estwärts

We spend the morning after the party enjoying a leisurely brunch. One by one, sleepy guests arrive at the sauna, and as the sun shines, we fill the table with yesterday’s leftovers. Just as we are about to sit down, another rain shower rolls in, and we manage to save our food by bringing it inside the yurt. In the more or less dry tent, we sit around the fire pit and listen to the raindrops. Brunch turns into a cozy relaxation session in the yurt, and we enjoy our free Sunday despite the rain.

Petra and Basti don’t see any reason to change their plans because of the rain and set off for a walk. They come back quite wet, but with a basket full of chanterelles. In the afternoon, a small group takes a trip to a nearby moor.

In the early evening, the sky clears up again and we can enjoy our dinner with chanterelles in the last rays of sunshine.

On Monday, we start the day refreshed and full of energy. Suddenly, it feels like a busy anthill, and everywhere on the farm, things are progressing rapidly over the next two days.

In front of the barn, Klaas and Lola are setting up a mobile sawmill to prepare floor beams for the main house. We prepared the logs for this last year from felled trees. The two are very enthusiastic about their construction and are already making plans to start their own sawmill business. After just a few cuts, the fun is over and all the beams are sawn to size. Many thanks to Ralf for lending us his large chainsaw.

Meanwhile, Sören, Nils, and Basti are doing a woodworking internship in and around the barn. They are finishing the formwork, making minor repairs, and building a roof over a wood storage area on the outer wall. Despite the rain, work is progressing quickly, and we are all very excited about the results.

There is also great anticipation at the window construction site. Finally, last week’s linseed oil has dried and we can start with the putty. The two Annas, Petra, Anne, and Jolie prepare the panes and the putty. This must be kneaded until smooth and should not contain any lumps. The putty bed is then prepared in the frame, then the panes are inserted and fixed with glazier’s pins. Next, the putty is applied to the top and smoothed with a putty knife. After the first two windows, however, we run out of putty (we significantly underestimated the amount needed!) and have to get more. While one of the Annas and Jolie make their way to Rakvere, the others begin removing paint from more window sashes.

Unfortunately, the putty and our fingers smeared with putty leave unsightly stains on the windows that are difficult to remove. Anne, Jolie, and Petra set to work like detectives with brushes and chalk powder.

On Monday evening, we get more people to help out. Tobias, Jonas, and Stefan arrive. Now there are 15 of us at the farm, and we thought that would be the largest group for this year. But the next day, we have another spontaneous visitor: Marvin is on a multi-day hike and passes by the farm, arriving just before a thunderstorm. We invite him to take shelter from the rain, and he spontaneously spends the afternoon and evening with us.

On Tuesday, the construction of the outhouse really gets into full swing. Sören and Nils prepare all the components so that they only need to be put together like a puzzle afterwards. To do this, they have set up a small workbench in the barn where they can prepare the beams undisturbed by the rain.

At the same time, Tobias is working outside next to our temporary, orange-colored toilet, preparing the point foundations for the new toilet house. Shortly before construction began, we changed the planned location because we had the idea of building a toilet block where an old shed currently stands.

Once again, there are lots of changes happening in the yard. Stephan is doing a big mowing job with the brush cutter, and Lola is cutting down some thuja trees with the help of Klaas, Stefan, and Jonas. Behind them, more fruit trees are coming into view, which we want to thin out a bit over the next few days.

In the kitchen, we continue to refine our baking methods without an oven. Lukas prepares pizza dough, which we will bake into pizzas on Monday evening. This time, however, we won’t be using the Dutch oven, but instead we will build a construction using two pot lids to generate top and bottom heat. Now we have to turn 25 pre-portioned dough balls into pizzas, which takes us almost the entire evening.

On Tuesday, we’ll continue with dough-based creations. Anne had the idea of making cinnamon rolls on a stick. We love the idea and will try it out on Tuesday during our coffee break. The result is impressive, and we’ll definitely be doing this more often!