We bought our country house on Wednesday -- the one we looked at, on the Vana-Võromaa side of the border from Setomaa. I arrived the next day, the car loaded full of our belongings for the summer. The whole family should be here by Sunday.
The rain -- more than a month's worth fell in about three days -- has been a blessing. It's kept any bugs off and it's been cold enough to give me a good reason to heat the place. The chimney/roof did not catch on fire -- nice.
The place was overgrown to fantastic proportions -- some civilized, soft grass around the buildings but much was of the wild carrot variety.
I bought a scythe along with gardening and digging tools and have been slaying.
I slew the ground-elder and Queen Anne's lace. Then I slew dandelions, timothy, and nettles, and slew as well the odd buttercup.
Besides reclaiming land from weeds, I've also busied myself with clearing a trail from the sauna out back through the forest down to the river. It isn't our land, but logging activity has ended there, and the last half is floodplain that is in a landscape protection reserve. It's a bit too far to make a dash from the sauna, but...
Next projects: cleaning the well and planting a garden.
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Congrats! Best of luck to you with your new place. After the kroon devalues, I'm going to buy another one myself ;-)
Sounds like a real adventure. Should make a photo log of before/after. Provides some good exercise that running doesn't. You dad can always tell when he uses different muscles for different jobs. Got more info from TTT. Nice.
The Rikken weak rotator cuff is letting me hear it. Scything involves violent rotation and left-handed ones are hard to come by for a change of pace.
You think, Alex? I guarantee you that prices are already calculated in euros in any seller's mind. After devaluation the kroon price will remain low for as long as it takes them to update the posting. But that's just what I would do. It all comes down to what the market will support. Like you said, I'm sure prices will continue to come down, devaluation or no.
Ground-elder, nettles, dandelions - at this time of MASU, Kristopher, try to think of these as food and not weeds :) /Seriously, you can make some pretty delicious stuff out of them/,
I would say that you only used muscles that have not been used for those movements before and has nothing to do with weak rotator cuffs from heredity. Build those muscles up and you will be fine.
As for munching those weeds, that might be fine, but with two acres to deal with I doubt even if you grazed 24/7 the weeds would grow faster than you could digest
Round-up. Then sprinkle some grass seeds. Otherwise you won't win the war. I still have to go every two weeks in October to mow the lawn.
And congrats! Definitely come visit us when our emergency work is over (I'll FB the images).
What if the soil is too rich in nitrates, Pille? I've heard that is possible with nettles.
Maybe we can bale and briquet it as biomass.
How was the purchase process given the state of the market? Were sellers willing to come down significantly? Seems to me that those selling summers homes are at a greater disadvantage then those selling places in the city, since summer homes are typically second homes and thus a luxury item.
Also how was the bank with financing? Were they cautious due to potential difficulties if the summer home needed to be auctioned off?
You think, Alex?
Everyone knows sellers will raise the prices. By the same token, buyers are going to subtract the percentage of devaluation from the new asking price and won't pay any more than that. I've saved all the places we like so I have current asking prices. Of course, devaluation may not occur, no one really knows.
Hey, my mom used to make a delicious jelly from Queen Anne's lace. Let me know if you want the recipe.
I'll be damned -- Queen Anne's lace is edible, too. I'm going to have to think about whether we really want ordinary grass (not good in compost, can't be digested).
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