Moving since 3 years

I am maintaining a journal in the format of noting down the events of the days in a tabular way, having always the same day on one page, just for the current year. Like this, I see what happened exactly that day the years before. Such has a capacity of 5 years. There are also versions with 10 years, but then the daily space for writing gets quite compressed. This is a very nice way of keeping a journal. Now I realized that exactly a year ago, I packed a “Movecube” which is an OSB box available in different sizes offered by the Seven Seas Worldwide shipping company. They are very well and transparently priced, and all worked very reliably. They obviously don’t have all locations in their programme, but Wiesbaden-Toronto was available. Wiesbaden-Malta wasn’t. So this required moving thing into a local storage and then shipping by sea freight. I used Transpak Malta for that and again I was very lucky that all went very well and reliable. These things just arrived last week. All this building, moving, packing started actually in March 2023, now lasting the third year, when I started building a cabin. I called my blogpost back then “The last dirty mile is really dirty”. It stayed that way. Also unloading the houseboat. Over time, I asked for more help. But still, it’s tough. On the other hand, you have a built in gym in your life by design.

I am happy to wind all this down now. Most things are kind of in the place they should be, in a global network of accommodations, spanning over continents. Even this sounds exciting, getting there is actually a very inefficient period of life. Sure, you can go everywhere with hand luggage. But you have 3 washing machines, 4 wardrobes, multiple vehicles, all needing to be maintained. But of course, once all is set up, it is a very interesting way to see the world.

With all the moving, one of the most annoying things was to get out of Germany, when it comes to administration. I don’t think, they try to make it difficult to leave the country. They just make it difficult for everybody. And because when you emigrate there are so many admin touchpoints in a short period of time, that it really it really appears absurd sometimes. But now also this comes to an end. This time, I did not have Frankfurt airport as a touch point on the way from Tallinn to Malta, but flew through the Netherlands. It is so much better to stay away from the chaos of Frankfurt and all these grumpy people. Germany kaput! Heading back to Toronto through Warsaw, with a little stop over in town.

Alternative Housing

In 2021 I decided to spend more time in the Netherlands and took a part time teaching position at Tilburg University. Immediately the question of housing came up. Tilburg in itself is a small university town and it is fair to say it has a housing crisis, which I did not want to add to. So when thinking through options, I started to look for boats. And this is how a three year semi-holiday in the Netherlands started. I have published frequently posts on this website about it.

A good friend introduced me to the Dutch waterways before and I always enjoyed seeing the world from the water side. Considering different boat types, and given I needed it mostly for staying and not for travelling, I opted for a motorized Houseboat, a Campi 320 Long Roof, and bought it from Golliath in Sneek. As a second home, it turned out to be perfect, being able to change the scenery from urban to rural and back, cruising the canals and having all the comforts of a little swimming house. The motorization proved sufficient for that with a Yamaha 9,9 High Thrust, which allows travelling at around 6 km/h with a fuel consumption of about 2,5 l / hour. And even winter was cozy, with a gas central heating.

Sure, there are some adjustments. For example, if you don’t attach the boat to land water, you have 250 l fresh water before you need a refill. That’s about a week for one person. You can get water easily in any marina though. The same for “black water” (sewage). In the Netherlands “grey water” (shower, kitchen, sink) can go into the river. That also meant, I took it strict on how much and what kind of detergent I used. Then during stormy nights, even in sheltered waters, it can get a little bumpy. The body shapes of these type boats, are catering to comfort, but it does make them hard to maneuver in strong winds. I never took it to one of the house boat settlements, which I heard is great to be. I had plans to bring it to the French Canals later, but then moving to Canada came around the corner. So, I made investigations on whether it would be feasible to move the boat to Ontario, or take it up the Mississippi River. But going into technical details, I finally decided, not to follow that plan. While in Europe the infrastructure, services and spare parts are available and easy to obtain, this is different in North America. Especially, as my boat has been built to European standards and I would not even find a 250 Volt electric fuse in Canada or the USA. Also the distances are so much larger, that it is probably not feasible to take the boat for a ride in summer, which is short anyways. Plus, there is the Canadian winter, which has a reputation.

So, a little heart broken, I put my boat on the market for sale. It’s like always when you sell something you like, you want to find somebody who appreciated it the same way. Let’s see how I can manage that. Now it’s online for a start here.

