windy. The wall behind me sounded like it got pushed by the pressure of the wind. I cannot say that I finished the algorithm I'm working on right now in such a way that I go into the weekend with the yes, I've done it feeling, but things are going in the right direction. I have high hopes that this part of the algorithm will be finished next week, and then I can work on the next Sprint. That would be great, so I'm happy anyway. Happy with the achievement at work. I have no hurry to get home. It had been nice to ride the bike in such lovely weather. Instead of biking, I will try to drive peacefully.

I hope Selma is fine. I am curious about her. I wish I could get into weekend mode as soon as possible. I don't want to dwell on things.

So when I came home, Merida greeted me; she was hungry. She got a three-quarter pill. At home, I recalled that one of the reasons I took the car to work was to pick up more medicine for Merida on the way home. Luckily, the veterinary clinic closes at 8 in the evening, so I could drive to the clinic and pick up the medicine.

It sounds like the Democratic National Convention is over, and they nominated Kamala and Tim. There was not so much talk at the convention about the people of Gaza, but you can't have it all, can you? I was thinking about the two conflicts, the one going on in Israel and Gaza and the other going on in Ukraine and Russia. And there's no question about it: the thing Israel is doing to the people is not great, but there's a little moral problem here that it all started with the hostage crisis. There is so much stuff in the Israel conflict that I don't understand; Israel has no right to carry out genocide, but there is so much I don't understand. It feels like I can't say so much about it. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is so much simpler; I can understand that.

But now I arrive at the veterinarian. €21. They informed me they have a savings system for chronic disease medicine, and now I've been such a good customer I could get a refund. It does not feel especially valuable or essential to get a refund. It seems to me there is some monopoly on veterinary companies in this city, so it doesn't matter. I mean, I have to pay anyway. What I value more is that one veterinarian listens to the advice of others so that an entire day of going to a hospital can be meaningful. That's what matters. They failed that.

The windmills are turning fast today. There's always one windmill standing still or turning really slow compared to the others. What's up with that? Someone should check up on that.

Now I am almost at home for the second time, but I got the pills!

Saturday 24 August

I woke up this night dwelling on things at work. Merida tried to cheer me up, purring loudly. She is such a sweetie. I think it worked.

In the morning, we noticed that Selma was walking much better. We had a slow morning.

We had vinegrapes in the smoothie for the first time ever! It was an experiment because the grapes have seeds that allegedly don't taste so well. It was the first time we enjoyed and used the grapes for practical purposes. I will see if I can put them in the freezer. It would be fantastic if it was possible to grind them into a smoothie when they are frozen, so we will have to try that.

We checked out the western sunrise courgette and picked our first fruit from the plant behind the sea container. It is a funny shape. It was hanging beautifully from the plant. I found the shape of the plant similar to a Yule tree. The fruits hanging like that obviously look like decorations from a Yule tree. This fruit was 467 grams and 116 millimeters in diameter.

You might recall me sowing carrot seeds around the courgette and the pumpkins behind the sea container on 29 June. Carrot plants that survived this slug invasion have been growing there since then. Already a week ago, I discovered a Caterpillar in the carrot. I recall thinking that, of course, if there is a carrot, there has to be a Caterpillar specialized in carrots, and we have to have it in our carrots. I identified The Caterpillar as being from the swallowtail butterfly. I must say that it's a lovely caterpillar, and the butterfly is magnificent. I took the photo with the Nikon DSLR camera I bought in 2011. That was 14 years ago.

At 12, this slow morning ended, and it was time to do something other than drink coffee and Google about butterflies.

DW went around with the brush cutter, and I worked on the boards of the tiny house.

First, I made a template from cardboard. Then, I drew the template outline on the board and cut it. From then on, it was just a matter of adjustment.

There was a thin spot on the board that I decided to enforce with a beam before cutting out the intended weakening of the board.

I finished the southwest corner. I like it a lot, it looks beautiful. With this part of the job, I made it impossible for the sheep to nibble on the insulation material. That is good!

Then we had lunch, and as I often have been doing lately, I made fresh tea with mint, salvia, and black currant leaves. We often have bread for lunch, which is also typical Dutch lunch food.

I had a well-deserved power nap after lunch.

It is warm and windy outside. Merida doesn't like it at all. I would try to get her out anyway. I took her out. She is sitting on one of my cardboard templates, wondering what I am doing. Merida is not running back in, so that is good. But she did not stay beside me. It was not fun with the wind, according to Merida.

I mounted the next board. It is challenging to make it look absolutely incredibly beautiful and snug fit. I don't think I'm aiming for absolute perfection, either. So that is good.

Now, I'm using the dictate function when I'm blogging while working. It looks like I've become addicted to dictating. It's frustrating when it's not working. I don't have a perfect network connection on my mobile phone. No worries. We have a solution for that because I can connect to the Wi-Fi network of DS. That seems to work flawlessly. That means I can continue to work on the boards while mumbling the words for the blog.

I botched one screw on the previous plate, but I'm not gonna redo that plate. It is what it is. This last plate was well done. That means I'm halfway on the south side of the tiny house. But where is Merida? Aren't you going to look for a mouse, Merida? I think there are mice here. I wonder if the template from one side can be switched over and used on the other. That would be magic; it is magical!

Then I made a little noise, and Merida ran into the house. She is afraid of everything, especially when it is windy. It feels like it's going to rain. Yes, in 30 minutes, it will be raining here. I need time to put all the tools back in the house before that.

