The Bathroom Surprise

This house is full of both pleasant and unpleasant surprises. One of the more pleasant ones is the bathroom. When I was scrubbing like an obsessive maniac t get it cleaned up I wondered what was under that atrocious and icky linoleum. So I started picking at a corner..

Under the first layer there was a second dirty and fungus infested layer. And under that layer was…

The original tile floor. Although a little fungy and severely stained by years of humidity it still is in great shape. Especially if you clean it up a little. Surprise!!

The Chickens

There is not a farm without chickens, and now this one has them too! Through a Dutch initiative to rescue laying chickens before they are slaughtered called Red een Legkip, we ordered four chickens. Today we could pick them up at Vogel en Zoogdieren Opvangcentrum, an animal rescue in Limburg. In the end we came home with six ladies!
Please check out both amazing organisations, and at least like them on facebook!

The six ladies in the car, thank god that I have a huge banana-car.

The first moments in their new house, not as bad as they thought it was..

Since we now own a wine cellar: Mead

This week in an effort to clean the inside of the house (yes, that is that ugly C-word again), we decided to muck out the wine cellar. Besides finding a vintage sink, ancient Stella glasses, and a bottle of holy water from Lourdes, we dug up a pretty nice space. And, since our been making stuff was already close we decided to give making mead a shot (don’t mind the mess in our kitchen, we’re still living out of boxes, do have a look at that ceiling – love it!). I found a recipe online that we followed:

1 package of Red Star "Premier Cuvee" yeast
4 pounds of clover honey = 1.82 kg
1 gallon of spring water = 3.79 l
8 ounces of Black berries - Frozen = 226 gr
1 whole clove
inch and a quarter ( 1 1/4 ) long section of a vanilla bean. Split length-wise.

First set your black berries out so that they have enough time to thaw. I try to pick out the darkest of the berries at this point. I use about half a pound for this recipe. This amount gives the mead a wonderful dark red colour and just enough taste of Blackberry to make it special. Once they have thawed crush them in a bowl and set aside.

Pour about one third of a gallon of spring water into a pot. Gently heat the water on the stove to about 90 degrees (= 30 Celsius) ( a candy thermometer is very helpful here ) and add your honey, being sure to keep stirring evenly so the honey doesn't get burned and the mixture becomes homogenous. Remove from the stove and stir for another minute, adding spring water until you have used about a half of your gallon jug. Let this sit to cool to room temperature.

Using a funnel, pour your honey and water from the pot into a 1 gallon carboy. Pour in enough of the remaining spring water so there is about an inch left until the gallon mark. Now you can add the yeast and the nutrient. Shake for about 4 minutes and add blackberries. Shake for at least another minute so that all of the ingredients are mixed and the batch has an even dark red colour.

Let this ferment for 2-3 weeks. Siphon into a clean 1 gallon carboy leaving behind as much sediment as you can.

Take your section of vanilla bean after it has been prepared and place it into a muslin tea bag. Steam the bag and place into the mead. After 4-5 days check the taste of the mead. If there is enough of a vanilla flavour remove the tea bag. Repeat this process with the clove. I like to leave it in until there is just a hint of clove. [from here]

In stead of blackberries we used a frozen ‘forest fruit’ mixture from the Colruyt. So far it’s bubbling away nicely in our wince cellar.. waiting for lots of other bubbling friends to join him.

The update

It seems like ages ago that I’ve written a post again. So, here’s the update: since last time we have officially become home owners!! Since then we have done a huge amount of work that all boils down to two things:

1. Carry stuff to a different location (this includes both moving everything we own from our old apartment to out new place, and getting rid of all the old junk that was still in the barns (yes, that is plural).

2. Clean. And I hate cleaning! First of all we had to clean our old apartment meticulously for the obvious reason that we had the most irritating lying piece of scum you can imagine as a landlord (I honestly don’t care if he reads this, you miserable piece of shit). Then we had to clean our new house. The previous owner had rented it out to a very very dirty person who apparently brushed her two huskies daily inside! To make things worse she was not of the cleaning type, and liked living in a house filled with dog hair. So, for the last day I’ve been cleaning up her (and her two mutts) filth. Such fun! (Yes, I’ve been listening to Miranda again)

Now that our daily activities are out of the way it’s time for some good news. First of all my adopted-Tajik-sister gave birth to her second son yesterday!! Secondly, today was (I hope) my last exam ever!! Now I just have to wait until September 13th before I’m officially an ‘MSc’.

Our first night in our new home

Since everything was way to icky to sleep inside we decided to have a camping night. And yes, these lovely ladies are our moowing machines. They’re on loan from a local farmer! Furthermore Amat is having a ball following the ladies around, just until they become curious and come a little to close. :D
By the way, I really have to start thinking about a new blog title, this one is almost out dated…

Back in Belgium

Now that I’m back home I’ve finally had the time to upload the video I took while watching René bake his bread. I added it to the corresponding post. But just to be sure, here it is again.

So, now that I’m home it’s time to get packing! We’re signing for our new place this Thursday (yaaaaay), Friday we’ll be cutting open some walls so that the cable guy can come, finally on Saturday we’ll be moving all our stuff. Thank God Tom’s dad and little brother will be helping us out. As always I’ll try to make as many photos as possible.

The Stove Story

Our new place has a perfect place for an old fashioned stove in the living room. However the stove itself is missing. Luckily I rememberd my parents buying one second hand over a decade ago in Holland, and bringing it down to France. Once there it has been gathering dust and rust in a corner of the barn. After some negotiations we got the stove!! Now only to de-rust it, paint it, and get it back together.

The Before

The During

The After

The de-rusting took about eight hours, and has certainly shortened my life with a couple of months. But the result is great! The next step is taking it back to Belgium, painting it, and fitting it into our new house!