Redecorating the living room

Last weeks I have made some new curtains for the living room. That was the last step for the makeover in there. Except from cleaning and removing the old floor, we had done nothing to it after we moved in. The old windows were in great need for paint and repairing. One of the window glasses was broken when we bought the house. The rain had blown in trough there and did some damage to the window frames. 

After days of scraping off the old paint and sanding it then, I could finally apply the new paint. Now with the windows weathertight was it even worth that the floor received a new layer of paint.  The wallpaper did we not change. It is probably from the 50´s when they (the former owners) did redecorate the living room. Although it is discolored here and there and has some water damage underneath the windows and besides the chimney, I love the design and the color.

The house has old single-pane windows with handblown glasses which makes that there is often a cold draw when you sit in front of it. To make it more comfortable I took the decision to make floor length velour curtains. Because I don´t like when you see the stitching’s on the right-side, I sew all the seams by hand using a blind hem stich.  It took a bit longer than expected men after a while it was done! Still there are some things to do. 

I must buy some nice tie back ropes and when I order something in the shop where I bought the velour, I will buy some extra velour to make some nice curtain drapes, pleated onto the wooden frame. That looks nice and this will hide the curtain rods.

Tree climbing or arborist at work!

Spring has finally arrived and with it comes all business. After half January we did not have an opportunity to work in the garden, everything was frozen or covered with snow.  But now, in April we need to do it all. A long list of things we want to do this year. Some things are already six years on the list, but we never find the time to do it. One of these things is to cut the trees in front of the house.

do you see Sander in the first tree?

Our house is build a 20meters of the road and between the road and our house grow 4 big spruce trees. The biggest is about a 27meters high. You can understand it is always a matter to worry about when the autumn storms arrive. When the trees should fall they should come over the house.  In the first year one of the trees broke already but lucky to us the top fall on the road and not on our side.

Although my husband is a tree worker or arborist by profession he is not looking forward to cutting them down.  Most tree workers stop climbing when the are 35, 40years old and that age has he long past. So, every year we looked to the trees and talking about cutting them or not. The risks working so close to the road, what if something is falling there when a car or cyclist is coming by. But now we are started to cut them down. 

Al the equipment for the job is still there and on a bright and windless day we started the job. It is really fun the do this work again.  We have the skills and the experience to do so. 11 years ago, we did this work together. My husband as the tree climber and sawyer and I did the ground work. Most timber may not fall free on the ground. It could damage the garden or garage or something else. We use rope friction device to lower the timber in a controlled way. That was my job. To control the timber and handle with the rope.  After some days work, two of trees are cut on 15 meters high. This is save length for the house and we decide later or we cut them down further or not.

The kitchen, the heart of the home, part 1

The kichen is one of our most important places in our little house. Here do we cook our food, bake our daily bread, preserve food for the winter months and heat water for bathing. All through the history the kitchen has been an important place. Long ago this was the place where it was warm all day round and where you would have light from the open fire. In the 19thcentury this changed when the more economic woodstove made his entrance. The smoking open fire became past time, although in some houses it stayed in use until 1930´s.

I´m not certain when our home got it´s first woodstove but you can see that the timber above the stove has been burned and I suppose that they had an open fireplace back in the 1850´s when the house was build. When we moved into the house, a large ¨Skillingaryd¨ stove was build in but unfortunaly it was damaged and could not be repaired. Without the stove the kitchen was useless so we did buy another stove. A Näfvekvarn 19 B, I think it was build in the early 20th Century and it was renovated before we bought it. I´m very happy with this woodstove. Most of the early Swedish woodstoves have very little fireplaces, you almost need to split your firewood into safty matches formate. But this stove has fortunately a large fireplace. I cook on it, bake bread or cookies but also cake goes fine, even when I have to turn the cake  after half the time, it never collapse. I know a lot of people where that happened despite the have a modern oven.

This time I made some picture how we clean the inside of our stove, we need to do deed every other week or so, it´s important to clear out all the soot. If I don´t do that, I can´t  regulate the oven tempature that well, and the stove smokes when I lay new wood on the fire. I also blacken the stove  this time, I often forget to do that but now he is black and shiny again.

