April 2011 - The bread-oven

Jan starting our bread-oven

As April rolled in, we kind of missed our bread-oven which we had to sacrifice so we could place a water tank. An outdoor bread-oven has a certain charm about it, and even though its a science to use one, it still has that something special. The making of the fire, and so on.. :-)

So we had some bricks left over from the foundation of the carport, and then we ordered a lorry load of broken bricks. In the same token we also wanted to change the braai area so that it was more of an integrated story, rather than just a braai.. Adding the bread oven would do this job well. :-)

A little further

Of course, Jan had the willing help of Andreas, who loves doing anything that involves mixing cement and so on. So he enlisted himself to help, and was quite good at passing bricks, and fetching some more. When Jan got to the height where he had to start the dome, he came to a halt.... How would we do that? We discussed it quite a bit, it had to look nice with the cast iron door that I had snatched up at an auction, and it also had to be steep enough for the warm air to circulate properly..

One wall done, now the next one.

We decided to follow the curve of the top of the door. Doing this would create a lovely look, and provide an okay slope inside for the hot air to circulate. So the roof of the bread-oven was built as follows:

1. We constructed internal supports out of wood.
2. Over this we laid wire mesh.
3. We laid the first layer of bricks, followed by wire brick-course.
4. A second layer of bricks, followed by fire retardant insulation (Pink Aerolyte).
5. The whole oven including the roof was plastered with a thick layer of cement, after the bricks had set.
6. We allowed the whole thing to dry for a couple of days, after which we burned out the internal supports.

The completed oven

 Jan was amazed at his own building prowess... seeing as the roof didn't collapse. :-)

So there it stands, and we have already made Pizza in this oven.. not so much bread though, cause like I said: It really is a science to figure out just how one does that.... lol.. But we will get there.. one day.

Random garden shot.. :-)

January 2011

Double rainbow street side

Summer brought some interesting weather..this summer being no different..

But most amazing to me always is the clouds, and rain, and the light is creates in our little valley... truly a sight to behold at times. :)

Double rainbow field side

We have been quite blessed with regards to rain this year... having had floods twice, and just constant rain up until recently...

So everything is really green, and has been for most of the first half of this year.. It looks to be a truly good spring/summer ahead..

Our garden in January 2011

December 2010



Rene in the kitchen just before ...

 December arrived, and we had in the meantime bought some materials for the kitchen renovation. Reason: The original kitchen floor was really worn to the point that we were starting to worry that we might fall through it!! The old floorboards were just really bad, and the floor was sagging and not level at all, which meant that the structure underneath was unsound as well..

Myself chipping away some of the
uneven bits

So seeing as we had the materials, we decided that now was the time to get it done... 2 weeks before Christmas!! Suffice it to say it was probably the most stressfull 2 weeks ever.. because once we had the old floor off we could see what we wereactually dealing with, and only then did we realise what a huge amount of work it would be.

What we saw was quit a shock. The old supports/beams were hardly resting on the foundation, they were all loose, and I believe that if we had left the floor as it was, they would surely have caved in. So we had to remove everything, which left us with a hole in the floor, which sloped from the sittingroom side to the kitchen window side... this would have to be levelled first of all. Then there was the problem of having to build a false wallon the sittingroom side  for the new beams to rest on..

Jan and Andreas mixing cement for the false wall

Andreas did a stirling job of helping Jan to mix the cement needed for the false wall. To build it we used Hob-house bricks, which is a concrete brick that is about two bricks wide, and two bricks high, with an air pocket in the middle. Anyways itwent rather quick to get them in once Jan had made a mini-foundation for them along the sittingroom side of the kitchen.



Jan smoothing the "foundation" for the false wall



With copious amounts of coffee, he managed to get it all done quite quickly. This left us with nothing much to do except wait for everything to set, and dry.. we would only be able to continue the day after.. By now we had about 1 1/2 weeks before Christmas...

Adding the new beams

We then laid out some waterproofing in the form of black builders plastic, and after that we started to lay the new beams, these were 15cm thick, 60cm apart, and resting on a 7cm thick plank on either side of the kitchen. Jan nailed in small wedges to help keep them in place, and this would be the beginning of our new floor. It was quite exciting at this point though because the prospect of actually having a level floor with no sag for the firt time in two years was BIG!!!



Bubby and Laika

The dogs though this was all rather strange behaviour, and sat for a while watching us work. The next step though would be to get all the waterpipes in place. Jan decided to place the pipes under the flooring, which is what they do in most overseas houses. This prevents water from freezing in the pipes in winter, and you have the added benifit of not having visible piping. After that we had to bring in the chipboard sheets for the purpose of creating a nice surface for the laminate which we had chosen. These went in quickly, and we were soon able to lay out the non-slip insulating layer of foam, and start putting down the first rows of laminate.

