Finished the compost Sunday, 27-Oct-24 19:52:55 CET

Finished construct the rigid fence around the garden Sunday, 10-Nov-24 21:11:04 CET

Sunday, 03-Nov-24 21:14:29 CET

Finished the shed preparations

Finished most of the shed preparations. Started replacing the fencing around the vegetable garden.

Monday 28 October

Good morning, it is 7:00 AM. Outside, it is 9°C, and inside it is 21°C. I can indeed see the sky lit up in the morning. So I'm contemplating for myself, is it what it's being saved? It is partly overcast, but there are small blue patches. Last Monday, I wrote at 7:00 AM that it was completely dark outside, and now I have the sun on the horizon, so perhaps we saved something. Challenging to understand.

Beautiful sky this morning. Today, we both worked from home.

In the evening, I worked on the drawing for the plumber. I finished the sewer pipes system, but there are more pipes to work on.

Tuesday 29 October

Good morning. It is. 8:20 AM. I am biking to work today. It is Tuesday already. This week, I kept feeling that the days ran away too quickly for my liking.

If you read the last week's blog, I was talking about Jack Conte from Patreon. He promotes creative activities, but it's always done with a business perspective. Business first, creativity later. That triggered my thoughts on the subject. Why am I afraid of business? Or am I? It's a little bit true. Anyway.

I didn't have any idea of a creative anchored in business. Since last week, I listened to Jack. On Saturday evening, I had a DJ-set I played for neighbors and their party. I did it for free because, yeah, well, I'm afraid of business, or perhaps a little. A bit of self-spotting. I am starting to annoy myself with that stance.

I had a perfect time playing that DJ set. Now, of course, it's all second-hand stuff. And it didn't didn't cost much at all to get the equipment. But that does not mean I don't need to replace lamps; perhaps I want to improve things, which costs money. Anyway, on Sunday afternoon, we had a bike tour.

We had beautiful weather, and it was adorable. We biked to the farm shop. The farm shop has a message board with notes from people around the area. DW wanted to look there, and she said, pointing to a note, that it was something about a wool-event she had missed.

So the night from Sunday to Monday. I had a dream. We were standing in that farm shop, and on that board in the dream, there was a note from me that said: Hire a local DJ for €75 per hour. So I woke up. I thought that it was an excellent idea.

I can do that for myself as well. So I was thinking: What must I do to comply with business rules? That's all it takes. I need to comply; that is clear. So I looked it up. You can earn €1800 per year besides your regular salary work without having a company or VAT registration. You need to properly register your receipts. There was something about how to make those receipts, how they should be written, and I need to look into that. It's doable; anyone can do it. If anyone can do it, especially Jens can do it.

Now look, this is what the blog is doing to me. I found something inspiring, like that speech from Jack Conte, which I digested and wrote a blog about. Then, I read my blog and listen to what I am saying. That thing about never doing business and how ridiculous it is. It's not a good idea. Then I realize what powers I have and that they are enormous. You can do the same. Oh, gosh, I get inspired by myself here.

Passing the Wateringue canal. It's an English word so why can Microsoft dictate not hear it? I got passed by a Lidl truck; it says it drives 100% emission-free. Yeah. But you also trade palm oil products, you little dirty bastard.

Yesterday evening, I worked on the drawings for the plumber. Originally I made a design for the shed, but then we went to the shed builder, and they changed it into their construction. So they used thicker walls, and windows had other dimensions and things like that. The plumber needs to know where the pipes will emerge on the floor. If you put the pipe in the wrong place. It might appear in the wrong place if you're not paying attention. I need to know precisely where things will be down to the millimeter.

Now, I changed my drawing back to the drawing of the construction so the walls are thicker. Etcetera. It took me the evening, so there was no time for blogging. But I think I. I got the basics adapted.

The area where the shed will be built is mostly finished for the work to start. I do need to put out steel road plates. The guy I rented the digger from in 2021 can arrange those things.

You might think buying a shed built for you is really easy. I don't call this easy. I moved 15 wheelbarrows of compost. That's not easy. Thousands of kilos of stuff had to be moved. That's not easy. It was the same with the tiny house. We just bought a ready-made tiny house. It is already made, that should be easy. No, it was not easy. I dug a trench for the electricity and the water through the hardened driveway by hand. That was not easy.

We will need trenches for the shed and the stable as well. I will not dig those by hand. I am simply not doing that. Now, I biked past the cow field and am almost at work. There has been no rain falling on me, I think I am such a lucky guy. The time is 8:55 AM.

