Christmas time.... at HOME

Merry Christmas to all of our family in Australia and Germany, and our friends all over the world!  We hope you have a meaningful, happy, and yummy Christmas!

 On her way to Kindergarten this morning, dressed as an angel for their Nativity Play.  The Kindergarten is only a hop, skip, and a jump away..... next door in the forest.

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 Summer this year was moving time again.  We left our little home at Hof Woerme at the end of July and moved to Nordholz, a small area just north of Minden.  Our year at Woerme was extremely challenging but also extremely good at the same time.  Hard times make us grow!

 Mixing pink paint for her room...

 My brother Aaron and his wife Jess came to visit in August, as part of their honeymoon trip.  It was wonderful to have Australian guests and to explore some of our new area together.  The highlight for all of us was our bike ride along the Weser River (pictured).

 We live outside the village itself, on an environmentally protected area.  It is surrounded by forests, but the neighbours are not too far away.  In the basement of the building we live in - Gut Nordholz - which means 'Estate Nordholz' is a Cafe, where I work a little.  On the middle level are seminar rooms which are mainly used by the local council for different kinds of seminars.  We prepare hot and cold drinks for groups and sometimes cook them a warm lunch.  As Caretakers here we do little things to take care of the property, but mostly we are required to be here, live here, be present. 

 In Autumn we discovered a street full of old varieties of pears within walking distance.  The trees belong to no-one and anybody is allowed to go and collect/pick the fruit.  Our basement is full of jars of pears for winter! Yum!

Nahlia's first Lantern Festival...  Walking through the forest singing traditional songs, handmade lanterns (with battery operated LEDs in most), a short play, and fingerfood afterwards were all part of the evening.

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And finally we are HOME.  After two years of traveling and sharing our living space with others, we are  now at HOME.

Aussie visitors!!

 

Justin and Ainsley Jackson from Cairns, Australia, visited us a few weekends ago.... It was so lovely to have Aussie guests!

 

  The baby goats were so adorable and soft.... I picked one up for our guests to pat.

Nahlia enjoying a very high swing on the 'Heidi Swing.'

 A happy customer....  before she knocked into Ainsley who was holding the camera!

 Walking in the forest.... listening to the woodpeckers... visiting the coldest river in Northern Germany (a stream or creek by Australian standards).

 "I got one!"

Collecting the eggs was fun for Ainsley and Justin... doing it just once is always fun!

 Quality control... he he he

 Ainsley with one of the milking goats; they're very friendly.

 Puschel the friendly cat (they are many wild ones) got some lovin'!

 Justin and Nahlia with Puschel.

Peeling the potatoes for our Sunday dinner.  

There was lots of good food, we did manage to have German sausages, but I forgot the Sauerkraut!  There were lots of good chats and catching up.  And we did a lot of sleeping and relaxing too! It was a blessing to have Ainsley and Justin for a few days in amongst their Europe tour.  [My German was really bad for the few days after! Mind blanks all over the place.  ha ha!]  We miss you two and have a blast in Europe!

Spring, Nahlia turned 3, and...

Spring has sprung slowly in northern Germany.  I've been watching impatiently as the different bulb flowers shoot their green leaves into the air, then slowly revealing a beautiful flower.  The sun is finally shining again, though the wind can be very cold still.  Every day that the sun shines, Nahlia dresses in her summer clothes and says 'it's summer today!.'  She can't wait for warm summer days when she can run around in nothing but undies and a dress....  and niether can I!

 Our resident male peacock, making a show, looking for a mate.

 Dovidas and Nahlia meeting the spring kids.

 Moving the 'Palace' - our largest chicken house.  Kathrin is pictured, a fellow apprentice.

 The recent solar eclipse was incredible to watch.  Even when the sun was completely covered by the moon, it's light was still strong.  The warmth was gone, though, and the day turned cloudy and cold afterwards.

 Our beautiful sweet girl turned 3!!!  She had a great day...

 After the carnage of present-opening.... relaxing with Daddy on the couch, watching Pippi Longstockings.

