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

Cottage improvements Sunday, 15-Sep-24 19:44:38 CEST

Monday, 09-Sep-24 14:35:57 CEST

Harvesting potatoes

This week, there was not much work on the boards of the tiny house. I harvested potatoes, and we went on holiday to Sweden.

Monday 2 September

Today, I did not blog that much. I worked from home, and DW went to the office. DW took out the yarn from the reed bath in the evening, which had appropriately become green.

Tuesday 3 September

I am biking to work, and it is 8:30 AM. Oh dear. Bike seats or modern bike saddles are marvelous creations. It's a soft, spongy material covered with an ultra-thin layer. That is all there is. You can also get a vintage saddle that is essentially a slab of leather mounted on a holder frame.

The durability of modern saddles is not excellent. Well, I park my bike next to the garbage bins. We keep the garbage bins in an enclosure with the Crab 42 scaffold. In general, I am not that delicate with stuff. I consumed a couple of bike saddles in my life. With every saddle, the lifespan is shorter. The first saddle I got rid of when I got rid of the bike. Back then, I had no idea this was the best saddle ever. I grew up with it. About a year ago, I went to a well-equipped bike store and asked for a durable saddle. A salesperson tried to sell me one of these fluffy marvels.

I asked for a more durable saddle. Can it be more durable? Well, you can have the vintage saddle. It is essentially a slab of leather; it will not be soft but will not break so easily, either. So I bought a fluffy marvel. It's comfortable. My rear end is treated with a heavenly soft cushioning and, on top of that, an ultra-thin layer of rubber. So now I have a hole in my saddle because I am not the kind of person who can walk in shoes gliding over the earth an inch above the ground; I bump into things. My shoes are worn, and my saddle has a hole. The interior is like a fluffy sponge and sucks up moisture while the bike is idle. Now, the bike is not idle; the moisture is released into my trousers. It is not a comfortable feeling.

So what do you do then? Perhaps you should buy a new saddle or an ultra-modern gore tex saddle cover. What are you complaining about, Jens? The problem is solved. Now I must remember to remove the indestructible gore tex saddle cover.

This is just an example of how a product is made into the wrong product so that you can provide extra products to fix the original product. Anything is possible, but it just has to be stupid first.

It is moist and humid, and I am almost at work. I got other gloves today, so I will feel fine. I arrived at 9:03 PM AM.

It is 8:03 PM, and I am on my way home. That is precisely nine hours later. I tried to fix my algorithm today. It was tough. It rained in the afternoon, but now it is dry, and I'm delighted about that. Another thing I'm delighted with that is my gloves. Somehow, my left foot is freezing cold, so I will see if I can find a solution.

Self-reliant that's the way forward.

On the way home, I noticed a funny quirk in my behavior. I talked about bike saddles for a long time, and when I arrived at work this morning, I locked the bike and forgot the saddle cover. That's pretty amazing.

I experience many hefty dumps on the road when I bike along the canal. It would be nice to find another route, bypassing that on my journey. Maybe that is something I can figure out.

At some places along the route, giant hogweed is growing. It is similar to regular hogweed. Giant hogweed is poisonous. If you get moisture from the plant in your eyes, you can become blind.

Can you imagine that kids are out biking when there are plants along the bike route that can make them blind? There's nothing you can do about it. There are things in the Netherlands that you cannot imagine happening in other countries.

A few years back, I found a playground next to a canal. Like the canals in Amsterdam, with no parking reeling. You must park your car 15 centimeters from the edge, a couple of inches. I wonder how many drunk people are drowning in that canal in those canals every year?

I promise I will not forget the saddle cover when I come home.

We harvested the rest of our apples. Not many had been spared by the wasps. I cut the eaten parts away, put apple pieces in a bag, and put the bag in the freezer.

Wednesday 4 September

That night, Merida was sleeping on my chest, purring loudly. You would think sleeping with a four-kilogram cat on your chest is hard. Yesterday evening, we had the doors open too long, so we invited mosquitoes into the house. I know we should buy mosquito nets, but I suppose it's one of those tasks that is not a high priority right now. I find it hard to sleep with the mosquitoes buzzing around my ears, so I put in some earplugs. When Merida came sleeping on my chest, it was convenient that I had my earplugs. She can be purring so loudly.

