The barn build Sunday, 22-Dec-24 19:44:47 CET

Sunday, 29-Dec-24 21:51:09 CET

Electric plan of the barn

This week, I finished the barn's electric plan.

Monday 23 December

I slept well last night, and I did not cough. I dodged the cold this time, as it appears right now. Anything can still happen. Today, both DW and I got our holidays, but I had forgotten to turn off the alarm, so I woke up at the same time as usual. I turned off the alarm and thought I could fall asleep again, but that did not work.

Usually, when I blog intensively, I will not continue to blog intensely in the subsequent week. I decided to start early, so I am writing on Monday morning. It was a sunny day! I took a photo of the blue sky to remind myself what that looks like!

The spelling check service I have been using since 2007, Grammarly, told me I had reached a new milestone. I checked twelve million words since 2007. That is many words.

I thought I would be digging in the sand in the barn to prepare for the plumber, but DW and I only got to discuss where we would like to have various outlets, light switches, etc. We figured out what to do with the outside of the barn to cover the foundation.

I made a drawing in the sand for DW to explain my idea. Here, I colored the sand drawing.

1. It is the lowest horizontal beam holding up the façade planks.
2. This is a mouse barrier.
3. The red façade planks.
4. I want to put this zink profile under the façade planks.
5. The zink is screwed onto the beam from under.
6. A beam is added to extend the surface of the foundation to which the cement-bound board can be mounted.
7. This is the cementbound board.
8. The Foundation

What I don't like about this solution is that if water splashes from the front, there is a theoretical chance it will get in. I had preferred the zink to end upwards. I will have to think about that more. I will have time to think about this later. I need to figure out Mr. Radi's shopping list right now. But that did not happen; we went to the grocery store to pick up things for the parties ahead.

A group of hens came walking when we inspected the barn outside. It is the neighbor's hens, but he was not at home then. Luckily, they went back to their hen house. Perhaps they heard us talking and wanted to see who that was. Most other neighbors were away as well.

I was feeling better today. I did not catch the full cold as DW did.

Can you believe that I logged in at work in the office in the evening? A particularly challenging issue had to be resolved, and I had fixed it quickly. It sounds bragging when I say it like that, but that was how it was. Logging in during the holidays did not feel wrong. It is nice to be able to help out.

Tuesday 24 December

It is time to start celebrating the remnants of the Saturnalia festivities, the Yule holidays. We will do it soberly; we are skipping the gift part. There will be good food that DW will prepare, and I will see where I can help. Perhaps I said it before in the blog, but it is worth repeating. When I lived in Sweden, the religious part of the Yule Holidays was not that confronting. It was another deal when I moved to the Netherlands and learned Dutch. The word for Yule is religious itself, and the same for English. Just talking about the holiday makes it normative. There is no getting away. Last year, I decided to start calling it Yule in English. It works very well for me.

I am not against believing in fantasy figures from a multinational corporation selling the delegation of accountability. We have science these days; it has a good inventory of what is true and false. Humanity does not need vast groups of people who can haphazardly buy forgiveness. What we need instead is for large groups of people to take responsibility for a world that we can live in. Besides, forgiveness is something that a state's judicial system has a monopoly on.

While making the morning smoothie, I listened to episode 1034 of Ukraine-the-latest. It was an interview with a lady from Kharkiv. He stared at me, but a quarter of his head was missing. Right now, the Telegraph is supporting Humanity and Inclusion. I decided to pitch in and donated 50 pounds in the memory of David Knowles.

T he blue sky of yesterday had vanished today. It was grey as usual. I had two tasks for today: Vacuum the house, dig trenches in the sand in the barn to prepare for electricity, etc. I had finished digging the trenches when it occurred to me that DW had been using hot water for her wool preparations. If she wants to do the same in the barn, we must arrange hot water. We talked about it, and it seemed correct. This is the moment to do this; later, it will be complicated when the floor is in place.

