Our Blog
Hägertorpet | 9 Feb 2020 |
Besides the house, we got a stuga as well. Since we do not use it ourselves, Brenda decided to try and rent it out as a hobby.It combines well with my hobby, so it now has a bunkbed and a small kitchen for basic usage. Being a little stuga (two persons) it already got nick named 'Piggelmee' but that's very dutch and probably a registered trade name. Then what? Hägersjöhylte points to a farm a kilometer down the road. Hägersjö feels odd since we have no lake/pond nearby and it points to some families 10 kilometer away. Not that easy to come up with a name that suits and is not yet widely used. The I remember when looking closely at the garage doorstep, they wrote a name there back in 1984. Hägertorpet. After some searches that still seems quite unique. And someone already put in the effort, so we go with that. 
We now do have the website http://hagertorpet.se and also the Facebook page http://facebook.com/hagertorpet .Maybe we can do more with the name. Today I brewed my first beer. Might as well be "Hägertorpet Porter". Next in the series will be a "Hägertorpet Blonde" and the "Hägertorpet Triple" which are already waiting at my sister's place. Hägertorpet ... the start of a whole new brand ?
|
Roadkill | 20 Jan 2020 |
It already dark as I drive home on the main road 23. Occasional headlights blind a little but that's nothing new. And then just a few kilometers out of VäxjÃit happens to me. A deer jumps from the roadside in front of the car.I realize there is no upcoming traffic and try to avoid it. A little ahead I find a place to stop. Even though I hear a bang, I see no damage. I head back to check, but find nothing. Amazing how awfully quick things can change. Unfortunately a bit too late I find out it should be reported so authorities send out a hunter with a trained dog to search for an injured animal to avoid it from suffering. Lesson learned for the next time which i hope won't come............ |
How does it work? | 10 Jan 2020 |
The one thing that is most different is the one thing that everyone has started to take for granted: Utilities. Many are surprised by the differences, and never realized it could all be so different.
In the city there are communal services for most, but not in the country side. So what is different? How does our utilities work?
And now what does that all means? It means everything is there, just on a small scale, and much is your own responsibility. Electricity is key. Power-outage means no electric heating. No cooking. No light. Also no pump therefore no water. But it's not the end of the world. Keep fridge and refrigerator closed as much as possible. Warm the house with the stove, and use it to make food at the same time. You can also cook on the holiday stove or get the BBQ out. There are rainwater reservoirs for water to flush the toilet. Drink water can directly be taken from the well with a bucket or picked up at public tap's freely accessible just for that purpose (assuming the have electricity). Sounds like we practiced, but no. We have had one outage that lasted longer then 15 min. And that has been at night around 4:00 and lasted roughly 3 hours. So apart from the alarm clock, no pain felt from that one. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rain | 17 Dec 2019 |
|
It has been a real autumn. Many weeks with wind and lots and lots of rain. We found another advantage. It's not just having water. The taste of the water has been changing on a daily base, sometimes even by the hour. First I gave my family a blind test. Got water directly from the well, and from the tap. A happening on it's own. The bucket broke and the you have a plastic bucket with metal hinge five meters below in your well. A story on it's own to get it out, but none the less, they taste no difference. Next we got water from two different emergency tap's. Not a big difference either. In that case, it could just be us. Just to be sure, we send a water sample to a laboratory, which is common to do at least once every few years. It has been tested less than one year ago, and the numbers came back the same. The only two values that where close to the limits showed a slight improvement. So as a last resort, I added a coal-filter. Good thing I installed an extra filter housing when I mounted the sand filter, it was no work at all that way. But having that planned ahead did not solve anything. But now, after all the rain that fell, the taste is very good! It's excellent. And it's taste is constant as well. It's good to notice natures impact so direct. Better groundwater levels lead to better water quality. Curious I moved the concrete lid and looked down the well. The level is almost three times it has been (not counting the dry weekend we suffered in Sept. 2018) |
Cars | 29 Sept 2019 |
|