It is 7:55 PM, and it is almost dark. This got me thinking about alternative bike routes that do not go through the forest. I'm biking along the canal with the bumps I dreaded so much. Indeed, those bumps are annoying. The path has streetlights, and biking in complete darkness is not nice.

Crossing the high channel on a bridge that is lit up requires me to cross the canal much closer to the city center. I remember I was biking in the complete dark about ten years ago. I biked along the canal in the direction of the motorway. Perhaps that stretch is lit up?

The industrial park before the motorway and the road along the canal are lit. That brings me to the survival park where all light ends, and you are surrounded by complete blackness. The bridge without a name, built in 1992, has no lights. It is so dark the vehicle barriers have blinking lights on them. So, most of the park-land road I have been so happy about lately is pitch dark at night. It's, uh, frighteningly dark.

Perhaps I can get from the 1992 bridge via the area next to the bridge. Until now, I have skipped biking there. Part of me not finding my way; the roads are lit, which is nice. I realized that the golf resort is blocking a straight way home from here, so even if lit, it means a detour. The added challenge is that I don't know this area. Usually, I don't go here.

They love their channels in this neighborhood. It did not take long until I biked into a road construction. I had to go back and find an alternative a couple of times. So, getting into the area was not that difficult. Getting out on the other side of the area, with all the road construction scattered street lights, was challenging.

On the other side of the area is a main road with a bird's name. You could have guessed it. It was not lit. Biking on the other side of the golf course is darker. Along the main road, you had light at intervals.

The road to the golf course is pitch dark, but I suppose people who go to a golf course do not bike. Your chauffeur brings you to the golf course while you are sitting at the back of your Lamborghini. Streetlights on that road are a stupid idea, except for normal people.

Lamborghini is a very, very useful word. Microsoft dictation understands it immediately. I could want to talk about French or Dutch names of apples, but why would anyone want that when you can talk about Lamborghinis? Perhaps Microsoft dictation is made for people sitting at the back of the Lamborghini, a single-lingual meat eater who hates apples. Who am I to speculate about that?

I came home at 18:36 PM. It would have been nice if DW had put on the lights so I could see anything outside. I forgot my saddle cover on the bike this evening. I talked about saddle covers on 3 September.

Wednesday 30 October

Today, I worked from home in the morning.

	Loose.
	Tied.

After lunch, I started to work on removing the water irrigation pipes from the garden at the driveway.

I made contact with the digger rental. He told me I could rent road plates from him, but I had to send him a WhatsApp message. The road plates are essential to protect the road. It is primarily the road's edge towards our building that needs to be protected by the road plates.

We have some things that need to be removed from the area where the shed will be built. For example, a couple of sticks branches in a heap. The idea is to put those sticks in a pile between poles on the north side of our vegetable garden. It will become both a fencing part and a windbreaker for the garden.

The idea is simple, but the execution is different. You put poles in two rows, and then you put the sticks in between. When I tried to drill the first hole with the earth auger, the rope of the start mechanism broke. It has been okay for a long time. Last time, the rope was replaced by a neighbor. He used a good quality rope.

I took off the mechanism and started working on that. I found some rope, not that good, and then I lost a screw when I wanted to put the mechanism back. I Couldn't find it. We couldn't find it. We looked for a really long time. Perhaps we need a metal detector here at this property.

It was obviously a stupid idea to repair it outside, but yeah. You learn as you go. So it's already getting dusk. I found a replacement screw and got the auger working. I drilled those ten holes and put the poles in. I had to be lucky I had anything to call done then.

I put branches and sticks between the poles before I called it a day. It was almost dark.

Thursday 31 October

Good morning. October is a long month. The time is 7:10 AM. Outside, it is 12°C, and inside it is 21°C. I can see the dusk outside. Merida is hungry. Last night, I was dreaming about the US election. In my dream, it was an incredible mess. I hope it's going well. Of course, if it goes well for the United States, it also goes well for other parts of the world. If we get a dictator in the White House. Then, we will get many copy-cat dictators around the world as well.

It is 9:40 AM, and I'm on my way to work. I'm driving the car today. This morning, I was listening to a report about things happening in the United States. So Donald had a comedian at one rally saying racist things, and Joe Biden commented on that. In his comment, he used possessive singularity in the sentence. People don't understand that. I also have a problem understanding possessive singular, which is one of the most challenging things in English. But the truth is the truth, and it upsets me every time the truth is misrepresented. I wouldn't say I like that. Actually, it doesn't matter how small the truth is. The truth is the truth. Even if it is based on a difficult-to-understand possessive singular. So Joe Biden said that the language of the comedian was garbage. That is the truth.