The laminate flooring completed

Before we moved all the furniture back, we painted the walls, and sunk in the electrics for plugpoints as well. This was a big thing too, as before that all the appliances in the kitchen would run of on singular plug - in the sittingroom!!! So no more cables all over... :-) We decided on a nice subtle yellow for the walls, and that mixed with the white floor gave a nice Scandinavian feel. It was quite strange to see the "new" kitchen taking shape.



The completed kitchen

 

The window side of the kitchen



The layout has changed a bit since, and we have also added a built-in shelf on the far side, which is what you see when you come into the kitchen from the stoep. The ceiling has also been painted white, and the beams varnished. Jan reconstituted all the old floorboards to make a corner cupboard for all our odd things, and brooms etc, he also used the old floorboards to make the shelf I mentioned earlier, and to make a door between the sittingroom and our bedroom... :-) So nothing was wasted. We managed to finish about two days before Christmas, which was great, seeing as we had decided to have a traditional Danish Christmas this year with most of the trimmings.... hehehe. But I tell you - It was great fun to do the kitchen, and in hindsight even though it was stressful, we learned a great deal about our own capabilities!!



The corner cupboard the Jan built :-)



Our garden at Christmas... quite green and lush!

  

October 2010



Iris

 October in that garden has its own charm.. all the bulbs and flowers start being nice and showy.

Small garden daisy variety

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Wild vygie (succulent) flowers

Lily - I think..

September 2010

Jan and Andreas painting an ugly spot on the shed

So Spring made her comeback with vigour, and for all of us that meant getting back into the swing of things and preparing for ome new tasks and projects..

The first one we needed to tackle was getting rid of the ugly graffiti on the shed wall, which had been there ever since we came here. So Jan mixed some paint and added some tint to make it more or less cement colour, and started painting over the bad spot.

Of course Andreas, being an avid helper wanted to paint too, so we let him help.



Andreas painting the wall

 And after the snow and drab winter weather, it was nice to see the beginnings of the new season show its face in our garden. But even more so, it made us realise how much was still missing from it, and that we would have to make a plan to get more plants in. :-)

The garden from the shed side

But we still had the whole summer ahead of us too, so this was comfort in itself.

Down at the river things were also happening, and even though we had not had much winter rain, the Haarlem dam was still full past its capacity, and the irrigation restrictions were lifted. This pleased us of course, as the sowing season was about to start, and we needed to get some seeds in, otherwise we would not have any sort of harvest this summer..

Waterblommetjies in the river

July 2010

Kingfisher on the fence

So apparently the Langkloof is a birding hotspot. We get some very varied and wonderful birds here. To name a few we have:

The Black headed Oriole
Cape weavers = common
Herons
Bokmakieries
Wit-ogies
Mousebirds = pests
Swallows
Fiscal shrikes

and there are probable hundreds more that I just haven't spotted yet..but for me the most amazing one is the little Kingfisher.



Kingfisher in Apricot tree

 Sometimes he just sits there, and sometimes he shows how they have gotten their name. Its an amazing little bird to watch, and the added bonus is that they are actually quite pretty.

Kingfisher close up

June 2010

Sunrise

As we marched on into winter, with the chill air, and the promise of frost we thought it might be best not to have too much going on. But save for the snow this month, and not being able to do much outdoors, it was a pleasant winter all the same. I think we had about 5-10cm of snow here in Haarlem, and in Avontuur they had 20cm. We had been invited to dinner on a Saturday where is was only sleet here by us, and by the time we got to the turnoff to De Hoop it was hopeless. We had to call Pierre and Carmen, and tell them we were stuck, and had to turn around. This was met with, "Nonsense! We will come and fetch you! So they drove out to the turn off in their VW Syncro, and off we went.... with Jan on the back bumper for extra weight at the back.. apparently this gives extra traction too...lol.

Snow in Gary and Ronalee's field

And despite being cold, a little wet and frozen from the neck up, this theory actually worked and we made it safely to their place. We had a glorious time, had a few laughs about the whole situation, and had some awesome conversation, and some really good food!! The snow stopped, and by the time Pierre drove us back to our car, the road was ok. :-)

The boys building a snowman

There was still snow the day after and the boys decided to build a snowman. But being back in South Africa, and having gotten rid of most of our overseas winter gear, they were not prepared for the wet, biting cold that is snow... still with a little perseverence, and warming of hands now and again they managed to finish said snowman. There is something to be said about the determination of kids sometimes, that where there is a will there is a way, and they will do something to the end... especially if it means that they can have fun doing it. Sometimes I wonder why its so hard for us as grown-ups to have the same attitude...

Looking for extra bits

 Anyways, so with the snowman done, they started to look for extras, like stones for the eyes and mouth, and twigs for the arms. At this point Rene's hands were pretty frozen, and red from the cold, but that still didn't stop him..lol.