I only had to create a passage from the restroom to the workbench in the canopy below the foundation. I dug out this opening, so now we are ready to get this pipe installed by our superman, Mr Radi. I rearranged the water pipe to enter the restroom space. We will have a heating element in that room, so that is where the majority of the water installations will be placed. A WC bowl, a small sink, and a water heater for instant warm water. From here, there will be two pipes to the workbench in the canopy going via the frost-free space below the floor to the workbench. There, where the water pipe comes up through the ground, we will have an electric heating cable for the water pipes. That is the same as we have done below the tiny house.

I did not finish the wishlist for Mr Radi. Instead, I went to the grocery store again. Yesterday, we forgot a couple of items. The shop was busy. It was jam-packed.

In the afternoon, we lent out the earth auger to our neighbors. I know more neighbors want to borrow that machine. I vacuum-cleaned the first floor. Now, we are ready for the Yule holidays. May the merry Yule begin.

Wednesday 25 December

Today, I woke up at 7:30 AM. That is one hour later than the regular wake-up time. I am always impressed by DD, who can sleep until noon if she wishes. On the other hand, I have the power nap trick. I can sleep for 15 minutes and recharge that way for several hours. We all have our little advantages. It was misty this morning and completely overcast. Have you thought of anything else?

I had joked to DW that DD would arrive five minutes before the end of 24 December. The first thing she would say would be: "So, I arrived on 24 December". DW did not appreciate that joke. In a way, it did not get that bad, but I was not far off. I went to the train station at 4 PM to pick up DD and her friend. Almost all daylight activities DW and I had imagined, like a walk in the forest, could not be realized.

That did not mean I made use of the time. My first task was to finish the shopping list for Mr Radi. I did not only finish it, but DW and I talked it through so that it was clear that we could get all the functionality of the barn as we wished.

There was a total of 70,3 meters of case tubing. There will be 8 light switches and much more. We are not doing any automation. It has all old-fashioned lights and electricity.

When this was done, DD still had not arrived. I went cleaning the windows on the ground floor of the house. It has been a long time since we did this. The sheep did not like it when I walked around with a ladder. They fled. I did all windows except two and did not do it exceptionally carefully but well enough. I stopped that when it was time to get DD and her friend from the train station. That was at 4 PM.

We showed the barn, and they were genuinely impressed by its size and look. In the evening, we cooked the meal together. That was fun. I did not cook much but helped clean pots and pans in between. I also gave the sheep a more narrow area. We cannot have them run around because it is approaching firework time. I am not sure I am done with that. On New Year's Eve, they need to be locked up. For now, they have a narrower enclosure with sturdy metal fencing.

When the meal was finished, DS came to join us, and we ate and caught up on each other's stories. DD got a new job and will begin on that at the beginning of next year. She will also move to a new apartment. Her friend had been working hard lately and was catching up on sleep. DS is searching for a new job.

We played a game. I lost grossly and was happy about it.

Thursday 26 December

This morning, it was grey and completely overcast. Our guests are good at sleeping. I woke up much later than usual but too early for DD. While making tea for DW and me, I listened to Just Have a Think by Dave Borlace. Dave told us that this year was the warmest year ever.

I worked on the barn's electricity list, listing all components and how many items would be needed.

There were still dishes to do from yesterday evening. The sheep and Merida got their breakfast, but no sign of DD waking up. Eventually, the breakfast was served, and our guests arrived at the table. We had a slow morning.

Around 1 PM, we started the day's activities. DD had a walk together with her friend. DW started making the food for the festivities this evening. The idea was to go to PILs and bring the food with us.

It felt like I had been running a marathon for three months. Now I had a moment to relax. What would I do? I decided to make a song.

