estwärts

“There’s a journeyman sleeping in the kitchen, don’t be scared,” murmurs a sleepy voice from the sleeping bag as Lola gets ready to be the first to get up on Friday morning. The one murmuring is Hagen, who just wanted to stare into the fire for a few minutes before going to bed the night before, when suddenly footsteps could be heard in the dark and the stylish discount-store-motion-detector-solar-garden-light flashed brightly. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, journeyman Paul was standing there. It wasn’t completely unexpected; Paul is currently working in Helsinki and is a friend of Anton’s. We had invited him to come over a few days ago. But the fact that he showed up here in the middle of the night is still impressive. Journeymen traditionally travel without cell phones and without their own cars. “How did you even find your way here?” “I hitchhiked from Tallinn and checked my ride’s cell phone again on the road.” Considering that the nearest road is at least 2 kilometers away through the forest and it was pitch dark when he arrived, that’s quite impressive. It’s a good thing we had set up our stylish discount-store-motion-detector-solar-garden-light as a light signal along the way.

Having Paul, another woodworker, with us is a great help, as we have a couple of woodwork projects on our list for Friday. Anton and Lola are working together to build a wooden box for our new gas stoves. We have been discussing the exact design and desired functionality for days. The stove box should be usable as a small table and shelf when in use. Boards are sawn and planed into shape before everything can be nailed and screwed together to form a box and a removable lid. Even fine grooves are carved into the lid of the box to fit the stove feet so that the stoves stand securely. We are all very happy with the result!

Paul and Hagen watch eagerly from the corner of their eyes, but are busy in the barn continuing the MFZ (mosquito-free zone) project, for which a floor was removed yesterday. To explain: the MFZ essentially consists of a close-meshed, but particularly large net, which will be used in the future for mosquito-free relaxation, association meetings, and working on laptops (as the author types these lines, he is already sitting in the finished product). Almost 40 cubic meters are to be mosquito-proofed in this way. But the devil is in the details: we can’t just staple the delicate net to the barn wall. Of course, in keeping with old tradition, we have to install the most complicated rope guide possible in the barn. Readers of the blog will remember last year’s fully automatic screen/cinema curtain combination. The cinema is also the crux of the matter here: in order not to obstruct the view of the screen, the MFZ net must be able to be pulled up high enough during film screenings so that it does not hang in the way. To this end, Paul and Hagen, with occasional help from Anton, who jumps back and forth between the stove box and the MFZ, are building a large, height-adjustable wooden frame and equipping the mosquito net with small wooden bars and weights so that it hangs optimally underneath.

Lukas isn’t idle either; he’s busy preparing dough for rye bread with sourdough. It will be baked in a Dutch oven, which is basically a heavy cast-iron pot preheated with coal or embers from the fire. Setting the right temperature requires experience, intuition, and a little luck. How easy it was last week when we could simply start the oven at headquarters. After a while, do those standing around not onliy begin to feel uneasy, but an unpleasant smell also reaches our noses. The Dutch oven had probably been preheated a little too generously. The bread is black on the bottom. But under the first burnt layer, after some reworking with a bread knife, a formidable rye sourdough bread is revealed. We enjoy it for dinner with potato soup and hapukoor, a type of Estonian sour cream. And this much can be said in advance: the next bread turns out better two days later!

Shortly before dinner, Hagen puts together a project that he had already prepared at home. Using a variety of homemade adapters, he first connects a Wi-Fi router, which used to be part of the Potsdam Freifunk network, to a power bank. LEDs begin to flash. Then he adds a mobile Internet stick and screws on two large antennas. Finally, after a bit of fiddling, inserting the SIM card, restarting, and crossing his fingers, there is suddenly Wi-Fi in the barn. But only briefly, then everyone is called to dinner and everything is quickly packed up again. We have very poor reception at the site, and the optimal location for the antenna—probably as high up as possible — will have to be found soon.

And then suddenly it’s Sunday. Today we’ve decided to take a day off and visit our new neighbors downstream. Shortly before, around 11 a.m., Krista comes to visit from Tallinn for the first time. It’s great to see everyone again after a year! Krista gets another quick tour of the farm and can marvel at what she has already read about here in the blog. Before we leave, we say goodbye to Paul, who has to go back to work on Monday and is heading to Helsinki today. A short but lovely visit!

Then Krista and Marju get into the car, and Lukas, Lola, Hagen, and Klaas, who arrived on Saturday, set off on foot to visit their new neighbors. They also have quite an ambitious project ahead of them. There is a rather large house that is already habitable, but also large old log barns. We particularly like one building in the Estonian “Rehe” style. This type of house is divided into two parts so that animals and humans could live under the same roof in the past. Strictly speaking, the occasional mouse still scurries through the roof, and minks are also frequent guests here. Some of the buildings still need a lot of work, but the garden is already very pretty, with many different plants, flowers, and frogs hopping around. We sit down in the kitchen, drink coffee, and eat cake again — today it’s Estonian honey cake — and spend the whole afternoon talking about the challenges our projects bring. From electricity and water supply to broken roofs and tree care, we really have a lot to talk about.

After a quiet, long day, we make our way home. Anton cooks us a spicy chili sin carne, which we eat with Hapukoor, of course, and slowly settle down. Some wash up, others write blogs, and the endurance running club gets lost in the field. We are now making ourselves comfortable and will be back again soon. See you soon!