Another cumulative post

 In reality I wanted to have this post focusing on an area in the garden where both me and Mattias have worked together to improve it.

But, as I currently do not have all the pictures and when scrolling in the list there were some other interesting ones, this post will mix a bit of different topics.

1) This year has definitely been a plum year. I started the harvest with a lot of plums full of monilia and warms, but ended up with at least 10 kilos of plums that we converted into jam.

2) In April, I bought on Tradera a very particular painting, definitely Jugend. It is not a normal canvas but some form of textile where a woman is painted and part of the decorations are embroidered. I brought eventually the painting, which was shipped with a plastic frame and some original paper, to a framer and I got it upgraded (sadly, I forgot to ask him to not throw the original "paper").

3) I have finally made some small progress on the windows. Imperceptible, but still something in the ocean of unprogresses.

I have did put some putty on the glass on at least two windows, so since I didn't manage to paint right away, they are ready for painting now, after several weeks. 

One of the windows required Mattias' intervention for removing the corner irons (hörnjärn) which though are terribly rusty. I have submersed them in vinager and scraped them a bit and I was satisfied to see that some of the rust had gone off with this treatment. However, I thought they need more of it, so I have dumped them in their bucket a couple of weeks ago. I am definitely too slow for focusing on windows restauration...

4) Finally, the garden area I mentioned above. Here there has been always some logs of firewood. Sadly not very well placed and with tons of ivy and blackberries bushes growing wild.

How it looked when we started cleaning it up

We threw most of the logs, sadly, but we kept what we could. I have pulled away - I hope - most of the ivy and tried to cut down the blackberries (I should go and cut down the big one). Mattias has then stapled the wood he cut (from the pictures below, he was actually forced to move the logs towards the garage wall as the construction was too unstable to hold them piled up) and now it has a cover on it.

I still have some work to do around it, but I have also remove weeds from the surroundings and not just this specific corner.

We have some ideas on how to move forward with the area, but we need now to "just" find the time to finish it off.

Summer action

I have been trying to find the occasion to write what we have done, small and big, but time always fly away. 

At least today, I manage to make concrete the attempt to document some of our minor efforts during the summer.

Some of the small things we have manage to do have been in the pipeline forever. It feels as the whole past year has been sucked up into work and kids and our own logistic/activities without leaving much space for anything else. Also the energy has been limited. 

There is much more that has happened in the last months, so I hope I will manage to catch up in the future to summarize things that I would like to have documented, from both small and bigger house projects of all kind.

1) 

I sadly do not remember why but clips that were holding some cables in the basement fell off. I then asked to try to find news ones, but what I got was not exactly the same product, was some metall hook for fences, as far as I understood.

I then tried to fix these new hooks to hold the cables, but that didn't turn out to be perfect as it was very hard to hammer them into the ceiling and I manage to create more work for me to fix. Holes that will need some adjustment. 

The ceiling, the cables and the holes

2) There have been a lot of small issues with a couple of doors/locks/keyholes. I still have one to fix that has been wrong since we bought the house and probably for decades. But I have put some effort in trying to fix (again) the keyhole for the pentry door. The holes have been just made into the void, basically and the screws have been not manage to get a proper grip. I have now tried to fix it with some linseed putty, with the hope that when it gets hard it actually holds everything together and not that it becomes to brittle and fall aparts again.

The keyhole with the putty

After being "repaired"

Similarly, I repaired also the bathroom door. Also there, one of the screws couldn't get a grip and seems that has been just poorly placed. A bit annoying as this was done by some pro and I would hope that when you pay for something (and not cheaply at all), it would actually give you some insurance on the quality.

Anyway, I removed all the parts of the handle and then I applied once again linseed putty hoping that it will also hold things in place.

The injured wood

I put the putty in the previous holes

I put back things and I am hoping for the best :)

3) As summer is summer, there are also a lot of outdoor projects ongoing, mostly a general maintenance of the garden.

Being inspired by some neighbours with some similar system, I have invested in an automatic sun driven watering system to be used when we are away (and even when we are not).

I also got some old barrel that I have then oiled with linseed oil and filled with water.

