estwärts

Hello dear friends from near and far,

It’s the time for reviews of the year again, and we don’t want to miss the opportunity to join this ritual, to look back and summarize what happened this summer in Rihula. We would like to do this by comparing pairs of pictures. The first picture below shows a place before or at the beginning of the construction hut and the second shows the same (or almost the same) place at the end or after the building activities.

Let’s go on a little tour around the farm. We will start at the sauna, because it was the center of our camp this year. The kitchen and communal tent were located here and over time the place has become more and more cozy. The sauna has been given some practical extensions and a meadow has been created to the right of the sauna, where we celebrated our party. After the construction hut, all the tents were taken down and packed away for the winter.

From the sauna, we make our way towards the barn. If you look to the right, you will see an open area with a row of thuja trees in the background. This part of the farm has undergone a major transformation. It was completely overgrown, but during the construction work, fruit trees and shrubs were gradually cut free and a sitting area was created.

Now we turn our attention to the stable, whose roof was repaired in the course of the construction works. We also made more space for the building by cutting down trees and tidied up the inside a bit. During the construction hut, the barn served as a technical room and electricity distribution station.

Now we turn by 180° and look at the main house. This view has changed considerably and the house is now much better visible. The house has been given new window shutters, which close the windows in winter, and a “cap” on the chimney, which protects the inside of the house from moisture.

Let’s walk around the house and then take a look inside. Around the house we cut down smaller (and larger) trees that were growing too close to the building.

We also worked hard behind the main house to create a larger open space, which we used both for working and as a quiet place to relax.

The biggest change to the main house from the outside is probably the patched roof. There was a large hole in the back left corner of the house until the summer. This has now been repaired and will hopefully be waterproof again.

But now we are curious to see what it looks like inside. We enter the house and stand in the kitchen. The false ceiling, wallpaper, plaster and later the floor have been removed. Now you can see the wooden beams of the walls and ceiling, making the room appear much higher.

In the so-called “couch room”, the plaster and false ceiling were also removed. A major task for the next few years will be the removal and new construction of the ovens. We already have various ideas for this.

The corner of the house under the hole in the roof has been particularly thoroughly opened up. We’ll see next year how much damage the water has caused here.

We leave the main house again and are now facing the old earth cellar. This was uncovered during the construction work and earth that had pressed against the barn wall was removed from its right-hand edge. There are already a few ideas about what we can do with the earth cellar. Let’s see what we end up with.

To the right of the earth cellar is the barn. It has also undergone some repairs: The right-hand part of the roof has been renewed, the gates and corner posts have been repaired, and the old hay inside has been removed. During the construction phase, we used the barn as a cinema, practice room, material storage and meeting room. Quite multifunctional!

From the other side it looks really chic, too.

This brings us to the end of our tour around the farm and you have seen the most important changes.

Many thanks to all helpers and supporters. With your contribution to the building activities, with material donations or material loans, with monetary donations or professional support and much more, you have supported the project and carried it a lot further. It was great working with you, and we are already looking forward to the next year!

Happy holidays and a good start into the new year.