I launched ChatGPT and gave it this prompt:

I want to make a song. It should have a verse-chorus structure. It can be in the style of folk or rock with rhymes. The song should be about the sky being overcast at the end of the year—a year where I have been doing fine. The crops have grown well. I worked hard to make the growing season a success, and it was a success; the slugs tried to kill all the crops, but I went after them and won over the slugs. We built a new big barn. It makes me happy. Some things worry me, like the climate. It has been the warmest year ever, with an average of over one point five degrees above preindustrial levels. Our property is below sea level in the Netherlands; how will the future be? The weather has been gray at the end of the year. We have just seen the sun and a blue sky for short moments. It is warm, and the neighbors' houses are getting green. But the overcast sky gets to me day in and day out. Is it possible to make lyrics for a song about this?

This about the temperature record comes from the YouTube channel "Just Have-A Think," he is referring to an article in The Guardian. Is it not reassuring that the song text is based on solid science? You can make up a few words to make it sound right, but can you back up your words?

That the neighbors' walls are turning green is a pure fact. It happens to be so. I am surrounded by eight white houses that I see from my house. Houses changing color over time is nothing new. Our house is turning purple. It has to be a defect in the paint. We will need to repaint our house at some point. When we do that, we might get good-quality Swedish paint. First, we will finish the barn. I tried to find a connection between climate change and the change of colors of houses, but I only found companies eager to sell cleaning products and try to gain more website traffic by also talking about the climate. That was not really what I was looking for. If anyone got hurt feelings about my observation, I might pull the song back. No big deal. For me, changing the color of houses indicates climate change.

Preferably, if someone gets offended, they must answer with a reply song. That would be nice.

It did not take long until Chat GPT produced a song. It was as good as it was. I changed a few things in the text.

[Verse 1]
The fields were golden, the crops grew tall,
I fought the slugs, I gave it my all.
Built a barn with beams so wide,
It stands like a fortress, fills me with pride.

[Chorus]
But the skies stay gray, day after day,
The sun peeks out, then hides away.
The warmth feels strange, the air feels wrong,
Under overcast skies, I sing this song.

[Verse 2]
The year's been kind, the harvest was grand,
Hard work paid off with steady hands.
But the neighbor's walls are turning green,
And I can't shake the things I've seen.

[Chorus]
Still, the skies stay gray, day after day,
The sun peeks out, then hides away.
The warmth feels strange, the air feels wrong,
Under overcast skies, I sing this song.

[Bridge]
It's the warmest year, the records say,
The sea might rise, might take us away.
Below the dikes, we plant and hope,
Will the earth hold or slope?

[Verse 3]

I've done my best, I've worked so hard,
But the future looms, a question mark.
The barn's a haven, the crops still grow,
But what's ahead, I just don't know.

[Chorus]
And the skies stay gray, day after day,
The sun peeks out, then hides away.
The warmth feels strange, the air feels wrong,
Under overcast skies, I sing this song.

[Outro]
Overcast skies, a heavy shroud,
I dream of blue, I speak it loud.
Through all the doubt, I'll stand my ground,
Under overcast skies, hope can be found.

That was overall great. ChatGPT had a rhyme with praying as well, but I removed that. That is not needed in my songs. I loaded this into Suno.ai, specified folk-rock as a genre, and added the lyrics. Out came a song that I liked very much. Suno always produces two songs, but the second is not good. I will remaster the first song and upload it to streaming services. But first, we had a party to go to.

We packed the car with the food that DW had made. Then, all five of us went to the PILs. The idea was to arrive at a table set by BIL with all the plates and chairs in place, eat dinner, and go home. That is about what PILs have energy for. Going anywhere else is too much. They are 95 and 96, so they cannot do too much. SIL and PIL came with their part of the dinner, and all got served. There were 10 of us, and it was great. It was delicious, and all were happy.

Then we stood up. We left many plates to be washed, but that was a task for BIL. Then we went home again. We drove DD and her friend to his house and continued home. It was misty this evening.

When we came home, I started blogging. After that, I remastered the song and uploaded it to the streaming services. I used a photo of the barn as album art.

