estwärts

Well rested from the weekend and driven by the motivation to complete all possible projects, we start the next week. Tobi in particular, who spent some time working on the toilet block over the weekend, joins Jonas in declaring “the toilet block must be finished” as their mission for the rest of the week.

To our amazement, Anne finds the energy to continue working on the windows of the main house despite all the difficulties. With varying degrees of enthusiastic support, a few last window frames are stripped of paint using the notoriously smelly procedure and then puttied. Anne has become indispensable as a specialist for this part of the window work because no one else has an overview of the various, lovingly kneaded and sorted putty buckets that were created in an attempt to make the half-dried linseed oil putty usable again. Despite the challenges, the finished window stack has grown considerably and is proudly covered to survive the winter.

Otherwise, the motto everywhere is: don’t start anything new, just finish what you’ve started! Everywhere, construction sites that have been started are being completed and tidied up. In particular, the felled thuja trunks that are still scattered around the yard need to find a dry place to store them over the winter. Lukas and Janne take care of this first and carry the trunks toward the barn to the newly built wood storage area.

But the tidying up doesn’t stop us from enjoying a leisurely coffee with our new neighbors on Tuesday evening and ceremoniously receiving a two-page list of Estonian songs, sorted by decade. We receive this in exchange for our list of German music recommendations, which we compiled during our last visit to the language exchange on Sunday. From Marianne Rosenberg to Die Ärzte, everything was included, though not sorted by decade, of course. The idyll is only occasionally disturbed by a rally driver who has been doing laps here all day for practice. At least our mobile sauna is perfectly positioned for the cinema experience.

Petra’s mission over the last few days has been to prune all the apple trees on the farm. On Wednesday, she finishes the last of the work and we imagine our future tent site on part of the orchard meadow. Finally, Petra, Basti, and Stefan drag all the branches to a large pile at the edge of the forest, or at least almost all of them. A few select deadwood branches are taken directly to the next construction site. This involves the interior finishing touches to the toilet block, which Basti and Petra are now working on with great enthusiasm.

Door handles and a way to lock the doors from the inside are still missing. Handles and bolts are artfully crafted from apple wood, as are the toilet paper holder and coat rack. The classic heart in the door is also a necessary element. However, having a heart on both doors would be too monotonous for us. Therefore, the second door will feature an extravagant butterfly design. Our improvised curtains made from an old rainbow-colored dress also look great. It looks modern!

The toilet block is almost finished, but as Tobi delivers the final hammer blows, he realizes with horror that even inside, he won’t be completely spared from the sudden rain that is pouring down on us. The roof is too flat! And there isn’t much time left… After a brief pause, he improvises: he temporarily attaches a tarp to the roof to secure the toilet for the time being. Winter can come, and that’s a good thing, because it’s now Wednesday evening. With the seven people remaining (Lola, Anne, and Lukas unfortunately left us during the week), we now sit around a campfire and burn the wood scraps from the toilet construction site. So now we’re still tidying up at ten o’clock in the evening, even if it’s just wood scraps. Unfortunately, we no longer have a warm yurt around us this evening. We took it down this afternoon after the rain shower. But we’re very relieved to have packed it away dry despite the wildly changing Estonian weather.

On Thursday, we continue tidying up. Jaan and Georg come by with the trailer, and everyone runs around all morning as if no one notices that it’s raining again without interruption. Only their faces reveal their longing for some sunshine, which actually arrives in the afternoon. Wonderfully, we have made so much progress with the tidying up that we even have time for a last swim in the river and a blog article. We also visit Marju and Jaan one last time to say goodbye and see you next year. We use our last evening at the farm to say goodbye to Rihula and the Kunda River, already looking forward to next year. We already have lots of ideas and plans and can’t wait to put them into action. See you soon!