It was time for Brenda's car's car inspection. So I drive the car on the bridge, pull the handbrake and hand it over for inspection. All looks well, just a little too much slack in one of the parts, but otherwise it looks okay. Until he rotates the back wheel. Tries to rotate is more accurate. "I'll take off the handbrake" I shout cheerful and climb on the bridge. Then it seems he already took it off. But the wheel won't rotate. "Maybe if we drive and take the break test" is his response. It does not take lone to realize that won't do. The break-test machine is even clearer about it. "That won't take you home" he says, but calls in a colleague. Together they manage to release the handbrake and explain what's required. On the way home I buy a second safety support and back home I jack up the car fix the handbrake. The slack however is in a more critical part, so that I won't do myself. For my car a new set of tires is required, so our workshop earns quite a bit out of us this month. On the tires we got a discount. Or so it seemed. It was for they could not properly balance the wheels, that must be done by a specialist. Two days later I'm at a tire specialist. They take off the wheels, fiddle around, mount them and hand me the keys free of charge. "We can't do these......No, no idea who can here in Växjö". It takes a bit of searching, but the I discover the existence of "blind rims" and the special treatment of balancing them. It was hard enough in Dutch, and there is not much time left, I decide to have it fixed over a few days when back in the Netherlands. Unbalanced it's a little less comfortable driving, but with a little less speed we still get there. Traffic in Germany is hell. The six hour drive takes 2,5 hours extra. When on a two lane road, I floor it just to overtake a lorry. When I passed it, the motor management warning lights up, engine power fades and steering becomes heavy. Luckily there is an exit and a safe place to stand still. I read-out the board computer and it says major fuel leak, but no such thing. I reset the fault, and carefully we continue the drive. A bit nervous we get to the destination. Between the party and family and friends visits we had planned, we managed to get the wheels balanced at the fifth station we tried. Now that is comfort! Smooth we roll over the highways. The engine repeats it failure but when driving without fast acceleration it's all okay. The way back is as horrible as the way down. After many hours extra in German traffic and a ferry crossing we are back on the quit Swedish roads. Not long before we can leave the Swedish highway and turn onto the countryside. That's where it all goes wrong. Directly after leaving the highway, I want to accelerate on the country road but the engine responds by turning itself off. We are at an emergency lane, so that's not bad, but the engine won't start at first attempt. At second it does, but immediately quits when I try to drive. No new error's appear in the diagnostics, and after a reset we can drive. But it's no longer a relaxed drive. The car is only capable of slow pull-up. The whole ceremony repeat itself two more times and for the last part we avoid the main road. My suspicion is with the fuel filter. Searching for the error code on the internet confirms that suspicion. Lucky for me, Biltema is even open on Sundays. I fill in the car's registration number and click spare parts. The have it in store in Växjö. Then just out of curiosity I click 'maintenance advice'. By calculated mileage, the advice me to ...... replace the fuel filter! It's only 15 minutes work to replace it and we can commence the test drive. On a secondary (maybe even tertiary) road I floor it again. No sputter, no failure. The car takes off like it's designed to do. |
Flying high | 1 Aug 2019 |
|
I looked at it a lot. Thought it over. Thought it over ones more. And bought myself a drone. A toy drone that is, the 'real' thing is way to expensive. Brenda kindly remembers me of the glider model plane adventure that never worked out as hoped, but that did not stop me. The box is incredibly light, so is the model. Charging the battery and then it's time to get air borne. Flying it is not hard at all. Unlike the glider. You can even clam a cell phone to the remote control and watch real-time camera images. After a few flights I feel secure enough to take it outside. I do have to wait till after dinner time for the wind to lay down. Outside it's even easier than indoors, and soon I have some camera images. The quality matches it's price (or I can't hold it still enough yet) but it's clear what they are all about. Again some flights later I let it fly out further, as well as higher. The range it has should be around 70 meters and is still impressive for a 12x12x7 cm toy. Since the underside is lit in red and green, I have to fly it by night too. No doubt about that. It's dark' It's wind still. Perfect. The drone flies nice, and in the dark it will be real fun to take it high up. In theory. Once it's higher than the tree tops again, it's clear is not wind-still at all. Worse, the drone does not seem to have the power to go against the wind!! I see it drift further away over trees which are more the 10 meters high. Lights start flashing in what I guess is an out-of-controller-reach warning. Thank you for that. Would never guessed that on my own thank you very much. As a result of that it starts the landing procedure all by itself....... I get in asap and get my very strong head light. Rommy follows as I set out in the woods to search a drone. It's light must still be on. I mostly look up, fearing to see it hanging 12 meters above ground. Where to look? No clue how far it got. But then Rommy sees it's lights. Lucky for me it cleared the trees and 'landed' in the fields. Only 400 Meters from where it took off. A lesson learned.
