Week 27

Week 27

Not much this week, as I have been almost 5 days doing the 1st Quarter bookkeeping! Has to be in early so our accountant can go on holidays! Ha!. My longtime lament (falling on deaf ears) is that "bookkeeping is hard enough; imagine having to do it in a foreign language". We did get away for a much-needed short trip on the boat.

More Paving, Drainage and Landscaping

Supervised by Zoey

Yes, yet another drain.....

Cheating with the new grass..

Putting these stones in stops the splashing on to the weatherboards..

And a new solution for getting our container to the road... fastened the pallet to extend the shovel

A client's Project - fixing up the old hayshed - slowly coming along

Photo from November...did I say "slowly"? 

"Free" Weekend....What to do....?

Visit Sjoukje in Boornszwaag, of course.

To Boornszwaag

On the way to Boornszwaag

3 hours travel through some new waters, including only 1 metre deep and bridges 2.5 metres high (we allow 2.4 metres).

There are some beaut "hidden" places that look just so much more attractive from the water - "with room for a boat".

Like this one at €1,150,000

At Boornszwaag

Excellent haven facilities and a reasonable restaurant. Lots of Jags, Mercs and BMW's on the residents' side!

The restaurant has a Caribbean theme, hence the palm trees. €14 per night mooring fees, including tourist tax!.

The residents' side....

The return trip (slightly different and only 2.5 hours due to more open water).

I'm sure I've said it before, but it never ceases to amaze me - just how much money there is in the boating industry here. Havens everywhere, chock full of boats - ultra expensive or otherwise.

If you look closely at the boat on the right, it has TWO fixed keel sailing boats on the rear platform!

(not just the plain old rubber dinghy on davits for this fellow!).

And lastly, not far from us in Heerenveen is a railway bridge that can be requested by intercom to be opened to allow passage.

Week 26 More on Blokzijl

Week 26

More on Blokzijl

I did a bit of research on Blokzijl and found some quite interesting stuff. The first recorded mention (1363) of the area refers to the "end of the deep", meaning the end of the then navigable stretch of water. This later became the site of a lock which was primarily used to stop flood waters from the Zuider Zee. It was mentioned in the early 1500's and later named Blokzijl after the lock was rebuilt in the style of another lock in the area - this other lock was built next to a/the Blockes House ( I don't know what a Blockes house is - maybe the name of a family?). "Zijl" was an early Dutch word for "sluis" or lock.... therefore "Blok Lock" for my sense of wordplay.

     At the end of the 16th century there was an increasing demand for peat to fuel the heating needs of the large southern cities. This was a huge source of income for the Toll house at the lock. The city was re-built (by chap in photo, below) as a fortress and given special privileges by Prince Maurits.

     Beer brewing was also big business at this time - with 5 breweries operating under their own Guild.
     Silting of the harbour was (and still is) an expensive problem but keeping it navigable was necessary for the important trade function and the need to protect Blokzijl as a Dutch city in the midst of Spanish influence.
     The "Golden Years" of Blokzijl were between 1623 and 1666 when up to 160 "kavelen" (caravels?)(medium sized seagoing vessels) had Blokzijl as their home port. The end came (as did the end of the Dutch "Golden Century") when most of the Dutch trading fleet was destroyed by the English on the Zuider Zee.

Sometime in this period the area was under the rule of the Spanish - but a number of Nederlands cities rebelled and broke away -Blokzijl went with them but remained at the outer limit of the area ruled by Spain.

Geocaching

We looked up a Geocache for Blokzijl before we left. It can sometimes be a great way to explore a village, town or area with a sense of purpose, rather than just wandering around. The one in Blokzijl had picked out 12 landmarks or features, 6 of which could be used to find the co-ordinates of the "treasure" or cache. The numbers of the "correct" 6 would add up to 34 and then we had to line them up from east to west and then........ well, we didn't get that far. I think we needed to have more stuff printed before we started - so we'll finish that off next time. But here are some of the photos of the landmarks...

A snoek (Pike - a fish)

And some more photos I took whilst just "wandering" (on foot and in the boat)....

Plastic Pontoons

Old Sea Gates with Lock Keeper's House

Land Reclamation and Blokzijl

The light coloured areas are the reclaimed land - showing Blokzijl at the edge of the Zuider Zee (hence the need for the sea gates in the photo above).

