Christmas trees

Finally the plants were here, and the long waiting was over. It’s the end of October now, and the last chance for planting the Christmas tree plants. Because of some cable work on our field, we had to wait. Now we could start the planting of our own Christmas tree garden. We have decided for the Blågran ( Picea pungens Glauca ). Because the color and the shape of the trees. The plants we have are 4 years old, and between 20-40 cm. tall.

Minna and I started 11 a clock and was finished with the 250 plants at 15.00. We are pretty happy with our work, and now we are looking forward to 7-9 years of hard work, before we finally can cut down our first, home produced Christmas tree.
A dream has come true :)

Action Man in action

Eilen iltakävelyllä totesin, että "tuon koivun tuosta vierasmajan viereltä voisi kaataa". Tänään kun tulin töistä kotiin, puu oli kaadettu ja halot melkein rivissä. Paree varoa sanomisiani, ainakin Action Manin kuulten : )

Yesterday night on our evening tour with the dogs I pointed out a full grown birch three and commented that it was misplaced there. Today when I came home from work it was laying on the ground. Conclusion: be careful with your comments when Action Man is around : )

Viikonlopun riennot/Weekend report

Tapahtui viime viikonloppuna/Happened last weekend:


Pojat teki puusavottaa, ilmat on hitusen kylmenemään päin eli pitää saada klapivarastot kuntoon, jotta pysytään lämpiminä. Pohjoisessa on jo täysi lumikaaos.

Boys were working hard in order to keep our house warm this winter. Up north they already have a total chaos after the first snow storm.

Ellen piti itsensä lämpöisenä (lue hikisenä). Käsipallo-otteluita oli viikonlopun aikana neljä, ja joista Ellun joukkue voitti neljä!!!

Ellen kept herself warm by playing handboll. Her teamed had four games - and they won all four!!!

Minä taasen olin puutarhayhdistyksen kanssa tutustumassa ekologiseen woodland viljelyyn.

I visited a local woodland expert togehter with my gardening association.

Plus kaikkea muuta pientä. Sokerina pohjalla sunnuntaipäivällinen hyvien ystävien seurassa.

Plus all other thing that keep us active. Sunday evening we had good friends over for a Sunday Dinner.

New Roof

Finally the guesthouse is starting to look like a house. The new roof and roof windows is getting in place, and the house will be ready for the indoor work, doing the winter.

Stone fence

Building one of these old stone walls, is another of our farm projects.
It’s a heavy duty job. And it makes you wonder, how the backs of the farmers were, in the old days. They lay kilometers of these walls, and I am only trying to build 100m.
Ms. Ferguson ( Tractor ) is helping transporting the stones. But lifting them to the fence, rotating them over and over again, is hard job. So this project will take time, I can see that now. But then again, it will stand forever…hopefully.

Sausages.

Last week we did our first Sausages. That was pretty fun. We did the easy once, were you take some pig ( in this case it was wild bore ) , and mixed it with some duck, fat, olives and spices. Game animals is normally very fat less, so you have to add a lot of extra fat to get juicy Sausages, but we added to little. Anyway, with some extra olives and oil, it turned out all right. And after some small problems with the Sausage horn and the machine, we were finally going big time. Then we pre boiled the bunch, 5 min in water with some veggies, and they are now ready fore the pan.
We tested them out for some friends this weekend, and they got approved, so that makes it worth wile.

Robert

The Sign and the Farmer

Tässa sitten koko komeus; mies, kyltti, koirat ja hiellä ja tuskalla (plus naapurin traktorilla) paikoilleen asetetut kivet.



Here are they: the man, the dogs, the sign and the stones - that demanded swet, blood and tears (as well as neighbours tractor) to finally come to place.

The Sign

We finally got the farm name sign up and are very proud of it. Its fun to see you visions come true. This design I am proud to say I did my self. Its started out in Adobe illustrator and vent to a metal (aluminum) welding company in Svalöv. We liked the English sign styles and was happy to see, that there was such a producer in Sweden.
They hand molded and hand painted the duck, and we selected the right font for the text, and 3 weeks after the sign was done.
The pole was also done in illustrator, and then handed to at blacksmith to do. He also did great work. Now I only have to get and transport some 3 big rocks to put around the pole, then its done.

This years hunting dinner.

They say, that if you have done a thing on a yearly basis minimum 3 years in a row, it becomes a tradition. That means that our Hunting dinner is this year getting the status of a tradition.
And that’s nice, to have at least once a year, a big dinner for our friends from the Scandinavian countries. The menu this time is not finished yet, but it will include some parts of the Raadeer on the invitation.
The invitation shows the deer’s Morten, Michael and I shot on the opening day of the Swedish Raadeer season. The 2 ones to the left is mine.

Bon appetite

The Guesthouse

Our guesthouse is getting closer to receiving guests.

Last Week we got the floor in, that means, that the Big truck came with concrete, and the first floor was done in a day. Now we have to put the new roof on, finish the outer walls, mounting the new windows and doors, then we can start on the inside. And the house is ready for the rain and snow.

Maalaissiskokset/County sisters

Vaikka ollaan Hannan kanssa neljännen polven helsinkiläisiä, eikä maalaisia siis ollenkaan, niin molemmilla kummasti veri vetää maaseudun rauhaan. Sidneyssä vielä toistaiseksi asuvalla pikkusiskolla ja sen miehellä on oma puutarhayritys GreenRooms. Itse viljellyt kasvikset ja vihannekset ovat pop. Vaikka meidän tämänvuotinen sato nyt oli mitä oli. Ensi vuonna osataan jo taas enemmän.



Even though my sister Hanna and I have only cityblood in our vains (back to four generations), we both love coutry living. Hanna and her husband Jock live in Sydney where they have their gardening business Green Rooms, but they are looking for a farm near to Adelaide where Jock's family lives. Veggie Garden is pop! Not always so easy (our harwest this year was baaaaad), but we're learning : )

Welcome!

Oppiessa ikä kaikki... ja bloginpidossa sama juttu. On yksi ruotsiksi ja toinen suomeksi ja sitten pitäisi vielä pitää ajan tasalla kaikki muunkieliset ystävät - kiiruuksi pistää. Ratkaisuna toivotamme tervetulleeksi kaikki englantia taitavat!


Welcome our not Finnish nor Swedish speaking friends! We've been trying to keep all of you updated in different ways for a while now, but figured that it'd be easier to invite all of you our diary on the net: Hjärtesjö Gård (previously Maalaiselämää- Country Living). So far it's been Minna writing on this site, but the plan is that you'll hear the others tell about our lives as well. So keep posted!

And as you already know - nothing would make us more happy than see you here on our farm. Welcome!!!

Hugs from Robert, Minna, Emil, Ellen, Blix, Selby, Eminem, Lena Ph, Pink, and the baby ducks : )

Traktor Pulling

Miss Ferguson, uusi traktori siis, ei ehdi keräämään pölyä, niin kovassa käytössä se on. Kuvassa lapset iltakierroksella.

Miss Ferguson, our new tractor, doesn't stand still. In the picture Robert is taking the kids on rollacoaster tour. We missed Tivoli this is year, isn't this almost the same : )