Week 3 Winter drags on

 


Week 3

birds and deer
housing
pottering
details
bookkeeping
boat plans


We had someone look at our empty apartment on Friday - a couple who are going to split up, but they have 2 kids who will probably go with the Mum. They talked about the parents "taking turns" in coming to the apartment so that the kids could stay at "home" - we had that situation once before and I don't think it was at all suitable - but none of our business, of course.
They seemed rather stoic and business-like in what must be heart-breaking times...

Janny had upped the price a bit without telling me - but I reminded her that we have a tax threshold to keep in mind, otherwise we have to pay BTW (GST) on the income and that would then have to be passed on - making the rent payable even more. One of the advantages of being small - it's just a nice "extra" for us - and it helps people find temporary and sometimes emergency accommodation.

Which leads me on to something I found during the week...it caught my attention because I had previously heard on the BBC that there was someone looking at the idea of doing something about "old people continuing to live in houses that are too big for them".

This diagram is from the euobserver - I don't pay for the full read so I only get the gist of a subject and then go looking further if it interests me enough.

An older article in The Guardian suggested that the problem is fuelling the political drive to the right..

Spiralling rents and sky-high property prices risk becoming a key battleground of European politics as far-right and populist parties start to exploit growing public anger over the continent’s housing crisis, experts have said.




Muskrats

The Netherlands has various Water Boards tasked with providing water and water management - the article (below) says that they also have the responsibilty for controlling the numbers of muskrats (and beavers). Apparently, they can undermine the dykes and other water management infrastructure.


My rough translation...

Wetterskip Fryslan (one of the Water Boards) caught 357 muskrats last year. 356 in 2023.
Across the country there were 2024 more muskrats caught than in 2023 - an increase of 29%
(nearly 66,000 in total).

The water boards are legally required to address the issue because of the dangerous undemining of the dykes.

The biggest population of muskrats is in the north of Friesland. They also have to catch beverraten (beaver rats?), which originated in South America. They  eat reeds and other plants that would otherwise hold the soil together.

They do DNA testing of the water to see if the animals are present in a particulare area - if so, traps can be set with a greater chance of success.

With unusually high water levels in Germany, the muskrats go downstream to find sanctuary - so most of the catches are in the border region.



Beverrat

In our own back yard

I don't think we have any muskrats - the moles do a fair bit of damage and there are badgers in the forest opposite.

Deer in the back yard - through the glass from our clients' work area. And the birds are starting to get busy with building their nests.




It feels a bit like pottering - just finishing off some of the house details...

Bathroom mirror...




Hallway lighting...




The "hotel switch" on the stairway almost beat us - it is the old wiring and there were three black wires instead of different colours (so we put our own colours on with tape)...and there is now an extra layer of plaster so the switch is deeper and requires longer non-standard screws (which we have to pick up next week).



Tidying the tools away...it is good to have everything on hand after 30 years!




It's kids' weekend again, so I'm up to date with my bookkeeping and fire-lighting - Gee, winters can drag on a bit...


...but Nettie has inspired me to start thinking about the boat again - they are due to come back in May and have suggested a trip to Dokkum for the Admiralty Days Festival

https://admiraliteitsdagen.nl/

There's also a new canal opened up (by raising the bridges) from Dokkum to Lauwersoog - so we'll try to include that as well.



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