Welcome new citizens

We got an invitation for Katinka to come to the town hall - all new borns of 2009, four boys and one girl, were officially welcomed by our village's Mayor.
The Mayor reading a welcoming poem.

Katinka in the town hall's cradle.

Surviving X-mas

Winter

Last night we got more snow .....

Feet up

Slovakian goats don't seem to be bothered much by rain but really dislike snow!

Snowed in

Snow white

Blood red

September camping

Our first camping guest! Picture made by Johan and Eveline in September 2009. Click on it to enlarge.

Plastic is not fantastic in a christmas tree

From Get farming - Australia.
pictures: our trees 11-'09

Buying a plastic Christmas tree leads to the emission of more than double the greenhouse gases than getting a natural Christmas tree, new analysis by sustainability experts has revealed.
New analysis has found that the greenhouse gas emissions generated from a plastic tree are in fact up to more than 2.5 times more than of a cut tree. The majority of emissions from a plastic Christmas tree – around 85 per cent – come from the manufacturing process and materials, which include PVC, steel and in some cases, lead.On the other hand, you have a real tree that requires a plastic stand, has used some water in the process of growing and has been transported over a shorter distance than a plastic tree; countered by the fact the tree has also sequestered carbon during its four years of growth.

The CO2 emitted from a natural tree is calculated at around 3.1 kilograms per year. In comparison, an artificial tree will emit 8.1 kilograms per year or 48.3kg over the entire life span. A household would need to keep their plastic tree for at least 20 years just to balance out the effect of green house gas emissions!

One of our Nordman trees - December 2009

Warm feet

Cold feet

Wonders never cease

Today we were surprised by two very nice men from the electricity company - they did some work for our new electricity installation. Hopefully the electrician will also show up again....

Office

The window of our office provides a wonderful view over our own land. Deer are runnig on the snow-coverd fields. Our goats and geese are browsing in the front garden. The woodstoves are burning, the coffee-maker is perking, Katinka is sleeping on my lap. However according to our neighbour the biggest advantage of being a homeworker is that you can unashamed let of during lunch.
We have a job on the side as data-stewards, this is what helps us to pay our grocery bill. And it is the answer on the often asked or wondered question "how do they do it". We do it without social security (-fraud), we haven't won the lottery (-yet) and our christmas trees are so far too small to be sold, therefore we are more then happy to have this job.

Goose bumps

Gorgeous Gijs

Producing your own meat also implies that you have to kill your own animals. A job that has never been my favorite one. It helps to keep some emotional distance from the future meatballs, steaks and chops; when you give an animal a name you don’t have a roaster on your plate but ‘Daisy’or ‘Donald’.
Soon our last geese will go to geese heaven since grass gets scarcer and to feed a goose you need a lot of food. Only my pet goose Gijs and two of his darling wifes (Guusje and Grietje) will be spared, the eight other nameless geese will end up in our and other’s freezers.

Dark days

It's night at 4 p.m. but still no Winter weather.

Cauliflower and Celeriac

Two important ingredients of traditional Dutch kitchen and I failed growing it.

The celeriacs had no tubers and the cauliflowers were either too small, eaten by caterpillars or yellowish… The only decent looking one was served last week, I have to check the seed-package, maybe it were winter-cauliflowers I tried to grow in the summer.

Given in marriage?

Oumar’s father has asked for Katinka’s hand in marriage for his son. Since his father is making career at an international bank paying a substantial dowry for our daughter shouldn’t be a problem. Maybe some nice goats and a few cows for our farm in addition to the traditional ten cola-nuts? Since we are against marriage before the age of ten, we still have plenty of time to think about it.

Good-looking Oumar - - - - Katinka has other things on her mind...