Week 10

 Week 10

Following on from last week, we bought Ben another bike. An old weduwe "oma" (grandma) bike. Reconditioned by an 88 year old man in Drachten - for €169,00. In really good condition and with a purple bell so that Ben can find it easier amongst the thousands of similar bikes in Amsterdam.

We did take my bike just in case, but Ben took one look at it and said "no way - it will get stolen". Just a few weeks ago, a girlfriend of his had her bike stolen in broad daylight. It was chained to a bridge just up the road from Ben's place. Ben also said that he has heard of bikes being stolen "to order".

We'll try to make one good bike out of Ben's two old ones - one of which was his first bike at High School.

On a (loosely) related note in Election News during the week it was revealed that the Prime Minister owns an old Saab - not worth much - his bike (which he rides to and from work) cost even more than his car is worth. 

And in it's new home on Saturday afternoon...Ben wonders how long the bell will last before it gets stolen...(or the bike, for that matter). He's got a good lock and chain - but I think they have it down to a fine art...

Photos from our Sunday visit to Amsterdam...

 I had a cucumber and mint tea from the Coffee window...

A very nice "residence" just outside Ben's place

The streets are still fairly empty..

Navigation lights fixed

When checking the mast navigation lights, I saw that one of the wires had broken - if they are still the originals, then they are more than 50 years old, so it is not a total surprise.

I have long contemplated how I was going to pull the plugs apart if it was ever needed - so now I had to find out...

It took a while, but with a team effort we finally figured it out. It's all to do with keeping them water proof, but my helper got it with the aid of a teaspoon!

And, of course, I had to buy different "kabelschoenen" with the right connection!

I got it back together again - also using some "heat shrink" sleeves to aid the waterproofing.

I lengthened the nav light cables, again using the cable "shoes" and heat shrink sleeves. Just have to wrap the new cable in black electrician's tape and it should be right for a few years more.

Around the farm

(But it has been very windy - so not venturing out too much, except to walk the dog and keep up my points!)

There are now 71 people in the Wijnjewoude Walking Team

Janny is "Copes" and Janny's Mum is "Bosroos" (Forest Rose)

This morning, I looked back when Boeke was stopped at one of his "regular" trees - I thought I saw Tassie (the cat) following us - but it was a squirrel that had run down our driveway and crossed the road in front of the house! We used to see a lot more of them in the forest, so it is good to know that they are still surviving.

It was wind force 9 here and there during the week. On the Ijsselmeer, a ship loaded with salt got into trouble with waves crashing over the top - so the skipper ran it aground so that it wouldn't sink!. 4 people and a dog were taken off board, but a couple stayed on board to keep the pumps working.

In the last 2 weeks, 2 people were killed by falling trees when they were out walking.

We're still contemplating putting new roofing sheets onto the hayshed - first we had to cut away some overhead branches. My helper made a 5 metre long handle for a tiny saw and managed to get the worst of it.

Bird nesting boxes

Janny's Mum asked us if we could clean out the old bird nesting boxes - which we did! But we think maybe we were too late, as some new nest building had already started - on top of the old stuff (see photo). So, we left most of them alone and hung up some new boxes instead.

This very old one has obviously never been cleaned out!

Rewards

(We have a new boy this weekend and one of our old boys showed up at the front door).

1. Janny called me to the front door on Saturday afternoon. It took me a few seconds to realise that it was one of "our" boys - now 18! and looking great. He is doing an apprenticeship in something...ever so polite and not at all the "monster" we had to cope with sometimes. Although the parents had it worse, of course.

His Mum had stayed in the car but gave us a friendly wave - I'm sure that she was proudly saying "look how he turned out"!

He was probably about 8 when he came to us and left in 2017 when it wasn't "cool" anymore to be at the Care Farm.

2. It's always nice having Ben home (of course). He is able to do his work from the computer at home and sticks to it quite well. He also takes care of his physical fitness by going for runs and working out in our little gym.

On the downside, he is quite a good cook - so we notice the advancing Covid Kilos, with dishes like this... Lava Cake.

The making of it was not unlike a chocolate souffle - so I related the story (again) of how I used to work part-time at Le Chateau restaurant in St.Kilda. I was only the lowly dish-washer - but they let me make some chocolate souffles one time - which were served in the restaurant!

They gave me a surprise 30th birthday party, so I can be sure of the timing - 40 years ago!

I was working at the Fire Protection Department at the time - managing the late nights far better than I could now...

Ben is heading off to Madrid again in April for work and holiday - so he is trying to arrange that we can "look after" his room for a weekend - there is a parking area on the outskirts for €1,00 per day with an 8 minute train ride to the Central Station - and then a 5 minute walk to Ben's place!.

In yet another fairly quiet week, I sent my Postal Vote off. signed away my vital organs - hoping that they will still be useable OR that I am so old that they won't even consider it.

I also did a questionaire designed to give an indication of which political party might share your views - my actual preference came in third, but I could easily vote for any one of the other two, so I guess it is reasonably accurate.

Ben tried it a couple of times and came up with The Over 50's Party!!