Slow return to nature

Simple construction marking a period that this area was lived in. It's like my hut in the dunes in holland. Some things take a long time to return to nature.

Abandoned beauty

Nature left to itself. Frank and me going into the centre of Plitvice. Him having gained is drivers license recently just barely made the sudden right turn off the main road. This right turn you can see on the digital map of the area. The road goes into nowhere. To a beautiful lake. Which you see here. A heron flapped it's wings, miffed at our presence.

Creating and materialising details is teamwork

Connected to the previous message; The detailing of the front, important design aspects have been added by Mile Knezevic together with Mirko. They have developed into faithful supporters of this project. I can rely on them to come up with solutions I hadn't thought about. As a team you can hear they are having fun working on the house. The combination with the old oak as basis for the white main cladding was Mile's idea. The view and building of a window on the west was Richards idea. The doors on the ground floor were given by Mirko. Stellagas in the supply room and workshop were given by the Auto Praonica (car workshop) of Vojnic. It has been decided a new door needs to be fitted in stead of the old front door. Actually it looks like a door, but it doesn't stop winter cold or summer heat. I am rather attached to the oldness of it though. The designing of the front door will be integrated with a small roof covering the small veranda around the door. It will be all one can do with natural wood. Quite crazy.

Finishing present projects so next steps

Our house is getting a face. Strong lines, color combinations and a strong top. The cladding is a combination of 10 cm thick 80 year old oak and simple wood cladding. Insulation between the wall and the wood makes for comfortable climate summer and winter. Mile (again). As nothing is standard, time is running out for this project. I want to finish this in a simpler way. To be able to move into next steps. Moving into phase we earn money again and starting up new projects. A foundation; Friends of the forest or 'prijetelji sa suma' will be started up to support the family of Mile to begin with. News about that in next messages. In the meantime we will design next steps, and execute beautiful new additions to the house.

Partners in making dreams real

Here you see materialisation of an idea.
A good old friend of mine, Richard van Drie from Amsterdam came by. He looked out of the tattered roof and in a flash he saw we had to do something about an apperture in that location. On top, westward looking. How we did not know. That materialised later.
The road to that materialisation is not only thanks to me. Far from it. I have cursed some twists in this road to materialising. Yet there were many who stayed the way. I listened to many a wize word.
We tongue in cheek call it "Richards hole" nowadays. I sometimes remind him to come and enjoy his baby. Barbara my wife is also a stayer in this. The idea that I could not do many of my dreams alone came from a different corner. Ellen van den Honert awoke me to that idea. She follows her dreams in Switserland. Where she does a lot of musicwork. Gerard Smeets is another trusted guy who sometimes grumbles something in my ear. I don't always listen. It sometimes takes some time to realise something needs to be different. But he has been disconcertingly right some important times. Not to forget my mother who allowed me to use some family capital to realise this dream. And what about my impossible father who inspired certainly the environmental part and very certainly the creativity in designing garden and house.
How family life of the far past unfolded is a distinct source for my following my dream. I will use that to any ones advantage in the near future.
We mean to set up a foundation that lays foundation of hospitality in our local area. The foundation will fund some limited local projects like up to a level refurbishing old houses to prepare for tourists. It will serve educational purposes. It will help local people to up their financial position from being uncertain and near drowning allways. There are some powerful partners around me to realise all that.

Roofbuilding team enjoying ice cream

You see a chain of people working together to move tiles up the chain to close the roof. In this moment it was so warm they paused to have an icecream cone. The horizontals meant to keep the tiles up are 5x3 centimeter wood. The other side was made of scrap wood that came from a sawmill. My idea was to get cheap wood. But actually the scraps were scraps. Not so much useable material. In the end the sorting and organising of the whole heap costed so much time that we decided to take what was usefull and alass, burn the rest. Also in construcing it appeared that the scrapwood sometimes was so thin you couldn't walk on it without breaking it. An idea that scrapwood from a sawmill can be useful can be just that: an idea. Something that exists in the head but in effect has some consequences not recond on. So one has to conclude that something is a mistake. When that is the case, be drastic. Take your loss and burn or ditch your mistake. Don't let the idea withhold you.

I must say I enjoy working with various people together in teams. What happens is we create easy functioning teams. Barbara and me select from the emails those that appear interesting from the point of gut reaction. Until now we can be proud as husband and wife on having so good experiences being WWOOF hosts. This year has started in an incredible way. I trust we will have a lot of fun with the visiting volunteers this year. Also having a child learning all the languages he can by connecting to so many different people is encouraging. Keep you posted.

Diesel day

You see Mile posing with a beer bottle accompanied by Mirko, Jason and Max. The last 2 came from the westcoast of the US. Unbeknowst to them, Fleur called them respectively Ruby and Emma. They worked on finishing the roof of the small cattle stables and on terraces for our vinyard, and they worked in the garden. They came travelling via various WWOOF-farms to our place. 

Coming here wasn't easy. Passing through England met with some stern frowns about "working" (volunteering) without a permit. They were actually sent on the first plane back without a refund. When in a later stage they passed that hurdle, their luggage was put on a train to Siberia. They had to go back to Austria to try and pick it up. They didn’t succeed. (Just remember to put your luggage in the same wagon as you are sleeping. Otherwise you might wake up to a previously non existant window at the end of your carriage. Beyond which endless, is the iron road to Novosibirsk.)
Together Max and Jason formed a wonderful team. Both of them have sustainability written in their future. First they are going to take education as a next step in that direction. By the way, the beer bottle you see Mile holding gave way to the joke of the day. Amidst cries of my team I took a swig thinking (not looking) it was beer or water. I burped old cartersmell for the next 48 hours.