Friday 27 December

This morning, we woke up late: 8:45 AM. Slowly, the body gets used to being relaxed. I checked YouTube Music this morning, and the song was live. I was taking it easy today. The song was live on YouTube Music already this morning.

We had a walk in the neighborhood today. We met and talked to no less than three neighbors. One was discarding boards that I could pick up and use. The other had a distribution box they did not need anymore.

It was not an especially active day. It felt like the cold I had already written off was coming back. I had an itchy nose. We even could see the sun for a moment today. That was special!

We got spares from earlier electricity projects. It occurred to me that I didn't know the value of these things. In a way, I don't need to know the value, but I keep them, so somehow I believe they have value. Even so, they have value in money. They can be of a sort that our current electrician cannot work with because the construction changed, and these things from a couple of years back will not fit into the boxes they sell now. The electrical outlets are about three or four euros per piece. The light switches are a little more than ten euros per piece. Perhaps there are 150 euros here?

Saturday 28 December

It was foggy this morning. Legit fog. It stayed grey the entire day.

Distrokid also got a service for distributing the lyrics, but it glitched last time. I found a place where I could upload the lyrics, which is how I got it working. Unfortunately, I did not note how I did it, and I could no longer find that lyric upload service. I signed up for two lyric service providers, but it will take a long time to verify that I am who I am. This will be continued in a couple of days or weeks.

We made a decision on what to call the different new spaces. Until now, the workshop was the room on the ground floor with a door to the east. From today, we will call it the studio. In Swedish, it is Atelje, which also works in Dutch. The large hall in the barn will be the workshop.

The first thing I did today was pick up the boards a neighbor was about to discard. On the way, I had to stop for loosely walking hens. I asked them to go to the side so that I could pass with the car. They were beautiful and just mildly irritated by the interruption.

I got help loading the trailer from the neighbor. There were more plates than I had expected. It is lovely; I can make many boxes with these plates.

At home, I moved them to the hall of the new barn. Getting the plates in the trailer with the neighbor's help was effortless. Getting the plates from the trailer to the barn was heavier.

I paused and eventually had all the plates in the barn.

From here, I will set up two trestles and make boxes. I want the boxes ready when they pour concrete for the floor. The rest of the concrete will go into the molds I make with these boards. It will be great.

We can put the concrete blocks that come out of this project along the road to protect the edge of the road.

Before making boxes, I want to finish the fence project. Or at least finish drilling holes and mounting poles. We had one sea buckthorn growing out of the line. DW suggested we cut it off half a meter above ground and hope that the branches it had below the cut line would continue to grow. We will see. When I took the photo, the cutline showed up as a brighter spot. It was already getting dark when I took the photo.

I got the message that the song is now published on Spotify.

It was great fun making a song with ChatGPT. I decided to make a new song. I made this prompt for Chat GPT:

I want to create lyrics for an EDM song with a chorus-verse structure about my sheep. It is three ladies: Hannah, Bea, and Selma. Our sheep were bottle-fed as infants, so they are not afraid of humans. They are of a local breed. Bea is the bully of the three and a bit chubby. Both Hannah and Selma have got bluetongue disease. They got painkillers, and we fed them with willow branches, and the ladies struggled for their lives and came on top of the disease. Around that time, Hannah also got a fly strike. Maggots crawled around in a wound. Our vet came and helped us. She got good treatment and got better. Now, she has an itching patch on her skin at the back. I rub her there, and she loves it. She starts smacking with her mouth when rubbing on the patch. Our sheep are grazing our land, and we use the manure for our vegetable garden. People in the area like our sheep. We are using the wool for yarns. Is it possible to create such a song?

Here are the lyrics it produced:

[Chorus]
Oh, Hannah, Bea, and Selma, queens of the field,
Struggled through the storm, now their fate is sealed.
Bottle-fed babies, fearless and free,
Ladies of the land, grazing harmony.