|
Butterflies | 29 Jul 2019 |
|
During netwalking -the daily walk after lunch, but it's often just network team members- we found many grass area's having received a short and simple wooden pole wit a small note. It did not look like a prank or such a thing, so after a few curiosity won. So entering the grass to read the notice. It is a government message. It's informing everyone the flowers start blooming, which attracts bees, butterflies and other insects. They find it so vital, that just for that reason the won't cut the grass in the coming period. Don't bother to complain, just enjoy the butterflies. Very good initiative! Back home I see out grass getting wild. I notice butterflies, and see flowers. And I see the sad view of an orange a tractor in the garage. It's gathering dust while it waits for the blooming to be over. When that happens, there will be a lot of mowing to do which would have been hell by hand. |
Washing clothes | 27 Jul 2019 |
|
In Sweden it's common that household equipment belongs to the house. So buying a house usually includes refrigerator, freezer, wash machine and a dryer. After signing the contract, the wash machine went broke, so the former owner had to buy a new one. With hose being a bit too short, it was placed at a weird angle. But it worked, and that's the requirement, not the cosmetics. However, It was not to our liking, so I changed the water pipes at the time. Extended them, put in valves and installed a tap outside the house for that was lacking too. A few weeks later we learned the hard way that the washer and dryer are not connected to the distribution group installed for it, but to the water heater and water pump. No clue why, but a little rewiring took care of that too. Now just one issue left: Drain. The drain does not flow as supposed, and no blockage was easy to be found. Solved it temporary by creating a buffer that collects the water from the washing machine and releases it sloooooowly into the sewer. I considered a few times call someone to fix it, but then again, can't bear the idea of someone coming and fix it in the blink of an eye and look at me like "and this to too hard for you ???" Just the sight of the opened well is disgusting. Hot water and soap does not do the trick. Then with a nice rubber glove I go in and feel around for the opening. It's not clogged. But a plunger is use less, and other tools can't make the sharp bend. I take a break to recollect my thoughts. That seems to help. The penny drops. That small square thingy just might be a plug. Little cleaning, and indeed it is a plug. Soaking my precious tools into the dirt is even harder then going in with a glove, but it opens, and the clog direct behind it is easily removed. Re-assemble, test and it runs as supposed. Take away the buffer and another job done. Well, almost. Real hot water, strong soap, good drying and a little, little drop of oil, and the tools are good as new too.
