We love the autumn. Especially the “Indian Summer” when the trees are turning yellow and red. Only at our Hazienda this is no fun: the foliage is covering the lawn and has to be removed – or the green is gone next year. Especially as we have many oaks. Those leaves do not rotten so easily… so, move everybody, for a “subbotnik” on the “datcha“!
Yesterday we enjoyed a lovely day in the garden with beautiful weather. We had to use the sunny day to finish our wood-protection-treatment for the blockhouse and the wood terrace. However there was enough time to relax in the warm sunshine afterwards.
Today we stayed at home. The sky is grey today so it’s a perfect day to get some things done. Fix some loose screws, drill a small hole, remove the unneeded ISDN-modem including the well-laid cable, install the new analogue modem instead.
And for some reason I do not know I got the idea of making a cake today. As we did not consider that idea when doing the weekend-shopping I had to look after a recipe fitting to our “reserves”. Additionally I had to do some “creative” baking. Who said only cooking recipes can be variated? Well, for some reasons (I know) it is a kind of chocolate cake. Let’s see how it taste… ;-)
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A small update to the project “Treppe 2.0″ (Stairs 2.0): the welcome-screen was optimized. And, as announce previously, another security-feature for Stairs 2.0 went live: the HANDRAIL. Should be glazed but somehow we were not able to convince ourself to “swing the brushes”. Because, IF we start, we would have to glaze also the weather side of the hazienda. And, of course, the terrace would need some refreshment with oil as well. Probably not a hard job, if you start it. Well, we just did not start – yet :-)
Exiting weeks lay behind us. The last “real” holiday we had in January, skiing with friends in Austria. Shortly afterwards Nadja appeared in our life and mixed everything upside down. Allright, she was supported by the move we made in our new flat we did nearly at the same time. And at work there was and is still a lot of action going on. So it was time for some vacation, for relaxing and recreation – before I start my 4 weeks-”baby leave” ;-)
Makeshifts experience often a very long life. This applied also to the first version of the stairs (three or four years of service) to the terrace. So finally I followed my mother’s wish to ‘relaunch’ the stairs . The old platform was not stable enough to handle the traffic. Especially in the evening after BBQ and Wine ;-) System breakdowns were feared which could case user damages. To avoid lawsuits and claims for damages an upgrade from the old ‘wood pile’-framework to the newer ‘Beton’-platform was scheduled. Not to early as at least one pile already revealed significant traces of decay virus attack. Additionally there is an upgrade with the newest security-plugin ‘handrail’ planed. With this feature the usability and comfort for unsecure users will be improve further. Read more about it in one of the next blog postings!
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What soccer EC can do to us – however, as long as Nadja loves it… ! :-)
In the beginning there was frustration. No, it was fear. Panic indeed – if there was water coming near to Nadja. We got a probe of bath foam for babies from a nanny. Written on the back of the package is “Our tip: Having a bath just before going to bed calms the baby down and prepares her for the night.” Well, that did not work for Nadja at all! She was crying and yelling loud and had a strong grip on everything she could get her little hands on to avoid contact with water. Step by step, with a lot of patience, distraction and joint baths with the whole family we could transfer it from fear to fun. Now Nadja LOVES water – not only at home at the bathtub, also in the garden wading pool! Have a look at the pictures and see yourself what else happened at the weekend.
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Our trip to the Baltic Sea on Whitsun – which was in fact the first travel for Nadja – was great. No problems with Nadja, the car trip (approximately 3 hours) was not an issue for her, nor sleeping in a travel bed somewhere else than home. So the next challenge for her was the first weekend in the cottage, our weekend-house. Again, as expected: no problems for Nadja. She seems to love the green surrounding :-)
The only trouble was for Christiane to collect and pack all the stuff which we had to bring to the cottage after the winter break: it looked like we would travel for 3 months. Well, chances are that the car will be less crammed this weekend :-) The challenge for Martin was to repair the water pipes. There were two leaks caused by temperature change during winter. One was fixed quickly but the second was hard: a connection (an elbow fitting) which works by “plug and leak-proof” was broken on one side. The other was still “leak-proof” connected. Even after buying the specialized “removal tool” I was not able to disconnect the elbow. Main reason: I could barely reach it as it was just in the corner next to the kitchenette. Well, after some tries I decided to use the “Flex” (angle grinder) - “if the smart way does not work, maybe force IS an option”. No everything is fine again and prepared for the next sunny garden weekend. :-)
Let the pictures talk :-)
Weihnachtszeit
Da es so wunderbares Wetter war, und wir noch einen Winterbaum Weihnachtsbaum brauchten, sind wir gestern einfach noch mal in den Garten gefahren. Nein, dort war keine Tanne oder Fichte passend – auch wenn wir hohe Decken haben, sind unsere Nadelbäume doch schon (deutlich) zu groß.
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