Vacationtime

Ever since we had some sort of summer celebration at work in mid-June, it feels like my brain has gone into vacation mode. After 3 PM, it’s practically impossible to do anything productive, whether it’s work, gardening, or household chores. The worst was the week after Almedalen. We both lived in a kind of fatigue haze that wouldn’t go away. But next week, the real vacation begins! We’re heading to Nässjö to visit my family, then to Ystad to stay at an old inn for a week. We've bought a car, so we plan to take day hikes around Österlen. One day, we’ve also booked a visit to Mandelmann's farm, of course.

My former Skansen colleague Osva and her husband will be staying at the house while we're away. The sheep, however, will be moved to new pasture before then. They’ve been in the garden for a while now, and the food is running out. Tonight, we’re going to prepare by setting up a fence.

Below are some pictures from the garden and crops. Everything is growing so well!

Beans

Pumpkins

Kitchen garden

Potato land

Also potato land

Idun

Cabbage land

The Greenhouse

Veterinary Visit and Birthday

Our rabbit Gustav has been having trouble breathing for a while now. Initially, we thought it was because he had gotten fat. Due to the shortage of roughage last fall (thanks to the weird weather), we had to buy ridiculously expensive hay designed for elite racing horses. Both the sheep and the rabbits became round as balls! But the breathing issues haven’t resolved despite a better diet, so yesterday we decided to take him to the vet. Our cat Bengan needed to be neutered and chipped anyway. We’ve got antibiotics and are hoping for the best.

On the same day, but in the evening, I was invited to my colleague Steve's 60th birthday party. Steve is a professor of history from Scotland, specializing in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). It was he who interviewed me when I applied for the doctoral position at FHS. The party, as you might imagine, featured quite a bit of whiskey and other delights! Despite that, I managed to get home relatively early.

In my previous post, I wrote about our water heater and mentioned that there was no panic despite the leak... That was true until last night, when it practically exploded. Good luck finding a plumber on a Saturday during the first week of the industrial vacation. Luckily, it’s summer and warm...

Gustav is a little Rex

My colleagues: Håkan (left) and Per (right)

The birthday celebrant!

Locally produced gift: eggs from the chickens, flowers from the gardens, and honey from the neighboring village.

First Post and Mid-Summer

July, and so far we have managed both Almedalsveckan on Gotland and Midsummer in Dalarna. The past few days have been spent trying to catch up on gardening, the sheep's facilities (i.e., building a rain shelter), and other household chores.

Our water heater started leaking a few weeks ago, but since we haven't been home, it has been left as it is. I mean, it's just a few drops per minute, so no catastrophe. However, it's an annoying expense during vacation time!

On the gardening front, things are going relatively well. But that doesn't mean it's time to lie down in the hammock! A feeling I likely share with many other gardeners at this time of the season is always being one step behind. There's always some weed (despite mulching) that has spread too much, some plant still stuck in its pot, or new pests that have appeared. And then there's the watering that needs to be done. Somehow, everything usually works out in the end (around August), and the harvest gets overwhelming instead. Perhaps it takes a few years of experience to recognize the pattern...

Since this is my first post, here is a small collection of pictures from June, as a sort of kickoff.