|
2 | 15 Jul 2019 |
|
It's holiday season and many colleagues go on Holiday. And it's easy to notice at work too. There is less to do, in support too. Today is the last day in a series of 8 days in second line support. All four other network engineers are free. It has been even more clear how much every one helps each other. I now notice more that when you ask something in regard to a ticket the often not only just answer, but also fix it for you. Kind and easy, but not always the best way to learn. Since I'm not in the habit of calling people on holiday it's been a good period of learning. The funniest ticket was making a customer near Gotenburg very happy by saying "I'll just call your head-office and solve it for you". So I called their head office who by seeing a Swedish number politely answered in English. When we spoke it took little more then a minute for the other engineer to realize it, and i head the question "How come we can talk dutch all of a sudden??" coming over the line from Rotterdam. The day after that, a colleague came over and said "That must have been fun, doing support in native language". After answering 'yes' he said "I have a thing more for them to do, would you mind calling again?" |
Cable cutter | 6 Jul 2019 |
For some reason, the house is lacking ventilation. Not just some, but all of it. Early this year I already made smaller ventilation slits in the windows, but those are hardly enough. A few weeks later I bought a ventilation set to mount in the wall. For a few bucks you buy a drill of the exact size to make the job real easy.I examine the wall as best as I can and decide where it will be placed. First a small pilot hole with a real long drill just to line up the center in and outside. Then the main drill. Not long before I am through the outer wall. The inner wall even faster. The tube slide in smoothly and then it's just marking and cutting it. six screws later I'm done. The living is ventilated! Now in the warmer summer it's time for two more rooms to fit with ventilation. Got a better drill for the pilot hole and having it done before, the second ventilation is placed even quicker. The third one takes a bit more time to find the right spot. It won't fit where I prefer to, so I go down one board. After drilling the outer wall I find an extra plank in the wall. Damn! I feel around, but it's real thin so no stud, and I continue the hole and it's a thin plank. 
How different from the inside. When I'm almost through, there is a flash, and the vacuum cleaner halts. Yup. cut a power line right in the middle. Extra work I did not need.After the first irritation I examine the damage a bit more. Not *that* hard to fix, it's just opening and closing of the wall that is so much work. But, still lucky.... Would it have fitted where i wanted it, I would not have taken down a power line, but taken out an complete junction box. I get the saw from the garage and open up the wall. It's not as much work as I feared it would be, and an hour later the wall is closed and I take look at the result. After having walked the dog, I take another look and rip it all open again before glue and plaster dried. It will work, and it's okay, but I can do better. Tomorrow I will get myself a small junction box. One more hour not to difficult labor and its really done. |
Cabling | 3 Jul 2019 |
And even though we live in the countryside, we do have fiber. Unfortunately it's terminated in the cellar and no wiring available. Using WiFi bridges we get internet working in the house. It's only some multi-media that does not always work properly. Still, not how you want to have it as a network engineerSince the house is build from wood, it looks an easy task to run cables. After a lot of measurements and three useless holes I quit. Some weeks later I take another look. Running them along the outer wall is simplest. But it's ugly, I don't want that. I measure again and conclude I need to drill further away from the outer wall. Nope. wrong again. As last resort I decide to go the other way. Drilling from the cellar up. That was an eye opener. It was way further from the outer wall then I ever had it. But now I know the measurements. And finally, the six-th hole is the right one. From this point on, all the other holes are easy. 
Instead of the cables required, I do as a colleague taught me: "lay a few extra for future use. Doing it now will be no cost nor extra work at all". And now I have numbered outlets on the wall for multi-media, WiFi and the 'home-office'. Improved network capacity and functionality.
|
Various | 29 Jun 2019 |
|
Management A colleague is retiring. Management send out an email that the intention is to throw a party next Friday. However, so many are already on holiday, so it's agreed to postpone till September. But still -for who wants to- we have an after work party Friday with pizza and beer. And on Friday it's management taking the orders and get the pizza's. A week later the walk through the office twice. Once to take your order for ice-cream, the second time the distribution. And that is actually very typical for our management. They treat you, and make you feel valuable and important to them. Danish It's getting to ridiculous proportions. I've heard it times before even up to twice a day, but now.... I went to get a warm lunch at the Thai take-away close to the office. Yes, I frequent the place, but not *that* often. Still, even she started now and asked with an heavy far-east accent "Your accent ..... Are you Danish??" Caravan It's not required, but, we decided to put the caravan on Swedish license too. Filing all the papers still got extra work for I filled the request but in the Netherlands it was not in my name. Being married made no difference, Swedish government still sees it as transfer of ownership. The registration control is just as expensive as for a car. They check the chassis number, measure it, approve is and .... warn you not to use it. Why? Fist 'Kontrolbesiktiging'. The test it's brakes and wheels. have a quick look and we're free to go camping Greenhouse We have a greenhouse in the garden. Some windows broken (I'm fighting not to promote Linux now) but still in working order. There is an old grape plant in the back which looked dead, but that's how the look after winter. Poured new soil in and build a small bench from the scrap wood still left. Hung a lawn sprinkler in the top, and finally bought a pump so we can avoid using our tap water but use the rainwater collecting well instead. Just a few weeks later grapes start to develop and all kind of green plants pop up from the soil.