 On the picure above, you see the right cook plate, this plate is provided with extra iron on the underside, this makes that the plate stays  longer hot. A lot of soot is collected here.

 Also above the oven you´ll find a lot of soot and ashes. These scratch we beside the oven where it falls down...

 Last we clean in the sootvalve. Behind this little valve all soot and ashes are collected now and we can scratch is out and put it away.

 Brush the blacken on top and polish it out

And black and shiny after all work!

Homesteaders or farmers?

When I talk about our home, I call it a homestead but sometimes I call it a farm too.

But what is the right definition or maybe there isn’t a right definition?

Looking in the dictionary I found:

Farm

1. Land cultivated for agricultural production.  2. A.   Land used for breeding and raising of domestic animals.    B. an area of water used for breeding and raising of a particular type of aquatic animals.

Yes, we are farmers! We have land for agricultural production but….

Homestead

1. A family’s house, esp. a farmhouse, with adjacent buildings and land. (think on” the little house on the prairie” series)   2.  A tract of land granted, as under the homestead Act, to a settler who cleared, cultivated and lived on it.

We have also a family house with buildings for our livestock, we cultivate the land. I think the difference can be found elsewhere….

A farm,  generates money by raising and selling livestock and/or produce of the land. Like the definition it’s about production. A farmer has a different goal then the homesteader. A farmer will have a income of it’s land and make profit.

A homestead is a place were a person or a family cultivates the land and try  to become more self sufficient. On a homestead they try to live on the land by growing and raising their own food. Though they maybe will sell some products of their land, it’s not the most important goal they have.  They like to use what they can on their land to make it more sustainable.

We have our home not only for to generate income for we do have another income, but we try to live of the land, by growing our own food, and use what we have. Trying to save money, by doing things by ourselves without the need of buying. That is what we want, what we love to do.

So maybe we are homesteader or maybe you could call us something else, or maybe we are just some foolsJ

Kitchen

This week we made some new things for our kitchen. The old countertop some was in here when we bought the house, was a awful one from the ’40-‘50s. Once it had belonged to another house, so it was to large to fit in. The old drain was not working so we decide to take everything out and replace it for a temporarily kitchen. But now after 4 years we know how we want the new kitchen must look like. Little by little we changes it.

On Saturday my husband start to make a countertop with a sink and today I finished it with some curtain in front of it J. It looks great!

Now there is some work left for running water above the sink. We get a stainless boiler from the neighbour. This one can we fill up with water, 10-15L. and when the water cock is working will it be much easier to wash your hands.  Now I have a cup in one hand and try to wash the other ;)  If I need cold water I will fill it up with cold but when I need hot water it’s just to fill it with hot water from the stove.

On the other side of the room we did make a cupboard with shelves above it. I love to see my old fashioned canisters on the open shelves. Most come from the Netherlands. Old coffee canisters from the Trademark ‘Douwe Egberts’ and my favourite tea canister of the ‘Pickwick’ trademark.

                                                          I know it's a mess like always 

Did you see the table on the picture’s? My husband made that a year ago for me. It is all made by recycled materials. Do you see the table legs? That was once a old weaving loom, the underside was rotten down, but the upside was still to use. After cutting away the rotten part he turned it upside down that become the legs. So I can say that my table is from 1799. the year the weaving loom was build. The table leaf is not that old but I guess it is from end 1800 early 1900. Once it was a typical Swedish ‘utdrag sofa’.   That is a bank of wood, nearly 2m long, they used it to sit on it when eating but when it become time to sleep, they pull the underside out and then it become a bed. In Sweden  most ordinary people did have it in the 1800s. Most they stood in the kitchen. But our ‘utdrag sofa’ did have the same history like the weaving loom. After long time on a old loft, most parts where eaten from woodworm and did fall apart when you touched it. But some planks  we could save and that become the leaf. This table is stable enough to knead my dough on when I baking bread. I know for sure, No one has the same table we have!