The barrel

The sundriven watering system

The system set up for test

I have still to set it up actually properly, to be able to water the plants and so on. It will require me to cut the little pipe and puzzle it together in a smart way. But I want to move the barrel closer to the pump so that it is also less in the way with all the piping.

4) Finally, earlier during summer I had the chance to check the roof as part of the two-years inspection after we painting it. When doing so, I noticed that there was literally all sort of things on the gutters.

Especially before autumn, it will be great to have the regular task of cleaning them out. If they are stuffed, the rain will just overflow with the risk of causing damage to the house structure instead.

Mattias jousts on a long ladder for cleaning a gutter

Also this is not a trivial activity as for reaching some parts you really need to be safe and sound on a ladder. But work is in progress at least!
 

Picking up apples

 Of course we have been picking up apples also this year, but this post is not about that. I will spare the story telling on our efforts this year in another moment.

However, I try to keep some themes in the house. We have iris a bit everywhere, in the garden, on vases, on mirrors, on the windows... but then we have plenty of apples, as said.

I did found this textile tapestry on some online auction and, well, I simply just liked it a lot.

I thought that a gracious, jugend like, lady picking up apples would make a great connection with the yearly effort of collecting (and throwing) as many apples as possible from trees where apples are almost up in the sky.

I think its placement is possibly not the best one, but it is at least placed where some softening of the environment is needed. Although, probably a carpet would be a more proper investment.

Mattias hanging the apple picking lady

A Christmas picture of how it looks

We have a bad connection with the wind

 I guess we have never connected properly with the local wind deities as at storm time, we are always the ones that manage to be creative in damages.

I was down in the basement, after barely sleeping thanks to very strong wind tonight, when I heard Mattias screaming from the kitchen and then Isabella came down announcing that a tree had fallen.

I was of course terrified that it had fallen on the house, people, garage or even the cars. So, I took one of Mattias jackets and out, in pijamas, I went on the street.

I met one of our neighbours but before even realizing he was there, I just cursed loud.

This is what I saw:

At the sight I got mostly irritated at our arborist. I had asked him now for few years to check the tree and possibly cut it down. We had got already some big branches on the way, at some past storm and it was obvious that the tree was not in the best shape. I do not know why he insisted that it was not going to be a problem, but I will face him with facts now and I will ask him how he could think that it could stay...

For how strong the wind was, it would have never brought down the tree like this if it was not completely rotten inside.

It was a complicated morning this one. Mattias had a lecture at 815 and Oscar had to be at school before 8 for his gymnastic class. 

We have one chainsaw and there was breakfast and kids to get ready. Luckily, most of the breakfast was in place and the kids, when there is some emergency, they are quite cooperative, so they were ready in a blink of the eyes.

Mattias started to cut off some of the branches with the support of our neighbour, who realized he was lucky. He had been driving at 6 and back at 630. Not only he was lucky. We were very lucky too.

The tree fell perfectly on the street. Probably some of the hedge got damage, but who cares. The garage is in one piece, the gate still work, no cats or people ended up under the tree and definitely noone with a car.

I went and took my chainsaw gear and went to give a change to Mattias, so he could get ready. He had started to saw a big piece of wood. So I started to cut from there, but a change in the tension of the log made sure that my chainsaw got stuck. The piece was so big and heavy that I manage to get the chain out just long after...

We ended up gathering some of the neighbours, equipped with saw and chainsaws that managed to get more and more branches off the way, until the whole crown got removed and now it is lying in our garden, ready to be chopped for firewood or simply to be put for being thrown.

Mattias managed to leave in time. I was there and helped cleaning out the last big pieces and finally, I also removed the small parts that one of the neighbour had collected to clean up the road.

I locked the garage, put back all the tools, except the chainsaw that needs to be mounted back. I moved a bit the logs in the garden to give space for the cars to drive (but it is a bit too tight).

I took then some pictures and I have sent them to our arborist. He will come to cut the last of it.

Mattias did suggest we would go and buy some firewood, as the logs we have had have been too wet and in a bad condition. Now, we really don't need to do that.

And I think we will have to have a small gathering with our neighbours, both to celebrate the perfect fall of the tree and that we managed (or better, mostly them) to clean out the road in time for everyone to start their day.