Adding said bits :-)

And at last the snowman was all finished!!

All done!!

March 2010

Planning our new walkway

So Christmas came and went, and New Years eve came and went, and we were all of a sudden in March again. Time to start planning some new things, new changes, and new challenges.. :-)

We had decided a long time ago that we had too much grass. Grass = mowing, which we all dislike a little.. hehe. So removing some grass seemed like a good option. The first bit of grass to go would be the walkway from the house to the Veg Patch. This meant digging up the old cement slab that was there, and clearing the grass away as we went along.

But we managed to clear the required area, and then paved it using bricks, and setting these with a cement/sand mix which we wet and allowed to set. Way to much work though, and really sore fingers afterwards... :-\ But sometimes one also has to suffer for progress. We had planted the poles and put across other poles which are fastened to the house with joist-hangers. This will provide a structure for the Hanepoort vines to climb up and over. :-)



Walkway now covered with reeds

 We decided that some shade would be nice, so we covered the walkway with reeds. We have since removed them and placed them on the afdakkie (covered area) that we built over the septic tank which is in the middle of our lawn.. :-\ we did this in order to make a feature of the cement slab which is in the middle of the lawn. It now serves as a nice shaded area, when we sometimes sit and enjoy a coffee. :-)



The Septic Tank Stoepie

 Having a small stoepie in the garden where we can sit and enjoy the greenery, and a coffee.. heheh seemed like a good idea. So we made some flowerbeds along the sides of the septictank and planted climbers like Wisteria, and Clematis, a Zimbabwean creeper, Jasmine and yet another Hanepoort vine.. we also planted some Lavender and some Gazanias for a little variation in height. At some point in the future these, the climbers, will actually form a canopy over the top of the afdakkie.. and we will have a lovely dappled shade. We are still planning to a nice round concrete table and two curved benches for this spot...and plenty more wind-chimes and mobiles.. :-)



The other side of the Septic Tank stoepie..

 But these two projects were not the only things we set up this month. We also built an outdoor shower... for some or other reason this appeals to the kids, and hubs.. especially in summer. Yes its cold!!! Freezing cold!!!

We have now clad the outdoor shower using droppers, and on this a Morning Glory has sown itself, and decided that that was a good place to grow... so now the shower looks great.. :-)



Andreas having a shower... Brrrrr!!!

 And of course to finish off this months post, what could be better than a night shot of the house. :-)

Our house at night from the Garden.

August 2009

Jan finishing off the new bookshelf

August started quite interestingly.. we have a local auction in Joubertina every now and again, and we always manage to find something useful, or something we can schooz up and make nice.. So the the auction we found an old kitchen shelf, which we promptly decided to make into a bookshelf seeing as we did not have anywhere to store all our books. :-|

So we sanded the shelf down and painted it with PearlGlo paint... thats wonderful stuff by the way.. and added the little shelves which were cut from an old scaffolding plank. We treated these with Timbafix from PowerFix. This protects raw wood from bugs etc, and gives the wood a very nice natural aged look.

Jan dusting it off before we place it inside

Being able to create something out of things that other people might not appreciate is pretty much what we strive to do in our whole house... creating much out of little, for as little money as possible, and recycling where we can. So keeping this in mind and also trying to create some sort of connection stylewise between what we have bought, and what we have added later is also a challenge sometimes, but even so I believe that we have managed quite well. :-)

The shed window - finally!

We also managed, with the help of our builder to finally get the window in the shed. Granted it still needs glass, but at least its there.

The wall was also neatly plastered and just has a very nice raw cement look now. We like it that way, and might not change it just yet, although Jan has mentioned wanting to paint the whole shed a rust red colour... so we will see what happens... we still have millions of ideas and plans for this place... :-)

Sunset..

September 2009 - December 2009

I seem to have lost the photos for the rest of this year... how very sad. :-( I can't remember what we actually did at this time, if we did anything.. we may have put up some more fencing etc, and finished some small projects, but for the most of it if I don't have any photos to remind me of what we did, then its all lost... I will try and have a look on my FB to see if I did not by chance post some hotos there... *sigh*

July 2009

Field as seen from the garden

By this time we were deep into winter, and rather thankfull for the new ceiling that we had put in. This certainly helped us stay a little warmer. It is known that Avontuur has the lowest average temperature in the whole country... and as Haarlem is only 15km's from Avontuur, it gets really cold here too! As we were soom to find out in the following year.. :)

We actually only continued with the construction of the future chicken house at this stage, it was kind of cold to do any gardening, and we actually did not have a clue as to where to begin, or which crops we could put in at this time of year...



The chicken house

 Actually, in all honesty I think we were all pretty shell shocked still from actually having moved here, and what now kind of thing...?? So doing little things like this helped us to get some sort of an idea as to what we intended with this move, but for the most of it we were actually still pretty clueless!

The house as seem from the garden