The frozen apple pieces from yesterday gave me a little surprise. When I made the smoothie, it didn't become a smoothie. It became fruit sorbet. So if too many ingredients are frozen, the result is frozen, which is logical, but I hadn't realized that. So, in this smoothie, I had bananas. Then I added grapes, apples, and blackcurrant, all frozen. When I mixed this, I got a sorbet.

I could consume the sorbet, but DW opted to heat it in a smoothie before consuming it. After breakfast, DW went to a conference, which was a little different because she usually had a day off on Wednesdays. I had some time before work, so I went to the garden and picked the first corn. I wanted to see what it looked like.

DW went to her office the entire day, and I decided to not have my half day off, so I worked until 6:30 PM. That way, I can stop earlier on Friday. That will be useful.

Then I went harvesting Alouette potatoes. It became four buckets of potatoes. I gave one bag of potatoes to the neighbor across the street and one bag of zucchini, three corn, and potatoes to a neighbor on the north side. He really like that.

We had dinner with sweet corn and that previously harvested potatoes Twister potato.

The road workers have now finished the platform between the two areas. Now, they will build the connection to the main road, and then they'll be finished.

Ukraine, the latest podcast, talked about how the far-right is gaining control throughout Europe and how these parties are directly connected to Putin. They should be called out for selling our democracies to a dictator.

Thursday 5 September

It is a Gray morning, it has rained, and it is 18°C. I'm making a smoothie with two bananas, a frozen apple, and frozen grapes.

Today, DW and I both went to the office. She is going to have a really long day. She will attend a barbeque after work arranged by one of her colleagues. I will need to pick her up from the train in the evening. It will be warm, around 27°C, and she had problems finding suitable clothing for the office and a BBQ.

I picked strawberries and wild strawberries, but there was not much time for that because we had to go already, but it went okay. Then we went to the office. I brought zucchinis in a bag of 5 or so. There was a lot of traffic, which was clearly after the holiday. I brought enough clothing today, and I can have my gloves. I will survive the most stubborn AC dictator.

It's 5:45 PM, and I'm on my way home by car. It is 29°C sunny but a little hazy, and I think it's also humid. I feel numb, but I have been able to work with high concentration today. It was a long time ago I worked so hard. There was the stubborn AC dictator in the morning, but I had two sweaters, shawls, socks, and gloves. After lunch, the AC dictator went home early, and we could turn off the AC. At that point, six people did not want the AC turned on. So we turned off the AC and opened the windows. It was brilliant.

After a while, I asked people if they were too hot, but that was not the case; they were happy, and so were I. So I could concentrate well and make good progress with the algorithm I am working on. I am afraid it will not be finished before my holiday, you never know. I am tired now so I need to concentrate on the traffic.

After saying that, I just noticed a traffic accident, I don't think anyone was harmed. I am at home, and DW is still on her company outing.

Hello Merida, how are you? Have you been alone today? I think you might be hungry if I know you well. At home, it is 28°C outside and 26°C inside. So, Merida, can I offer you a pill? You want to have a ¾ pill of Phenoral, all right? Sometimes, when cutting the pill, it is crushed into several more pieces, but then I collect dust to measure into the appropriate volume. I give the pill in a paste called easy-pill. After the pill, it is time for the chunks as well. You look so beautiful in the sun! I took a photo of Merida, and she does not appreciate any interruption of the feeding procedure. No time for posing for photos when hungry. She looked beautiful in the sun, though.

When I came home, I had my dinner on my own, and then I started packing for the journey tomorrow. A neighbor came by and borrowed the earth oger. They will set up a permanent fence for their dog. I gave them a bag with potatoes, zucchini, and one Ramana.

In return, I got strawberries. I cut away bad spots and put the berries in the freezer. I will use these in the smoothie tomorrow morning.