 Having a tea party with her new self-painted tea set!  Daddy used his tea cup for his coffee! 

The afternoon saw her busy making ice cream play dough with her friend Dovidas (neighbour).

After many intense months at Hof Woerme, we finally made the decision not continue with Ulf's apprenticeship.  It was a very difficult decision to make.  We had committed to this new path, this farm, this apprenticeship and now we were facing the idea of failure if we broke that commitment.  But we just could not continue to live and work under so much pressure...  Ulf working 55 hours a week, as well as doing homework and studying for exams, is just too much for our little family to bear.  One full day off every two weeks is just not enough for a husband and a father.  We knew that Hof Woerme was only going to be a stepping stone for us on our journey in Germany.   This last year has been an incredible roller coaster ride of learning and growing for all of us, and through it we have been strengthened... it is just a start in the right direction.  Ulf's work contract finishes at the end of July, which means early August will see us moving house....  where to?  We don't know yet.  We have started looking at other organic farms closer to Ulf's family, which is the main reason we decided to move to Germany - to be closer to them.  But it may take some time before we know where we'll be come autumn.

Winter dreams...

 Hmmm.... she wants to milk the goat, but is not quite brave enough to touch them!

 Enjoying some organic food in Hamburg after watching the ballet 'Napoli' for free!!

 This is what 180 eggs look like when they fall on the floor.... whoops!

 Nahlia's first night in her own room!! Someone's exited!!

 Hail.... while we were inside swimming in warm water, outside it was turning white!

Snowman building with Daddy

 Our neighbour's pretty house with light snowfall, with their lawn being groomed and fertilised by the farm geese.

 Laying hens in the snow!!

Oops, left the pram outside and it got snowed on.  Nahlia loves to eat the snow.

And that's how we've spent our winter!!  Spring is just around the corner now... the gardeners have already sown seeds for the greenhouse (tomatoes, capsicum and eggplant), the largest chook pen has been emptied (old hens to the butcher which came back as soup chickens for the shop to sell), moved and cleaned ready for new chickens next week, and I just planted out some wild strawberries and narcissus flower bulbs in my little garden.  Soon everything will turn green and blossom with colour.

Happy New Year!

A new year, wow, it feels good!  Hof Woerme has been our home for five months now and we are very slowly feeling at home here.  A new place, people, work, challenges, etc, takes a long time to adjust to.  Ulf loves what he is doing; he really enjoys his work and is learning so much!  Nahlia loves the animals and the people, and is very much looking forward to starting Kindergarten next week!!  I've been struggling to find my place here and really feel at home, but I'm hoping that some changes this year will put all the puzzle pieces together for me.  I love that we're on a biodynamic farm, learning what it takes to live self-sufficiently, and I know that we're in the right place for us right now. 

We celebrated Christmas with Ulf's family in Wehrendorf, with loads of sweets, chocolates, yummy food, presents, singing, cousins playing together, and board games for the adults!  That was a lot of fun!  

New Year's Eve saw us enjoying Raglette (look it up) with our Hof Woerme comrads, early fireworks and bedtime for Nahlia and Emma, and Ulf wiled away the hours with the others - I heard tales of folk dancing and games before the big bang at 12...!

 Our home in winter...

 In December I finally mounted our shelves onto the wall!  It was no easy task as our walls are paper thin... after five months I found the time to get the right anchors and do the job...  Nahlia likes to use the drill too, and would love to screw in the screws for me if I let her!

 Ulf's work clothes are often so dirty that I soak them in the bathtub overnight before throwing them into the wash...  Well, this time Ulf put his clothes into the tub for me, but forgot to check ALL the pockets... so his notebook got soaked... unfortunately it is full of needed information, so I got the job of hanging up each page individually to dry.

 Our beautiful girl, playing dress-ups and cubby houses with Mummy... (that's our kitchen table in the background, covered with a sheet).

 Nahlia's first New Year's Eve with fireworks at home!  These two sticks are giant sparklers, nothing too dangerous Mum! ;-)