Week 23
(I'm writing this on a lazy Saturday afternoon in Dokkum - my normal early Sunday morning routine will be taken over by an early (0700hrs) departure as we head back to Heerenveen, making a point of having a 2 hour Boeke Break along the way).
(Last) Sunday afternoon
We had a gray day for all of Sunday, but it was OK for walking. I went a bit further to the Fraulevijver behind our place - hoping for the rhododendron show.
They're not in full bloom yet but still pretty good...
And while we were having our gray day, Ben was enjoying much better weather in Amsterdam...(note the sky colour!).
Monday morning 0700hrs
Houses for sale
Wijnjewoude is in the Gemeente Opsterland (local government area) which is no. 10 in the list of "highest house price rises in the Netherlands". Ie not necessarily the highest prices but the biggest increases compared with the year before.
Janny's sister, Greethilde, is a local primary school teacher so she gets to know of the new schoolkids being registered. (She gets background details when the families ring to register their kids).
A lot of houses are for sale in the village and at least 3 have recently been sold above the "asking price".
People who want to buy can submit a bid, usually above the asking price. The 3 newest arrivals have all come from "down south" where house prices are generally higher and so they have more money to offer in the bid.
I must say that I feel uncomfortable with a moveable asking price...if I agree to pay your asking price and somebody comes later with a bit more...perhaps they simply shouldn't use the term "asking price" (vraagprijs). Something like "bids in the range of...." might be more appropriate.
A farmhouse just down the road was also sold - but apparently it was more to do with the land than the house itself.
The dairy farmer who bought it has a farm about 50kms away and milks more than 500 cows.
In buying the land here he intends to use the hay for feed and is happy to transport it over the distance.
I used to call the dairy farms here "postage stamp" size because they could milk say, 40 - 60 cows on a really small parcel of land. Until recently there was a "milk quota" and there was no point in producing more milk than your quota. If a farmer sold the farm, the quota generally determined the price.
This changed to the farmers only being able to dispose of so much manure on the land of their farm (this has caused a huge uproar in the farming community, as it is being used as a means of reducing the environmental impact of farming).
(Translated from a government website "dealing with Nitrogen" )
We live in a small country where every square meter is used. In doing so, we encounter limits. Nature suffers as a result. As with nitrogen precipitation. We are the leader in nitrogen emissions in Europe.
That is why, as the national government, we are working together with the provinces and sectors on a large package of measures to strengthen nature and reduce the amount of nitrogen. Because the stronger the nature, the more it can take a beating and social and economic developments become possible.
Agriculture
For agriculture, this means a switch to future-proof (circular) agriculture with as few emissions as possible. Funds will be made available for investments in sustainable barns, less protein in animal feed and better manure application. There will be a EUR 175 million Sustainable Agriculture Conversion Program to help farmers take these steps. Money is also made available for farmers who want to stop voluntarily.
The building industry has also been targeted to reduce nitrogen emissions.
(Janny's brother once sold his "milk quota" but not the farm - luckily before the manure changes).
Anyway, the more land you have the more manure you can spread over the land - hence the added advantage of buying the Wijnjewoude farm purely for the land.
On a related subject, I heard a podcast just last week about HUGE dairy farms in parts of America - 10,500 cows being typical. The smaller farms go by the wayside as they can't compete, whole communities disappear as people move out and the environmental impact is devastating. I forget which podcast it was now, but fairly alarming - as if there isn't already enough alarming stuff coming out of America.
I did find a couple of related articles on the internet...( I think the podcast may have been based on the same story).
Wijnjewoude gets an electric DuoFiets (fiets = bicycle)
It is free to use for residents, bookings via one of the Volunteer Groups (Kom Erbij = Come Together).
They had an opening day parade through the village.
It is going to be stored at our place, so we had to make room for it and put on some electricity for charging.
About 15 years ago (or more!), I had converted the barn door (previously used by the cows) into a single door for access to the garage. It was an easy thing to convert it back to a double door for the Duofiets,
Thursday morning
The doors are still showing wear and tear from the cows going in and out...about time I painted them on the inside!
Raising the Glasshouse
We decided to raise the (plastic) glasshouse to give us more headroom...
A weekend away...
Later on thursday afternoon, Janny and I headed to the boat for a "weekend away" - with Boeke, of course.
It was 1640hrs before we got away, but with no bridges to worry about, we were happy to go as far as we could while it was still light. As it turned out we stopped near 't Eibertsnest at 2145hrs, mainly because Boeke had to get out for a walk around!
On the way, we saw quite a lot of fairly big ships on the Prinses Margrietkanaal. Normal boaties had already found a spot for the night.
This one was loaded with wood chips, very full, but still a fair way out of the water.
We didn't know what these are (next photo), so Janny asked on her "probably know everything" Facebook site "Met de Boot Door Friesland". (With the boat through Friesland).
The best answer was perhaps the metal construction for a wind turbine tower, but I still don't know what the fancy welding supports would be for.
Almost our favorite spot, only 100 metres from the very modern shower facilities.
For Friday lunch, we sat on the 1912 "largest tjalk ever built" with the (almost) unfortunate name of Tromp.
On Saturday morning a fleet of 25 Staverse Kotters came in all at once - must have been a club. They all moored in the inner city moorings. Janny started making strange noises about how much one of them might cost? They did look very nice - all with their own distinctive number SK 302, for example. (i.e. a different number for every boat).
Some things are sent to test us (continued) (sigh)...
Not long underway on the Thursday and I was tasked with making the coffee and/or tea, only to find that the (drink) water pump stopped working. We always carry extra water, so not much drama, except for trying to figure out what's wrong. Electrical, air-lock or pump itself would be the 3 options within my ken. Not a fuse, so the rest can wait until I can get to the boat again with a compressor (for the air-lock option) and some extra wires to test the pump. Just a process of elimination for the not so technical minded.
The people from the petshop (In the windmill) kindly filled our jerry can with water for the return trip (We didn't need the 150 litres that one euro would have cost us! from the shore water supply).
Things getting back to normal re Covid restrictions
The number of daily confirmations has dropped dramatically. Younger people born from 1991 onwards can apply for vaccinations (Ben is from 1996 and had already confirmed a date for his first - although the Govt. have announced that the younger people can have the Jansen vaccination and so only need one. Ben is going to try to change to that one.
And "terrassen" (pub terraces or beer gardens) are allowed to be open again.
We had a very light meal at a recently renovated pub near one of the bridges. (Yes, not much cooking done this weekend! Pancakes with strawberries was my best effort).
Good mix of info. Entertaining. Envious of your boat freedom.
ReplyDeleteI need to know what Fraulevijver is?
ReplyDeleteGreat reading!