This gras is not greener somewhere else

After all the earth works were done for the construction of my “Dacha” in Hunsrück the ground was really bare. The ground in some places also became a mix of soil and gravel, as the excavator left it’s heavy traces of turmoil. To get things green again, I bought 40 kg of horse meadow seeds online at Agrarshop. I just spread it thinly on the soil and gravel and went my way, expecting not too much. But, wow, after 6 weeks even gras was growing in places where I did not expect anything to boom. I was lucky with the weather, as it was a mild and humid July.

There is still a lot to do on the construction site. But if I am lucky, it will all focus on inside decoration until winter. What’s still pending is water supply, bathroom and kitchen appliances, fire place and chimney, electrical installation, and sewage pump. Then also the terrace and getting pebbles to fill up the wall fringes, so that the rain water does not splash up mud. The rain rater tank is already on the ground. An then I also need to find somebody to help me disposing the construction waste.

The last dirty mile (is really dirty)

The last stretch is actually less than a mile. But getting the building material on the construction turned out to be quite complicated. The truck came with amounted crane and a trailer with a trailer. So the procedure was to park the trailer, and first lift the parts like insolation material, windows, doors and roofing in. Then reload the 4 packs of cladding from the trailer on the truck and repeat. However, one pack has slightly under 2 tons and as the access road is narrow, it was not possible to stabilize the truck. The alternative was to drive a small bulldozer in first, mount a fork, and then lift the packages off from the side. Just after the first pack was off the truck, it started raining and the dozer sank in the mud. Stuck. So, the other 3 packs had to be placed on a parking place close and stay there a few days, until the surface can be covered with gravel. Not perfect, but no other way possible.

With all these heavy machines running in his forest, somebody seems to meditate on “tell me where the flowers are”. It will need a bit of gardening after.

Construction begins

Besides work, quite a few things are keeping me busy at the moment: 1) building a wooden weekend house in a forest region up the Upper Middle Rhine Valley and 2) moving my houseboat away from Lathum (Netherlands) south through the canals. In both, I am learning quite a bit each day, and for those who may plan to do something similar, I thought I share some experience. It may sometimes be quite brief because the first lesson learned is: I am very, very busy.

Let’s start with the house. It’s an assembly kit made in Lithuania and provided by the company Pineca. The model is called “Adaline” and has 50 m² with a tilted roof. It’s an insulated version to make sure it can be used in winter. It also comes with an optional 24 m² Terrasse, which I had to shorten a little, as the land title only allows 70 m² max built surface.

Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that the administrative process until construction could start was quite lengthy. First came a one-year legal battle with the seller of the land. I was not aware that the sales were in the context of an inheritance settlement between two daughters, one of which was a (very nasty) lawyer. What I learned here is that just by claiming nonsense and writing idiotic letters, people can slow you down forever. It does not matter to be right when somebody knows to play the game of throwing roadblocks into the process. Luckily, I was able to settle after a year. Then came the building permit. The first application was rejected because my architect filed for a “holiday house” (Ferienhaus) instead of a “weekend house” (Wochenendhaus). It’s the same house, but a “holiday house” is a “touristic installation” which can not be granted in that region. So, now you think: fust change the word. No, not in Germany. Here it would be best if you reapplied from the start. Another half year passed, including a necessary re-drawing of plans because the fond used was too small for the micro-fiche archiving. Yes, Germany in the year 2023 - micro-fiche. The lesson learned here was to take an architect who knows people at the local building administration (Bauamt) instead of the building. You may also ask why you need an architect to apply for building an assembly kit house, anyways. Well, you need.

Luckily the company Pineca was super tolerant, coping with these delays. At some point, they wanted to deliver quickly, after the suggested date when the building permit was expected. So, they started production and things needed to stay in the warehouse for over half a year. But finally, clearance came at the beginning of March, after over 2 years of paper pushing on my side.

The land is slightly tilted and my plan to build close to a small road, where sewage, fresh water and electricity is available had to be revised, due to some building regulations. So now, it’s getting a little more complicated with getting utilities connected. Also, the delivery was outsourced to a logistics company and they did not make any enquires on the conditions, turning up with a 40 ton truck and a stapler. The German driver was completely un-inspired and a rather rude fellow, refusing to even give it a try to deliver the last few 100 meters and unload. On top of that one hail storm after the next came down. So, I called a friend who luckily knew a friend about 1 hour drive away with a large timber company and space to unload and store material for a short time. If he would not have agreed to help me, I would have really been in a fix.

Now the material is at MS-Holz in Wiesbaden and the owner helped me to find a local logistics company called Pauly with a truck, having a crane mounted and a trailer. That should do. It’s about 9 m load and the heaviest pack is 1,8 tons. 4 large packages are each 6 m long.

