Wild carrots

Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota): a whole field of it - maybe we should start a medicinal wild herb farm?

We

A ssssssssss............salamander

Lots of them here but difficult to get on a picture. They have legs so definitily no snakes!

Summer

Small is beautiful

This morning Arnold was on Radio Netherlands Worldwide (Wereldomroep) for an interview about our Dog Hotel and future campsite. When he mentioned that we also have a tree nursery the interviewer was surprised about the large number of activities we employ. However we have a very small Dog Hotel, we want to have a mini campsite and the size of our tree nursery will make most commercial tree growers laugh. We believe in diversification, small is beautiful and simple living, it makes life much more interesting!

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction." E. F. Schumacher

Our Dog Hotel accomodating Very Important Dogs (we consider all guest dogs as VIDs!)

Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered is a collection of essays by British economist E. F. Schumacher. He faults conventional economic thinking for failing to consider the most appropriate scale for an activity, blasts notions that "growth is good," and that "bigger is better," and questions the appropriateness of using mass production in developing countries, promoting instead "production by the masses." Schumacher was one of the first economists to question the appropriateness of using GNP to measure human well being, emphasizing that "the aim ought to be to obtain the maximum amount of well being with the minimum amount of consumption."

Simple living (voluntary simplicity) is a lifestyle characterized by minimizing the "more is better" pursuit of wealth and consumption. Adherents may choose simple living for a variety of personal reasons, such as spirituality, health, increase in 'quality time' for family and friends, stress reduction, personal taste or frugality. (Source: Wikipedia)

Men at work

The transformation of our old barn continues.
Peter and Arnold do all the heavy work - I am working on a computer assignment in a much cooler environment...

Prunned apple trees

We did seriously prune our apple trees in February and our effort seems to bear fruits!

Cucurbitaceae

We have about everything in our vegetable garden, including a small selection of Cucurbitaceae: melon (Galia), pumpkins (Uchiki-Kuri, Small sugar, Lady Godiva) and courgette (Di nizza). Since we're both not too keen on cucumbers and gherkins, I did not put them in our garden. However when Slovak visitors see our plentiful garden (and most of them are quite impressed) the first question they ask is "where are your gherkins?", so I ended up sowing them just to avoid complicated discussions. Now we have to learn how to make pickles!

Di Nizza - a very productive round courgette.

A young Uchiki-Kuri or Small sugar pumpkin?

Lady Godiva, the pumpkin with naked seeds (for roasted pumpkin-seeds).

Sandra and Sarah

Looking for a Christmas tree?

Our trees are doing well. Reservations for Christmas 2017 can be made with yearly visiting arrangements on appointment!

Horse-flies

Horse-flies love horses, but horses hate them! Adult horse flies feed on nectar and sometimes pollen. Females require a blood meal for reproduction. They have mandibles like tiny serrated scimitars, which they use to rip and/or slice flesh apart. This causes the blood to seep out as the horsefly licks it up. Therefore we keep our horse inside during the day and outside at night - it saves him from being the horse-flies walking blood-bank.

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