Alright. The time is 5:45 PM. And I'm on my way home. It's already dusky. Right now, there is a road construction project in the city center. I have to drive a detour around the city. I have a park on the right side, and on the left, I have houses, but there is a traffic jam. This road is not made for this much traffic.

Friday 1 November

Early in the morning, 5 AM ish, a mosquito came to wake me up. Then, I could not fall asleep again. That wasn't very pleasant. So here I am, blogging on the couch at 5:45 AM on my first free Friday.

The thought that kept me awake was that Kamala does not appear strong to certain people. Well, I am sure she will not rape any Women, so if you think that is a weakness, you might be right. That is, for me, a good weakness. I am sure she will not put kids in cages as Donald did when he was president. I am looking at her apparent weakness and cannot find it. Donald does not dare debate with Kamala, such a weak politician. So, the person who said this about Kamala being weak is looking for something else. He might be attracted to fascism, and he cannot find that in Kamala. Fascism will not solve any problems, but it makes you look strong, probably. Not even problems with immigration and criminality are solved with fascism. I can assure you that a prosecutor is far better at solving criminality than a convicted felon and notorious liar. Fascism is only out to win on behalf of others. The trickle-down economy only trickles BS. Grifters will not look after you or care about your freedom. The world needs more female leaders like Kamala.

Hey. I got my first free Friday! I cannot say I feel pleased about it. Then, waking up too early was not a good idea. I have worked on the items on a to-do list. I got a price for renting the road plates: 300 euros for two months for 4 plates.

All good stuff. But I don't feel significantly energized today. Somehow, the weather is not helping either. It is entirely overcast today. Right now, I'm driving to the city to get the pills for Merida. While at it, I bought a rope for the earth auger's starting mechanism.

I finished drawing the pipes for the shed. Merida came to help me with the drawing. She had suggestions for the dimensions of the sewer pipes. While working on the drawing, we also listened to Curly Kris doing a DJ set together with Alpacas.

Saturday 2 October

This morning, it was already sunny early in the morning. I sent the drawing to the plumber and the company building the shed.

Today, I continued on the branch and sticks stack fence. We made it longer. I drilled two more holes, so the stack fence has twelve poles. I rearranged the twigs to make use of the added poles.

Next up, I started working on removing the current sheep fence. It will be replaced by the more sturdy building fence parts that we got from neighbors. That was on 6 August we got these fence parts. I mounted the first fence part on the newly placed corner poles. I was not exceptionally efficient in constructing the new fence around the garden. The earth auger got a new rope I bought yesterday. This time I mounted the rope in the workshop, so dropping a screw was no problem. See how wise I am getting.

DW worked on weeding the garden preparing for the winter. The pepper plants immigrated to pots indoors.

The branch stack fence will protect the garden from cold winds coming from the north. We had persistent stiff wind from that side this season, especially in May and June.

It was a lovely evening. It had been a lovely Saturday. Last weekend was also lovely. How blessed can you be by the lovely weather?

Merida was out and about around us. She likes it better when we are also in the garden. In the evening, she was tired.

Sunday 3 November

Good morning. The time is 7:51 AM. It is 1°C outside, and inside it is 21°C. Last night, I was dreaming of playing around in the snow. It's not going to happen anytime soon, I'm sure.

This morning, we had a slow morning. I blogged in bed, and we had our morning tea. DW has jasmine tea, and I often have Rooibos with citrus.

It was sunny already in the morning. So beautiful! In the living room, we have a separate table with garden-related relics. At the beginning of the season, it is seed sprouting incubation. At this time of year, the beans are drying. They look so beautiful if you are looking closely. Click the image to open up a close-up of the image.

Today, I continued with the new fencing around the vegetable garden. I am making this fence with the help of building fence parts. I cut off the fences to get the fence to a better height. These metal fence parts are more sturdy against sheep wanting to eat snacks from our berry shrubs. We want a greater distance between the shrubs and the fence than the old fence. We have slightly different opinions on how far that greater distance is. It is about 15 to 20 cm to me, but it is 30 to 50 cm for DW. It is one of those differences that are difficult to solve. More buffer zones around the garden means less productive ground for the sheep. That is clear. I also want to have a share in the new garden since we are abolishing the garden along the driveway that I worked on for two seasons. We are extending the garden by 4 ½ meters. That should compensate for the garden along the driveway. We will see.

The west side of the new garden goes in a kind of arc. On the south side, I wanted to go through a straight line. It was not viable to have it go parallel with the house. It is narrowing going eastwards. I continued working after the evening turned into the sunset.

Here ends this week's blog. I started working on the fence of the vegetable garden. That is great. The preparations are mainly done for the shed. We are doing great with the planned activities.

This week, I wrote 3131 words.