Earth Cellar Part 1

Skip knew how to make me happy and bought me a pickaxe. I don't know what is stranger? That Skip got me one or that I was happy about it.

Why would I need a pickaxe you might ask yourself?

Well, every decent Swedish farm house has an earth cellar. Where else would you store your potatoes (which every decent Swede grows on their property), jams and other canned goods? Unfortunately our earth cellar was like a sieve and rodents ate all of our potatoes last year. The cellar was also a bit of an eyesore with its metal roof.

Since this picture was taken the kids playhouse has been removed and set on fire during a great party!

Because of rodents, the earth celler was included in the renovation plans and I attacked it this summer before the new crop of potatoes would need storage. With my new pickaxe I lowered the floor first, then filled in all the holes between the rocks on the side and recycled a lot of step stones (pavers) from around the property for the floor.

I plan to paint the grout between the rocks white for contrast!

Skip was busy working on digging up the front of the house at the same time and placed all the extra soil on top of the cellar to better insulate now that we removed the roof. It doesn't look so good right now but come next spring we will plant lavender and sweet pea on it! It will look great.

Rockliden

We might have to rename Björkliden to Rockliden. We previously had an idea that there were a lot of rocks on our property but could not have imagined that a little landscaping would uncover so many.

Skip has started to dig for the new entryway, drainage and a new walkway to the house and the number of rocks found are out of control!

This is just a small sample of what we have unearthed.

As you try to mow the lawn you also dull the blades of the lawnmower on "small rocks" that stick up but they are just the tip of the iceberg. See for yourself!

This is what came up after a little digging.

Only to leave you with this. Looks like a giant mole came through!

By next summer the lawn should be back in shape and we will have magnificent rock walls everythere. 

Yeah, We Got A Loan!

  We are happy to announce that we received a loan for the renovation. Let the real work begin! What it means in all reality is that everything just became a little harder as we now have to pick out all the items we want for the kitchen and bathrooms. This is not an easy task with so much to chose from. While we think about this you get to enjoy some pictures from the continued clearing of the garden area.

 We found several red and black currant bushes buried in nettle and tall grasses.

Garden rows ready for summer (evidence of growth coming soon)

These pretty flowers have already turned in to delicious strawberries. 

Playhouse Down

    The typical Swedish country property has many buildings, large and small. Often the kids are blessed with their own playhouse but, after years of neglect, our playhouse had fallen to disrepair and was more of an eyesore than a useful play area. The only one enjoying the place was our cat Flea who used it as a hide out.

   It was with joy that I took a sledgehammer to it after removing the windows and the door. It proved to be a good workout for the upper body and the quads. Who needs crossfit when you have a farm to fix up!

   The wood was unfortunately rotten so instead of reusing it we had an awesome bonfire during a birthday party. There is nothing like a bunch of people enjoying a cozy little fire in the middle of the night (thanks for the picture Fredrik N).  Yes, I did say the middle of the night. It is never quite dark in Sweden during the summer.

   Skip will remove a few of the stones before we fill in the area with grass to expand our lawn into the area. It is going to look great!!

Flagpole Felling or Quick and Easy (not really...)

 
 
   Tarnished, rusty, dirty, mossy, dented, bent- these words all apply to the Bjorkliden flagpole. Now, thanks to a surprising amount of work, it is once again the regal banner holding staff that anyone would be proud to call their own.

Pool Removal and Landscape Restoration

BEFORE

AFTER

  Pretty simple really.  Pool/No pool. There are plans to have a pool in the future, one that is permanent and will be integrated into the barn on the left. There are no more broken windows or loose shards of glass, old pallets, or a "law suit waiting to happen" deck. For now the neat pile of deck is waiting to be moved and reassembled into a deck for the work studio..... but that is another project.

The Remains of the Day

   Just before a stunning sunset photo-op I grabbed a picture of our yard after a day of much trimming, cutting, splitting. As you can see after the jump there was some stacking of wood as well.

      The three large birch that were cut down were not healthy and are also sitting with some other tree trunks in the upper right of the picture above. If everything works out right the wood will be used for furniture and interior paneling!

Getting Started

  Bjorkliden is well insulated with trees. Many of the trees block not only any views but also much light. So we have carefully selected some trees for removal. Since we both enjoy trees and enjoy the protection they offer from the sun and wind, we limited our choices to removing trees that are sick and block the most sunlight on the house and in the yard.
   In the end three birch (bjork) are to be removed in front of the house and three birch and two aspen (asp) on the south side of the house. Above is the before picture for the front of the house after the jump is an after as well as the pictures from the south of the house.