Sep 11, 2009 Posted by Tiffany

That’ll take care of the algae – covering an IBC tank

Fall is setting in here in Frankfurt. The weather has cooled down a bit and it was raining a lot more last week. Been a bit overcast the last two days but no rain and I’m certainly not complaining. The fall weather has been absolutely glorious and I’m actually looking forward to the fire red, burnt orange and sunflower yellow leaves on the trees; even if it does mean winter is coming soon. Our... read more

Sep 1, 2009 Posted by Tiffany

Nico makes some much needed repairs

After Nico pulled all the ivy and whatever else was growing on the barn down, we started taking a look around the corner of the structure (which faces our neighbors and we can barely see) and noticed that one patch of plastered wall was about to fall out of the timber framing. Since we’re rarely up in that part of the barn (above the wine cellar) we had no idea that one of the beams was very badly... read more

Jul 23, 2009 Posted by Tiffany

Building a pump house for our Gardena system

When we bought our farm house almost 3 years ago (I really can’t believe it’s been that long already) one of the great things about it was a fully functioning water system run off our own underground well. This area is full of underground springs and one of Germany’s largest water bottling plants is just 20 minutes drive from us so you know the water must be good. To get the system... read more

Jul 22, 2009 Posted by Tiffany

Bringing in the reinforcments to paint outside

You might remember my post from March when we tore down the vines on our storage buildings. After all the vines were gone, the wall was in pretty bad shape. It’s been shedding salt and just starting to crumble off due to improper care and the wrong materials being used on it in the first place. So our neighbor the general contractor came over and put a netting on the wall, added new plaster and got... read more

Jul 18, 2009 Posted by Tiffany

A bench for all seasons – Building a harvest kitchen part 3

In case you missed the first two installments about our new harvest kitchen, check out part 1 and part 2. On Tuesday, Stefan took the day off because I had to go to the dentist. The last time I went with Mack in tow, it did not turn out so well. She screamed pretty much the entire time I was in the chair and since I was having a filling done, we could only assume the drill noise only amplified things. One... read more

Jul 12, 2009 Posted by Tiffany

Sweet Lady Propane: Building a harvest kitchen – part 2

Last weekend we started building our harvest kitchen. We were able to level the floor, lay tile and grout last week so this weekend it was time to install the kitchen cabinets. We’re eager to get this project wrapped up before the Lantern Festival (the first weekend in August) which gives us two more weekends to finish. That way we can enjoy sitting outside with our small group of friends which are... read more

Jul 8, 2009 Posted by Tiffany

Building a harvest kitchen – Part 1

We have a little covered patio area outside out kitchen door which we’ve been throwing around ideas about for a while. We finally came to the conclusion that the best thing to have in there would be a harvest and canning kitchen where we can prepare everything for canning without having to be in the house where things heat up quickly. Plus, we only have a ceran cook-top in the house which you really... read more

Mar 8, 2009 Posted by Tiffany

Now our storage buildings look sad and exposed

The weather forecast was really sketchy this weekend so we didn’t get everything we wanted done…but we did make some progress. We did a little running around Saturday morning, trying to get a few things to finish up projects. That became harder than expected when we couldn’t find any 1 inch PVC piping at Hagebau. We’re going to have to check a few more home improvement stores and... read more

Feb 28, 2009 Posted by Tiffany

I have to say it was a good day

I’m not sure where the sun disappeared to today. The forecast was calling for a nice spring day with temps in the low 60′s (15°C.) It was about 50 and overcast instead, but at least there was no rain. We got the day started with a trip to Hagebau, the little home improvement store down the street. We had the idea of using metal mounting tape (often used by plumbers and our electrician) for our... read more

Feb 3, 2009 Posted by Tiffany

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s off to work we go

Things are finally starting to thaw out a bit here and the plants are just beginning to bloom – and that means we have a whole lot of work to get accomplished. Spring may not be right around the corner just yet but we’re hoping it will soon set in. We’ve had plenty of winter already this year! So we mapped out the important projects for the first half of the year and broke them down into... read more