[Verse 1]
Bea's the boss, a chubby little queen,
Pushes her way, ruling the green.
Hannah's got her patch, itching at the back,
Smacking with her mouth when I give it a scratch.

Selma's standing strong, battled through the pain,
Bluetongue couldn't hold her, sunshine after rain.
Together they survived, willow branches fed,
Fighting side by side, through the days they bled.

[Chorus]

Oh, Hannah, Bea, and Selma, queens of the field,
Struggled through the storm, now their fate is sealed.
Bottle-fed babies, fearless and free,
Ladies of the land, grazing harmony.

[Drop]
Dancing in the meadow, wool in the breeze,
Echoes of their story carried on the seas.
Manure for the garden, life in every thread,
Ladies of the land, forever ahead.

[Verse 2]
Hannah fought the maggots, wounds deep inside,
Vet came to the rescue, turned the deadly tide.
Selma held her ground, through the darkest days,
Now they graze together, in the golden rays.

Bea might be a bully, but she's got the charm,
Protecting her sisters, keeping them from harm.
The people of the valley, they know their name,
Ladies of the land, rising to their fame.

[Chorus]
Oh, Hannah, Bea, and Selma, queens of the field,
Struggled through the storm, now their fate is sealed.
Bottle-fed babies, fearless and free,
Ladies of the land, grazing harmony.

[Bridge]
From wool to yarn, their legacy grows,
In every stitch, their courage shows.
Through trials and triumphs, they lead the way,
Ladies of the land, here to stay.

[Chorus]
Oh, Hannah, Bea, and Selma, queens of the field,
Struggled through the storm, now their fate is sealed.
Bottle-fed babies, fearless and free,
Ladies of the land, grazing harmony.

[Outro]
Ladies of the land, fearless and free,
Dancing through the fields, wild as can be.
Hannah, Bea, and Selma, their story's alive,
Through the beat of the music, their spirits thrive.

That worked very well. No praying in this song. My spelling checker does not like it, but it is a good text. I loaded it into Suno.ai and got an excellent result on the second attempt. I have not uploaded the song yet. The ending of the song comes abruptly. I will delay the end when I am remastering the song.

This evening, my artist account for Music Match was verified. The LyricsFind service is still pending, but I think they lost the race in my case. I logged in to Music Match, and to edit lyrics, you must follow a course online. I started on that. That was great fun.

Sunday 29 December

We had a slow morning. I sat practicing making synced lyrics for the Sitting in my Skoda song. It was more challenging than I had expected. I got it right in the end and uploaded it. Now, the question is, how long will it take to be published?

I wanted to continue to work on the permanent fence. Yesterday, I had drilled holes along the east part of the property. Today, I wanted the poles banged into the ground until they reached almost the same level. For that, I had to borrow a pole driver. It is a metal pipe with a handle that fits over a pole. One end is closed. I could borrow such a device and made good progress on the poles. I did the east part of the property. It is heavy. You lift it up and let it fall over the pole, banging it into the ground. You continue as long as you like. I stopped when I had the pole 100 centimeters above ground. After the east part, I continued with the new north part and the part around the water storage pool.

I had to take a break, perhaps at 2 PM. We had lunch, and I had a nap. I restarted at 4 PM. When I stopped for the evening, I had reached the tiny house. I had made the poles for a future gate leading to the new stable.

Now, when I stopped for the day, I was rather tired. The manual pole driver takes some considerable power to handle.

After supper, I remastered Ladies of the land. I put on a reverb at the end to let the song fade. I found an appropriate photo from last year to use as album art.

I expect the song to be published on YouTube Music by tomorrow but I will put a link to the song here. In a week, it might be available on Spotify.

Here ends this week. I wrote 4419 words. That is not bad at all. This week, I finished the preparations for Mr Radi before the floor. I created the electric plan.

Wait a moment! After filling up the dishwasher I decided to take a few more courses in the Music Match academy and I graduated!