Preserving...

...just started yesterday with preserving. At present I am only preserving Stew, qualitiy food with recepies we got from our time in Ireland. Nice job to do....

Preserving Stew

OTRA: High Rhön

Walkabout ?

First being at home, then I drove to Rhinehessian (last Blog entry) , then my wife rang: "Let us meet at the cabin!". It's developing to a walkabout, I guess....

So greetings to you all from the Thuringian Rhoen....., I'll be back Monday.....maybe....

still OTRA

OTRA: Rhinehessian Nordic Walking Park

OnTheRoadAgain

Tomorrow I am off for a day marching. I am driving to the "Rhinehessian Nordic Walking Park". It 's close to Frankfurt/ Main (Known for the big Airport) in Rhinehessian-Palantine county.

As I said, marching, hiking,  I don't do it Nordic Style...because... I am just using sticks when there is half a meter snow and I am in need for snow shoes. My style!

It's a hilly area mainly with wineyards. There are also a lot of long distance hiking tracks. You even get gpx files for your navigation system.

From 1,5 Km to 150 Km-ish tracks u'll get everything there. People are very, very friendly. 20 years ago, I guided a group there, we were in dire need of water. We rang on a door, asking for water. Good people deserving what they are, I guess....we got water, wine, cake, bread with local meat specialities.....

As we thanked our hosts, asking what we have to pay, they said:" Nothing you are good people, it was a nice time talking to you, thank u for that."

That experience gave me hope.....because it was a hard days work for me....a friend of mine killed himself a couple of days before.

So, meeting good people always brightens up your life.

I am using the "Katadyn Bottle" for cleaning this kind of water.

Outhouse / Compost Toilet..

...a toilet without water...

You basicly catch your processed food in a bucket and your urine (male/female) is caught in a special inlet, which is directing it through a pipe into a canister or sewage pit. You choose...

If you have finished, just grab a hand or two of bark mulch and throw it over your leavings. The orange 20 liter birch mulch bucket lasts a week-ish.

The inlet I used is from separett , it's called:" The mild winter house". The company is from Sweden, so I guess mild means till -30 degree Celsius :-)

The toilet is not finished yet, but it works sound ! I have to install a couple features, like an air pipe and a door to access the bucket from outdoors.

For a perfect setup, we have choosen to use furthermore a closed composter and 3 buckets for rotation. To be direct: With 2 persons you need a new bucket after 3 days ish...

I marked the floor with red color so that the bucket is exactely on the same spot every time after changing it - to avoid accidents.

I wish you a good aim and luck !

The Wolf

Hints & Tips: Handwashing

Washing hands in a Cabin, where the next water is a kilometer away.......not a bother :-)

Even not for us waterspoiled consumers ! Having one bath is wasting drinking water for one week in the cabin.


What u`ll need:

1.) A small, higher Bowl (Grey one in pic)

     So that you can easily wash your hands in it, with a liter-ish water.

2.) A bigger, flat bowl which contains the small, high bowl.
     (Transparent one in pic)

     It's just to catch the splattering water while washing hands.
     But the second use is to use for washing your hair.

3.) Biodegradable soap


Furthermore a kind of a recycling mindset is mandatory. When we are washing our hair, we use the water with the bio soap afterwards for handwashing, If it's too dirty, we fill the water in the outdoor handwash bowl, so you can clean your hands after working in the garden, making firewood etc.

Plain: Just to get the coarse dirt away...

Cabin Art

This sickle belonged my great grandfather, He died shortly after fucking WWII because of his injuries.

It was the only thing I could recover from this part of the family. They were simple and strong people, living in the countryside. Hardened...

 The "Z" was the marking of the family. My great grandmother used the sickle until she died with 93 years of age, proud and though until the last couple weeks. 

Last year I found this sickle, cleaned and oiled it....

One important aim for 2016

15 years ago (alternativ: 20 kg ago).I was an ultra long distance runner, loved it, twas fun.

• 100 Km on a 400 m track in a sportstadion, thats 250 times running in circles.
• 75 Km run from Hamburg to Lübeck in Germany
• Shortest crossing of Germany (Husum to Schleswig, 50 Km ish)
• 63 Km run to the River Rhine Valley
• ...some trailruns...a.s.o.

Things I did...nothing special, other runners running 250 Km and more in 24 hours, running days through the "Death Valley" in U.S. 

Point is, I am still missing the adventures, the challenges, being worn out and bouncing back then.., meeting interresting people....see my body working with nature.... even on this small scale.

Now I am back on the road again, Willi Nelson.

But this time with hiking, because it suits more our lifestyle now, call it walking/hiking between to worlds, high stress tech life and simple living in a cabin.

So basicly I am running at present 5 Km every 2 days. On the weekends I'll hike the longer distances for training.

Time is passing....GPS is now tiny as a smartphone....and with maps... (We are not getting older, Tech is developing faster...:-)   )

The aim is an organised 65 Km hike in August. Training started 2 weeks ago...cross fingers for me...it's a hike back in an auld, known, loved life,


Sla,
the Wolf