Another chapter is the foundation. Here I had several offers, of which I decided for a local young entrepreneur contractor. It was by far not the cheapest offer, but fairly priced and competent.

The process is as follows: 1) the surveyor marks the building site roughly for the excavation, 2) the excavation is done and gravel to protect from frost is filled in. Then, 3) the surveyor marks the site precisely and the concrete is pored in and finished. The foundation itself is laid out by a static planning, including how much steel has to be in the concrete.

So, now things can really get started and I will continue sharing experiences. Of course, should you bump into this site online through a search engine, and have specific questions, please feel free getting in tough through the contact form.

Boat on the river

I returned to the Netherlands. It’s raining, 6° Celsius, and it gets dark at about 17:00 (5 p.m.). But I am staying on my boat, and it’s cosy inside. The gas heating is doing a good job. I was going out with a thermal camera to spot some weak spots in terms of insolation potentially. But there are non. Also, I ran the engine for some hours, put more air into the fenders and tightened things up for potential autumn storms to come. There is now no wind at all, and the water is like a mirror. That’s a little uncommon for the season, definitely when compared with last year, when heavy storms swept over this land.

This is the second winter on the boat. The marina is nearly empty, as many took their boats on land for maintenance. I will do so only briefly before I am planning to take the boat through Belgium to France in the coming spring and find a harbour in Alsace.

A boat is a lot of work. And they have a character. You better learn about it. It took me 2 hours to figure out a problem with the DC/AC-Inverter. Then many hours small maintenance items and cleaning. Finally, also the dingy had a problem. I pumped out the rainwater and slipped on the wooden plans, smashing my knee. But all okay.

"Solar flares" in the grid

Malta’s communities have added a lot of solar panels recently. So, did my neighborhood in Kalkara. In principle that’s good of course. But with the Maltese electric grid, not being the most sophisticated, it struggles to keep the current within range. I had local surge protectors to keep harm away from small appliances. But with friends, working at Enemalta and telling me about monitoring the very unstable currents in Kalkara, I started to get worried about for example the aircon motherboard being harmed by a surge. To protect that, I looked around and got hold of an AOELEC AURV2 36T over- and undercurrent protector switch from Wenzhou (China). It can take 40 Amps and like that you can just install it in a row with the main house fuses. Then you set the maximum voltage at which it switches off, the minimum, the response time and the recovery time when it switches on again. With my settings, I followed the recommendation by Enemalta: max. 255 V, min., 205 V, switch off delay 2 sec and back on after 18. The only way to know whether it works is to wait and see. So, let’s do that.

AOELEC AURV2 - 36T over- and undercurrent switch

Chainsaws and the way they change how people listen

As expected, two storms in a row, also left a bit of damage in the forest. So yesterday, I took my dog and a chain saw to sort out a few things. Following the trend of electrification, recently I ditched the petrol engine chain saw against a battery-powered model with the Bosch 18 V system. I found it so practical, that I carried it with me also while shopping and for paying at the fuel station. It did not go unnoticed while doing so, that people treated me more respectful and listened very carefully, not just to what I asked, but also to how I said it. And also they smiled more and set their words more carefully. Of course, I know that different dress codes can change the conversation. In Asia, for example, you are treated more respectful when you wear an expensive watch. But, trust me, just wearing my Casio watch and a chain saw completely changes social interaction. I am thinking of taking one into the next management meeting. I am sure, this would have a very positive effect on the way decisions are made. I am obviously not a career coach, but I can see the potential of a whole new category of “dress for success” advice.

By the way, no tree fell in the storm. They are mainly oaks and the storm just took out a few branches, which would have fallen anyway soon. Still, it is a good reminder, not to go into a forest during a storm, but they were cut to handy firewood in no time. Also, it is now time to start planting for the new year. I added 2 apple trees, one pear, three cherry trees and a large number of various forest berries. I am having a walnut tree, which strangely last year did not produce any nuts. Also, I broke open about 30 m² of land at a place with grey-brown podzolic soil, which I will turn into a vegetable garden during the coming weeks.

My work companion (not really working)

Spring is coming

We are having what we call “April weather”, which is a quick change of sunny moments, followed by rain and even hailstorms. In the past, people said, it’s when summer fights winter for domination. And when you look at the isobar map, that’s what it is. Today, I was reminded that spring is coming by a picture shot by my hunting camera. It monitors the tool hut in my forest garden. This one, triggering the motion sensor, is not a thief but a welcome guest. I hope in the future many more will make themself feel at home.