Sweden – week 2

Monday 9th March

Tiho didn’t return from Gothenburg.  Apparently he’s going to dog sit there for a week. Daz and Merle ran this morning but I couldn’t be bothered even though I was awake.  We did the usual chores and then our task was to turn the logs from the trees we cut down last week into useable fire wood.  First we have to use the disc saw so cut logs so no greater than 50 cm long and then split them using the log splitter.  Then pile them.  This wood still needs to dry before use next winter.

Tuesday 10th March

Today we created another log pile.  Bigger than yesterday’s too. Unfortunately, we’ve discovered that the birch sawdust sets off Daz’s hayfever.  Yesterday he had a rash around his neck and chest from all the sawdust from the circular saw and today within about an hour his eyes are itchy and his nose is running and he’s sneezing.  He goes off to take piriton and we swap jobs. But the piriton must have affected his balance as he topples the wheelbarrow full of logs twice!  Soon we have enough logs cut and move onto the splitter, this works with hydraulics and makes splitting the logs into four very easy, then all we need to do is move the split logs to our new drying storage area.

. 

Whilst we have been doing this Ion and Merle have been sorting out the foundations for the new greenhouse, digging out and putting some shuttering in place ready for us to make some concrete up.  We will all probably work on finishing this tomorrow.

 

Wednesday 11th March

Today we all work on the foundations for the greenhouse.  We collect rocks from all over the farm to use as hard core and then Daz and Ion mix cement and start laying it and tamping it down.  All of which is bent over back breaking work, but its something different and with a finished product at the end quite satisfying.

Thursday 12th March

More work concreting, Daz and Ion go with Christina to get more sand and cement and then later when Ion goes for a swim at a local lake (does he not realise it’s still Baltic!)

 

Daz let’s me mix some cement and even pour the water in!  I can see now where he gets all his excitement from… NOT!  But by the time Ion is back we are nearly finished and it only takes one more mix to finish the foundations.  In the afternoon we manage to get a card game of Hand and Foot going during the lunch break and Merle soon proves to be very good… Fortunately the first hand was a practice, so her score doesn’t count!!!

 

We watch an action film in the evening (John Wick, all cars, guns and violence!) and then Tiho arrives back from Göteborg and he says he has had a good time in the Croatian bars, apparently there are over 9000 Croats living there! He also has a job interview lined up for a bar manager assistant in Ireland, so depending on how that goes he may be off for good.

 

Friday 13th March

It now looks like Tiho is off for good as he has booked a flight to Cork on March 18, which means he’s leaving and so is Merle, leaving just me, Daz and Ion but rumour is another volunteer is arriving sometime in April.  It’s a slow day today, quite windy and we can’t do much work on the new greenhouse as we have to wait for the concrete to set.  We cut up some more logs but that’s about it.  Although the days are slower here it gives us time to relax and do our admin.  We all go riding in the late afternoon.  I still don’t feel in control but hopefully it will come in time.

Saturday 14th March

We have a lie in which is lovely.  Just reading and dosing.  Merle and Ion take the horses out and we join them for breakfast.  We were thinking of going to Gothenburg today but decide that because we’re so late getting up that we’ll do Gothenburg another weekend and instead we decide to cycle to Floby and check out the sights and do some geocaching.  It’s a lovely sunny day but the wind is cold.  My bike is pretty good but poor Daz is on a mountain bike which is far too small for him and has a buckled front wheel.  We find a couple of nice geocaches and look around Floby. It has a supermarket, a pizzeria and not much else.   The pizzas are great.  I have a Mexicana – Yummy but Daz has a Lambada – chicken, peanuts, banana and curry powder – weird!

After our cycle ride we spend a few hours relaxing on the sofa.  Tiho seems to be going for the ‘golden duvet’ award as he spends all afternoon gently snoring away.   We thought we might be reunited with Seb, the volunteer we met in Finland from Belgium.  Christina asks us to email him, hoping that he can replace Tiho.  Unfortunately he’s just arranged a new job in Portugal.

 

Sunday 15th March

Today we put the horses out and do the stable chores because we had a day off yesterday.  In the afternoon we visit Hornborgasjon lake. It’s a huge lake around 7km long that attracts loads of bird life.  At the moment it’s still fairly quiet but by the end of the month there will be up to 25,000 cranes there.  We will visit again to see the bird life in their full glory.  Then in the late afternoon we go to Falkoping bowling.

 

So all in all it’s been a quiet week with some hard work but plenty of relaxation time.  We will see how it goes once Merle and Tiho leave on Wednesday; it’ll be the same work but fewer people to do it!