Late in the evening, I picked up DW from the bus stop along the motorway. I have never been there before; it is new, and Google Maps doesn't have it entirely mapped out yet. I drove there, and a sign told me where to drive, but the signs stopped. I got lost. I went to the pick-up point from the other side, which worked well. Maps integrate much better (than Waze) with the dictation of Microsoft Word in the car. A window floating above the Word document is excellent, and the navigation sound is sent to the car stereo. This configuration is a clear winner.

Friday 6 September

It's 7:15 in the morning.

I gave Merida her half-morning pill. It crumbled enormously again. And now I'm going to make a morning smoothie. This morning, I had strawberries, grapes, and apples. All these frozen. Then pear and banana. I added a little orange juice to it.

Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh. That is what word makes of the sounds when I grind the smoothie. That's funny, actually. When I made music, I tried synthesizing sounds with the vowels and diftones in them. Maybe I could make a singer-like synthesizer patch if I didn't have a singer?

When grinding the smoothie, you have similar vowel sounds going on. It's interesting. I will return and make more music one day, but I need time for it.

The smoothie is heavenly and delicious today. Strawberry taste from the neighbors' strawberries that I got yesterday. The smoothie is frozen so that it just barely into a sorbet.

We have a complex breakfast. Smoothie, homemade müsli with almond milk, tea, and orange juice. We also often have strawberries from our garden, but it depends on if any are available and if we have time to pick them. The wild strawberries quickly get mushy, and they aren't that sweet. There are almost not so many strawberries today.

So it's 8:30 PM, and I am on my way to work driving my car. The reason for that is that I want to preserve my energy. I'm driving out of the area via the temporary road. I am pretty sure the road finished within a week. Today, I brought no less than 6 Western Sunrise zucchinis. I already brought zucchinis yesterday, so seeing if people want them will be interesting. The idea for today is that I will work half day. After lunch, I go home, and DW and I will pack the last couple of things. Then, we will get into the car and start driving to Sweden. Then, when we are tired, we stop and check in at a hotel. It is 20°C and sunny this morning, although hazy.

This week marks the 280th week where I've been blogging. I know that because I have the spell checker from Grammarly. Writing these blogs is obviously a way for me to express myself. But I'm also practicing English and learning new words to better understand grammar. I've been using Grammarly since September 2007, but not consistently. I got these emails from Grammarly once per week, and I noticed they gave me a badge for about four weeks of writing in a row. I was thrilled that I got this badge back then, but it has been hard to continue writing occasionally. There have been times when this badge really helped me. Arrived at work at 8:47 PM.

12:20 PM, and I'm on my way home. 27°C on the parking lot here while driving 26.5°C. The AC dictator was present, but I had a T-shirt, 2 sweaters, gloves, and extra socks, so I was okay.

I wasn't able to finish the algorithm of my current sprint. That annoyed me, but the current output is not of such a good quality that I can put it live. If I did that, it would have caused much drama. The team should continue to work with the existing program, and they must patiently wait for a version that will be ready after my holiday.

I noticed a buzzard bird in the sky, circling for food. The trees along the road from the center to the area where we have our house are archaic and irregular. They could have been identical standing in a row along the road, but they are chaotically different standing in a row along the road. It is almost archaic but beautiful if you are open to it. Branches are sticking out here and there, and parts have no branches.

Interestingly, so much variation could be created because they planted the trees simultaneously. I will see if DW can take a photo of the trees or if she is driving, and I will take that photo. I will come back to this subject in the future.

Going out in a typical Dutch forest, you will see the trees growing in lines. When I was busy with the hempcrete project at the neighbors' house, one of the builders from the building company came from Estland. He really missed the nature. I talk with him about forests with trees in rows. We both missed forests with trees in random groups. We should not exaggerate the beauty of the forests in Sweden because they are also planted in lines these days; I worked in the Swedish forest industry as a teenager, so I know all about it. I am a grownup (now) who owns my own forest in Sweden, and I make sure the trees do not stand in rows. I love it.

