hay making

Just some pictures that I made last weeks

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! 

Midsummer, hay harvest and fresh potatoes

It’s gone awhile since I wrot the last time. But it was a busy period for us.

All started with the midsummer party. My husband and I dance with a folk-dance society for almost 2 years now and every midsummer, but also on other occasions, we dance on local fairs. This year we danced on two locations. It was very fun but it was so hot, almost 30°C. After al dancing, one of the members asked us to stay and we had a joyful after party, with food, music and lots of fun.

                                         My husband playing the bodhran on the after party

At the same time we are also busy with the hay harvest. Almost 2,5 acre is done now. I made some pictures of it. It was a evening after a rain shower and it was dim. I think it looks very nice J

We did eat our first fresh potatoes a few day’s after midsummer. They taste very well!

The vegetable garden

Last year we had a wonderful harvest on our vegetable garden. I did al lot of canning and we had enough food for almost a half year. That was very well but I would like to grow all our vegetables on the homestead. So early this spring, my husband and I, picked out a small pasture of land and turned down the soil, to make a larger vegetable garden. We used a hoe to turn it over. We have a lot of stones in the ground here in Sweden, so it is much easier to use a hoe then to dig it with a spade.

On this new land we plant potatoes. We used the horse and a potato plow to make the furrows. It was both for us and the horse the first time. It turned out very well and soon I get the potatoes in the ground.

 Also bought we this spring a small Polytunnel to grow tomatoes. In Sweden is it not warm enough to grow them outside, I did try I for a couple of years but it never turned out that well. But now the tomato plants grow very well. It looks like a jungle inside J and a couple of days ago I already spot the first tomatoes!

Hay making season

It’s almost midsummer and we have fine weather, so we decide the start with the haymaking season. We will try to mow at least 4 acres of hay land, but when the weather stays fine and our health aloud it, we have 3 more acres awaiting for us.

We mowing with the scythe. Both me and my husband and in 2 hours we can mow at least 600m2. after the mowing is finished we spread it out over the land to dry. The next day we turn it and shaken it up with hay-forks and let it dry for a couple more hours. In the afternoon we build haystacks. We use to different types of haystacks. The first one we build on a vertical wooden pin. (see picture) For these kind of haystack you need at least 2 days of dry weather.

The other type we use, (see picture below) can be build with grass you cut that same day. So you don’t need to turn the grass to dry. It was a common type of haystack here in the area until the ‘50s. 

I prefer most the first type to build but sometimes when don't get dry weather the second type is handy to use. The stacks stand there at least 3 weeks until they are completely dry and then we get them in with horse and wagon....

making rhubarb -strawberry marmalade

Now is everything growing so well in our vegetable garden. After a long period with warm and dry weather, have we got some rainy days now. You hear and see the vegetables grow 

J. We have got a lot of strawberries this year and the rhubarb plant is also growing very well, so I thought it would be nice to make some marmalade. This is my recipe:

I picked about 1kg strawberries and 600gr rhubarb. Wash it well and cut the rhubarb in 1/2cm pieces. Boil the rhubarb pieces in a little water, 3-5min. take it from the fire and mix the marmalade sugar (1,5kg) and the strawberries in. Replace the pan on the fire and bring the mixture to a boil. Stir frequently and boil it 5 min. Now the marmalade is ready, pack the marmalade into the jars, turn on the lid, turn the jars upside down en let they cool.

how it started

It’s almost unbelievable that we live here over 4 years right now. We, both my husband an I, are born and raised in the Netherlands. I lived in the northern part and my husband in the middle of the Netherlands. But our pats crossed someday, lucky me J. After our marriage we moved to Germany, together with our 4  horses. We had a little house en acre of land and a lot of work. We meet new friends, everything seemed to be good but deep in our hearts we new that we would not stay in Germany for the rest of our live. We would live in a country with lots of nature, where we can grow our own vegetables, have more livestock, where we can live in a sort of same way our ancestors did.  So after 5 years we sold everything we had and emigrated to Sweden.

Here we get everything we wanted. A old house, build 1850, a large barn for the horses, plenty of land. Now we were home. From the first day it feels like we always had lived here. I think that it’s a good sign.

And now after 4 years, everything seemed tot get in the right place. We have chickens, a very large vegetable garden, one of our horse we use to do every kind of work on the homestead. (It’s very fun to plow with your one horse). But there is also a lot we are planning for. I would like to have a own dairy cow, for making my one butter and cheese. We need a place were we can store our canning products and much more…