When all the tools were back in the house, I picked a couple of chunks of grapevine. I wanted to do it before the rain because after the rain I would not like to do it anymore. I picked out the good grapes, washed them, and dried them before putting them in a bag and the freezer. Tomorrow, I can try the frozen grapes in the smoothie. If that works, I will pick all the grapes as soon as I can before someone else picks them.

It started raining. It rained 18 ½ millimeters. Since one millimeter is one liter of water per square meter, we got 3200 square meters, which is 3,2 cubic meters per millimeter. That means we received 59,2 cubic meters of water in 40 minutes. Can you fathom that amount? A bathtub holds roughly 302 liters of water, one-third of a cubic meter. 196 bathtubs in 40 minutes. An average swimming pool is around 59 cubic meters. Imagine an average swimming pool being filled in 40 minutes. All the water sank away in the soil, and we had no issues whatsoever. Amazing.

When the rain finished, we went to the farm shop. No more working on the boards today.

Sunday 25 August

It rained heavily this night. I slept well despite thunder flashes, heavy rain, and wind gusts. Merida came to our bed but preferred sleeping at the feet of DW. At 7:25 AM, the sun was shining, and there was no wind.

In the Reporting from Ukraine news from Russia, it appears that the city of Korenevo is captured or almost captured by Ukrainian forces.

In the US, ultra-conservative constitutional scholars are endorsing Kamala Harris. That is previously unheard of. They are saying that the conman is a threat to the Constitution.

 

It looks so peaceful in the garden. That DW walked with the brush cutter yesterday made it look beautiful. I am making (regular) tea and giving Merida her morning pill. I checked out the sheep, which were regurgitating under the rain roof. We will need to move them to a new area today. We will have them grazing next to the house on the north side. The model with a corridor along the dike connecting the fields on the south sides of the house with the rain roof works very well. We like that model so much that we consider making it with a permanent fence.

We had our breakfast with the frozen grapes, which were very sweet and delicious, and the seeds were no big issue. Our mixer could handle the frozen grapes. With that, I would say the experiment was successful, so I must pick grapes as soon as possible.

The saga of our grapes is long overdue. It started already at the old house. As a matter of fact, the previous owner had grapes in the garden when we arrived at the old house. I could not find any easy way of making use of the grapes. This was 1995. At the old house, we did not have mice. The birds ate the grapes at the old house.

DW said several times that the seeds were bitter, and even when we decided to do this experiment, she repeated it. I never contested that that was the case; now we have valuable, delicious grapes. The seeds are bitter, but not so much that it is a problem.

I gave the sheep a new cube of salt and garlic; they loved it. Now I'm going to prepare for a visit to friends.

We went to the friends. They have small kids that need attention. That makes it challenging to keep talking between the grown-ups without the kids "disturbing" us. It was great anyhow.

After we visited friends, we went to the PILs. This was a social Sunday, indeed. It is about an hour's drive to get to the PILs. On the way to the PILs, a bridge can open to let sailboats through.

It was nice sunny weather but perhaps a little windy. Fluffy clouds, really beautiful. I noticed a butterfly on the wall at the PILSs wall. Unfortunately, it was a broken butterfly.

MIL got pokeweed in her garden. I don't know so much about the plant. It had large leaves and long stems, dark berries on a red background. We got a bag full of the berries to take home.

On the way home, DW reads out loud from blogs about pokeweed. It is a poisonous invasive plant that is not native to the Netherlands. It is unclear what effect the poison has on people. If you are young or have already gotten lousy health, pokeweed is terrible for you.

The berries can be used for dying fabrics. DW wants to die with the berry, so she is looking for ways to do so. It is uncertain exactly how to get the best result. The colors look stunning: dark red, violet, and purple. I would love to see the color of the yarn.

There are some blogs available of people who tried dying with the pokeweed. They said they would come back to tell you in the blog about the exact specific procedure and what you should do to the yarn, but somehow, they forgot to return with the conclusions. Nowhere could DW read in the blogs something like x number years later about the results with photos of how the yarn looks first and then later. There are no stories like that on the blogs.

Well, I suppose it's easy to criticize the people, but some of these experts have been blogging about dying for more than 18 years, and somehow, it never occurred to them that they would go back to the blog post and say, "Here is the result."

So now I have been blogging with DW in the car for the first time. Perhaps she will blog about her experience with pokeweed?

I had hoped we had time to go to a shop looking at rails for curtains, but those shops close at 6:00 PM on Sundays. We have to go another day.

When we drove home, we had to fill up the tank, and at the same time, we bought coffee. Oh boy, this was strong coffee. When we arrived home, we were still jumping around. I had a sip of water to flush my mouth, which helped a little, but it would be good to have something else to drink and eat because it was a potent coffee.

We didn't take any tourist routes this time. I was interested in listening to the stories from blogs about the plants. So now we have a bag of pure poison in the car.

When we came home, I picked more vine grapes. From earlier years of experience, I think we are near the point when some animals start picking grapes for us.

DW made filled western sunrise courgettes. That was delicious.

After dinner, I bought several buckets of vinegrapes and put them into the kitchen. There, I picked out the best grapes, washed them, and put them in bags in the freezer. In the end, I had collected 4525 grams of grapes!

In 2022, I tried harvesting on 3 September. That was too late. All was gone.

Last year, in 2023, I tried using a net. I applied the net on 26 July. It did not help anything. All the grapes were eaten. I think it was mice. This year, I am earlier with the harvest.

Here ends this week's blog. It was an eventful week. I continued on the boards of the tiny house, and I collected grapevine. Not bad at all. Selma had a sore foot, and we fixed that as well. We have been social as well, meeting people. I blogged 5372 words this week. That is a few thousand less than the previous week, but good enough.