The road to the area where we got our house is unfinished, but the road builders have come far. They kept it blocked because the equipment and the edge were not finished. I did not see any people there; maybe they left for the weekend.

It's time for lunch; I can feel that in my belly. I had a couple of colleagues that wanted zucchini. There is a design company opposite the aisle. They also wanted to have a couple of zucchini, so I returned home empty-handed, and that was great. At home 12:38 PM.

It is now 2:15 PM, and we had lunch. I opened the sheep fence area so they could access the fields in front of the house. I noticed the gates were not all right, so I had to adjust them. So now the sheep can grace outside the dike on the west and north sides and inside the dike all parts except around the house on the west and north side.

The four buckets of potatoes were still standing in the kitchen. They would not survive nicely for one week outside the fridge. I moved them into a drawer in the fridge.

I started packing the car, and suddenly, when doing that, I recalled that we had lent (out) the transponder to friends for use at the bridge in Denmark. Luckily, they didn't live far away, so we went there, but they were busy, so we had to go home again.

Luckily, at 2:32 PM, we had the transponder and could start our journey to Sweden. It didn't take long on the motorway until we got stuck in a traffic jam.

We were driving in the middle lane, with an exit on the right. In the distance, we could see the bridge over the motorway connected to the exit, but hardly any vehicles coming from the exit over the bridge. What was going on? Where did they go? It cannot just be so that vehicles disappear, but where are they going? They could not turn right. There was no road to the right. They either had to go over the bridge, but we could only see vehicles passing it to enter the motorway. The only option would be to take the exit to enter the motorway again to avoid traffic jams. To see if our hypothesis would be correct, we kept note of the trucks taking the exit. We noticed a truck with eighteen pipes and bright red end caps taking the exit. The question was: Would we see it again? We got stuck in a traffic jam. It dissolved slowly. I had forgotten about our quest when we passed a truck with eighteen black pipes and bright red end caps.

Now our holiday has started. If it feels good. DW is having a great time because she is knitting, and I am having a good time because I am blogging and driving.

5:55 PM. Pause. We stopped at the parking with WC across the border with Germany, which we had used for 17 years, but recently, we refrained from using the restroom. Back in the days when Germany represented Deutsche Gründlichkeit, German thoroughness, it was acceptable to use the restrooms along the autobahn. Those days are over. You have tender madness in Germany, as in the rest of Europe. It is not enough that a service is good. There has to be a tender emitted about the service so that all the companies providing the service can be turned upside down occasionally. Then, a new company needs to learn how to do things from scratch and learn all the lessons, but most importantly, they have to do it with a smaller budget than the previous tender. It is efficient, but I don't want to wipe my ass with it. The tender madness enables a modern form of slave trade. It is legal; no one cares.

We had quiche and tomatoes for dinner at 5:55 PM. I was a bit tired. DW took it from the freezer before we left, and it was still a little frozen. It was chard and blue cheese quiche. Delicious. At 6:24 PM, we continued to a gas station for gas, coffee, and restroom.

At 7:20 PM, we stopped at Hashbruch Süd. We filled up the tank and went to the restroom. The port wanted to be paid, and they charged me double the amount. I suppose you win some and you lose some. This was not a win.

We arrived at the Hotel Heidejäger at 8:30 PM on a road between Bockel and Rotenburg. It looks like a small town, but I cannot find its name. The good thing about a hotel in a town without a name is that it is a three-second drive from the road to the free parking in front of the hotel. Last time we made a considerable effort to find the parking. This was easier.

The room was situated in a separate building. The room had its own small garden. It turned out to be towards a small road, but it was not especially busy, so that was fine. The large garden doors were covered with a thin curtain. We were at first a bit flabbergasted that there was no thick curtain. DW investigated the door's construction and found that perhaps it was equipped with an aluminum barrier operated by an electric motor. Sure enough, DW found a button and could lower the barrier. We kept a tiny opening at the bottom for fresh air.

