pictures

Pictures from Hitzacker

 

The Castor is coming

unpacking boxes

Aftre unpacking most of the boxes and putting books in order in my cardboardboxshelves, I COUNTED MY COOKBOOKS, and I got to 110 (lol) and I am not so sure that was all...

So I decided to cook something different every day. I make one week plans that can be voted on to a certain degree by the men in my household and then whoopieee here we go.
If you want to know whats cooking I can post the meal plans ... Today it was corn chowder from "the enchanted brocoli forest" by Mollie Katzen. Pretty good. Yesterday we had winter Vegetable cobbler, which was good as well, but Luca stuffed so much of the cobbler (cowboy we called it) down his throat, that he ended up puking his dinner right back in to his plate (YUCK).
So go the days ...
see ya'll
PS did I mention that stores are closed here on Sundays and that it really through me off for a few days...(lol)

a home

sorry for letting you all wait .... on the road seems to be a difficult situation for internet here in Germany. Friends have it but I haven't seen a lot of internet cafe's...
yes - we have landed-
In Hitzacker/ Elbe, a beautiful old little city in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by water (the river Elbe and Jeetzel meet here and create an Island (yes) on which we live  . We are renting right now ( it's an attic flat light and cute, the new (ha!) washing machine is running, and we just spend the day at IKEA (oh my god the torture _ with two little kids...)anyway we survived and actually did get a few things...and I got the most exquisite set of pots - we're cooking...
the apartment is taking shape.
We have most of pour boxes here and it's almost like Christmas unpacking all these long lost things ( some we haven't used for more than 6 years - haha)
what else - we are still looking for the perfect house project - hopefully somewhere close to here. We are also working on the Kindergarten/ preschool situation (waldorf or conventional). Andres is working and I'm a little frustrated cause I still do not really know anyone and I am pretty lonely and immobile ( you do need a second car here it seems - kinda like MDI- everything is 20 minutes away).
So enough for now - if you want to send us some snail mail drop me a quick email and I will fix you up with the new address and all.
Miss you all a lot.
A

Wendland

After staying in Scherbda with some friends, we finally made it up to the Wendland ( it' a part of Nieder-Sachsen, and Gorleben is there (for those who do not know - it's where the Castor transport goes through and where the radioaktive end/inbetween depot is - a lot of protest and interesting people here). Anyway we have been meeting the people from the project (unfortunately no website) we have favored a lot. They are a good bunch , but at the moment it looks like it's not quite the right thing.
Soooo we have decided to move to that area, ,and to start looking for a piece of Land/ old Farm with land....one that we might be able to afford.
Anyway- besides that we also have been up to the east coast of Germany ( the Ostsee) and checked on some people from the Farm IRIA (check here). They are very nice people - and the idea is good - but no proper schools close by - and for making money you have to get very creative....

We went to visit Andres' brother (and mine) for his finished  Masters degree and Birthday party in Berlin, and then just hung out with the brothers the fiance and Baby . which was great fun. We stopped by in Bremen at my Sisters for dinner and sleepover and then headed to Andres' parents and Sister with family. We have been using their place a little like a base but it is time to move on to our own place. So plan is to go back to Hitzacker tomorrow and start looking for an apartment......

Germany

We've hit homeland about a week ago- and are currently roadtripping the country. Yes Andres found a car a few days before we arrived ( a Reno Megan - for those who want to know) and now we are visiting friends and Projects.
So far so good - we've looked at a place called junges Dorf,it's in Erkheim, Allgaeu. The link is an article about it. It's basically privately owned houses but built ecological and with community in mind. They share the heating system and a central place around which the 9 houses are grouped. The (9) houses are on the small side (100-125sqm)on I think 2000 or 3000sqm of land and there is no space for homesteading/ gardening or a shop...we did like the separation of the houses/property by little crooked trenches filled with flowers.
Then we talked to someone from the project Iglu ev., but are not too convinced. I think their main problem was to try too hard to start big instead of small and to go from there, also these will not be individual houses but one straw bale house with a communal center, and separate living units... not so much ours...
The 3rd project we visited was the Erlacher Hof
This one (up to now) I think comes closest to our Idea of home.It's a beautiful little spot full of potential....
In between we stayed with friends and after 6 years of near to zero kontakt with the travelers we are now all most overwhelmed by it...but its so fun.
That's it for today - I will now update those lists I started a few posts ago about what we like in either countries - or what we miss.. :))
solong and if you know of any projects we should visit, leave a comment.

Parachutes

Luca got a parachute ball from his Grandmother this summer but it ended in a tree the first day we tried it , so today I made him one and we had quite some fun.

Besides that we delivered some stuff today, cleaned the swimming pools and put stuff on the attic - we are getting ready to go ...on Sunday.

waiting for Irene or "rain"ertainment

while waiting out Irene on Sunday with grandmothers ants uncles mothers fathers cousins babys and 4 year olds all couped up in the same house we came up with the TWISTER project.
We got everyone very involved - and at the end of the day we had a fun game to play
see here:

cutting out circles

 got them all (6 of each color)

 preparing the spinning board

 assembling the circles, 

and finally playing:

more lists

So I can't think of anything else right now for what I miss from Germany, so here the List of things I think I will miss from here...

• the easyness of inventing yourself
• the great integration of otherabled
• the space
• the grassroots community actions
• I'll miss the Island like hell ( I really think this is one of the most beautiful spots in the world)
• the abundance of space
• that shops are open every day - even though I actually like the Sunday closed thing unless I am traveling and in need of food or such...

We will see what else comes to mind. And I will simply add to these to lists when ever I can think of something

 here are Mia and Luca taking a shower

 My Father and Luca out kayaking

This is a rock

 and this is seaweed

 and kormorants

 and more of my Dad and Luca

and a sea-urchin

talk to you soon...............