....and a Google Earth pic

Ossenzijl:Private canal with removable bridge.

Lock Gates

The two "arms" operating the gates are "toothed" and are critical to the operation. The winding mechanism is in the green box which rotates the rod, which engages with the "teeth" of the arms. It is not noticeable in the photo, but the closest arm is slightly bent because it was rammed by a boat in the lock, only a few weeks ago. The boat had lost all control of it's steering so the owner just had to sit there as his boat crashed into the arm.

Back at work.....

Landscaping

Yes, it's still wet!

Tile lifting machine - creates a vacuum - to lift each tile (2 men).

And MORE drainage!! No bloody wonder with all this rain!

Week 25 What are the odds?

Week 25

Drowning Pumpkins....

but the weeds continue to thrive!

Tuesday (of the following week!!)

Needless to say, we have had even more rain this week. It rained ALL day on Monday, but they did manage to dig out the driveway - and lay the drainage pipes. We avoided any damage to existing drains, water pipes and electricity cables - we found all three. Everything is underground here - most of it I remember OK. It is all supposed to go on an official register which has to be checked by contractors undertaking any work.

Already working!

Bird Nesting Boxes

I had to tell the kids that we didn't "think" the birds survived - so we would make proper nesting boxes for next year. This kept them busy for a couple of hours...

Unintended consequences.

I now have a big pile of pretty good soil.

Landscaping and clean-up

Finally, a few days off.

and, as usual, there are other things threatening to intervene. Ben's 4 weeks in Amsterdam are almost up and we have to drive down there again to pick him up - so that will be Monday evening, assuming that we get back in time on Sunday - it's all in the planning!

So, the plan is to go down to Blokzijl on Friday, be there for Sipke's birthday party - a night out at our favorite pub - and back to Heerenveen on Sunday. Work as usual on Monday. 

A 6 hour trip (one way)

The "reward"

Disclaimer

As I write the rest of this for my self-imposed deadline of "some time on Sunday", I have a hangover!

My own fault of course, but it was Sipke's 60th, after all.

Oh no! A "what I ate" photo

and a "what I drank" photo (a Belgian beer from Bruges)

Sipke was also drinking the Brugse Zot. This is what happens if you drink too much!

What are the odds?

We had two Australian boats moored less than 50 metres away!. Both couples were from Fremantle. Apparently there are 14 in a loose sort of "club" organised in Fremantle and they all come over for about 3 months every year. ie 14 different boats!!

The two we saw were both very nice boats - and people!

I had a bit of a chat with John and Dianne (!) on their Linssen 34 (ft). They had their boat made for them by Linssen in Maasbracht, down in Limburg. They keep the boat there and it is only a relatively short trip into France or Belgium. Last year they went to Germany and this year they were on their way to France but were deterred by the bad floodwaters in Maastricht. So they headed north and are about to "discover" Friesland. Blokzijl is in Overijssel and we discussed a few places they could go to in Friesland. Of course, The Turfroute got a mention, as did Dokkum and a few more of our favorite places.  

What are the odds 2?

Driewegsluis (Three Way Lock)

It was very windy for the return trip on Sunday. If I could truly "retire" then I would have opted for another day of leisure and recovery, but duty calls, as ever. The first lock was going OK for us but the two boats in front went sideways! and so I had to backtrack ever so inelegantly - unfortunately I would have been the only one in sight of the Aussie boats - shit happens!

The next lock at Driewegsluis (Threeway Lock) was full with boats coming our way, so we had to wait until it emptied. We grabbed the last "wait here" mooring but still more boats were arriving and had to circle in the windy conditions until the lock opened. Somehow the lock keeper managed to squeeze us all in but there was one huge boat that wouldn't move all the way forward - they had found a spot and that was it as far as they were concerned! 

Janny had spotted another boat further in the lock (it is a big lock but only a rise and fall of about 40cm) and cried "that looks like....." she ran on ahead..... and sure enough it was our old boat "Refuge Cove" - now renamed but with the same owners. It looked to be in pretty good nick but we are still sure that "Australia" is more suited to us.
Footnote: the area is commonly known as "Driewegsluis" because there used to be a "Three way Lock" in operation. It is in the trees (centre) in the above photo but no longer in operation. The three ways can be seen in the photo below.

I think I have to call it quits there. More next week about Blokzijl.