Saturday 7 September

Good morning. We started driving at 9:20 AM. Unfortunately, I cannot say that I slept very well. It can be due to several reasons. Perhaps it did not help that I had an enormous mug of coffee yesterday evening. There were a few quirks with the hotel room as well. The room had two large windows. We wanted some form of privacy, but at first glance, the room's windows appeared covered with only thin curtains. DW also found an aluminum barrier that could be lowered. We also wanted fresh air, so we couldn't have the barrier wholly closed. I thought it was really clever to have an opening at the bottom, but that meant that we also had lights of the street lamps at the bottom of the window. I was sleeping next to the window, and the street lights were lighting up next to my bed. I don't think that was the worst thing, though. The bed sheet was thick and warm as if we would stay in the room without heating in the winter.

I had my own pillow from home with me, so the pillow was fine. In hotels, they love the kind of pillow that, when your head rests on the pillow for 20 seconds, is as thick as a sheet of paper, and I don't want that.

When we left the hotel, we programmed Google Maps to drive through Denmark, skipping the ferry Rödby-Puttgarden. We already experienced several times how Google Maps don't respect our choices. Obviously, Google knows better than you what you want, especially regarding traffic. Google has no idea how to wait for a ferry that does not arrive. For us, a little bit of traffic jam is no big deal compared to waiting for a ferry. I memorized that we had to take Road 261, and sure enough, Google switched it out without asking. I discovered that 1.5 kilometers before the exit, just in time.

We are sitting on A7 in a traffic jam through the harbor area in Hamburg. There are hundreds of cranes on the horizon and one windmill. The cranes look like steel giraffes.

Now, we are driving into the belly of the harbor, the Elbe tunnel. Hamburg is a city of respectable size. It is warmer in the tunnel.

We passed Quickborn. It is a funny name for a town.

After Quickborn on the south of Flensburg oblast, we noticed traffic signs on the other side of the motorway were painted upside down in the Dutch flag colors. It appears the Germans are going Dutch. There has to be something fishy with that. It was not only one traffic sign. There are many of them painted in Dutch colors. The signs are entirely painted. It must be a considerable effort to paint the signs like that. Perhaps we have seen 20 signs already.

At 1:35 PM, We had a break. We filled up gas, went to the restroom, and bought sandwiches. Then we ate our sandwiches under a tree at a park table.

The salesperson at the shed builder called us while DW drove through Denmark. He told us that the building permit had been passed and that it was possible to plan for the placement of the shed. He suggested that the building be placed on the foundation in week 50. That is the week when 9 December falls on a Monday. The building will be placed on the foundation, so that has to be built first. We must figure out when we will move our shrubs and how. The salesperson had finished his task. He is now transferring the rest of the project to another person at the building company. That is okay because he did not impress us regarding keeping notes, following up on questions, etc. He was a sweet guy and okayish as a salesperson, but he was not made for building sheds.

Perhaps DW got a speed ticket in Denmark. It does not matter; it is good that it is not only me collecting tickets. I think she did not get a ticket, but we will find out after our holidays.

Right before the store belt bridge, we got into a traffic jam before the bridge. The bridge was closed. There was road work on the bridge.

DW drove through Denmark. I took over the wheel in Sweden, and we arrived in the early evening at the cottage Sunnerås. We were welcomed by BIL and SIL.

Sunday 8 September

Good morning. I slept really well. This morning, I also received the building permit. It will be interesting to see how it is to blog and have friends simultaneously. BIL is my brother-in-law.

We had breakfast, and then DW started painting the parts she had worked on last time that still had to be finished. I continued on my painting project from the previous holiday. To do that, I took out the tractor just like last time.

SIL helped prune the apple tree. We have not seen so many apples in the tree as this year. Two branches had broken because of the weight of the apples. Also, the plum tree had plums, which we had not seen before. SIL is my sister-in-law.

BIL went around the brush cutter, clearing twigs and brushes.

We had a lovely time; the weather was scorching in Sweden. It did not go well combining blogging and social activities and doing tasks at the cottage.

We did a bike tour in the neighborhood in the afternoon.

That was this week's blog. See you next week!