|
Midsummer | 21 Jun 2019 |
Driving home, I stop at our neighbor for she texted me she wanted to talk to me and had a question for us. After some chatter she invites us to come over and celebrate midsummer with her. It will be us and some of her family and other friends. I'm honored. Together with Christmas, midsummer is the event in Sweden. Rich with tradition usually celebrated with family.We are welcome right after mid-day when they start with potato's and herring of which we politely pass for the latter. Further we pass the time with games, talks and laughter. Here too, not much English so we all have to get by in Swedish. Then follows one of the greatest Swedish joys: BBQ. Everybody brought something so enough to choose from. We are way into the evening when we turn home tired and happy. We have attended public celebrations before, but It's clear that midsummer is at its best in many hours spent with a group at home. |
To the Netherlands | 13 Jun 2019 |
|
Two more weeks and our oldest has her birthday. For we can't make that, we plan a surprise trip. After the direct flight from Växjö to Amsterdam it's a short train ride to Den Haag. There we sit i a Greek restaurant we wait. She just don't get it why her friend -who is in the complot- drags her in here. It's quite a shock when all of a sudden she spots us, but could not be happier. Since we are there for a long weekend, we decide to take a day out to the zoo with just the four of us. What surprises me the most are the traffic jams. They are not new to me, but, in Växjö you can almost consider 5 cars before the roundabout a traffic jam. The car develops a failure in the muffler, but we can still drive. However, when we park to have dinner, we see the police executing a major traffic check. Many cars get impounded and many fines written. We decide it's better not to start the car again while they are busy. I'd gonna be a long night..... The next day we take the train together, but split up in Utrecht. While Brenda visit friend to take a look at their new house, I will go to my sister to see hers. But since I have some time before that I take a walk in Utrecht. Standing at the foot of the Dom I look up and realize its now or never, and 5 minutes later I am the owner of a ticket that allows me to climb up with the first tour of that day. Even it's 110 meters high, you can only go up till 95 Meters. It goes with several stops and while not all will agree, but it's not too hard a climb. The view itself is a great reward, but back down on the street I know there is only one reward/lunch possible: "Broodje Mario!" and from the one and only original stall at the "oude gracht". Then it's off to my sister. That is the other side of emigrating, you can't visit friends and family that easy. Sure, the are many channels over internet, but it's better to see and talk to them in real live. And even better: after seeing the houses share dinner together on a sunny terrace. In the evening back in time to spend another moment with our daughter and her friend and then we are only one night sleep away from the return flight.
|
BBQ | 19 May 2019 |
|
Went running, seen a neighbor and introduced myself. Went biking, seen another and introduced myself Went..Went.. So over time I've seen all the neighbors. Common seems to be they all live here three years or less, and not really know each other. Other then by name and waving while driving by. The idea to throw a welcome BBQ seems like an good idea. We have bought invitation cards and written them with the best Swedish we know and dropped them around. And as days go by without someone accepting. True, they are not declining either. But then, not long before the planned date reactions start coming in. They too think it's an good idea and gladly accept. Only one reaction missing, but the BBQ is on! When the day is there and we do final preparations, the neighbor family caught a virus and for not wishing to infect all of us the kindly decline last minute. They do however take the effort to bring the flowers they bought us. So in a much smaller setting we proceed anyway. There is no alternative then the Swedish language, but with patience from all sides we manage conversations on all kinds of subjects. A slight rain forces us in close to the end, so in a way it's good too we have a smaller setting. Many hours pass in a good atmosphere and when our guests are heading home, we all agree: We need to do this every month, but definitely more often. |
