My time at Hof Schwarzes Moor has too quickly come to an end. Today I’m at La Chevrerie, a goat farm a few kilometers away from HSM run by a woman named Angela. I’ll be here for a few days - until next Thursday when I’m off to France. I hope to learn a bit about the goats and how the cheese is made in the short time I have here.

The fall weather is beautiful in this part of the world. The trees have half changed colour, and when the wind blows it brings showers of leaves down to the ground like confetti thrown at a wedding. I keep expecting the kids from Traumrauber to burst out of the forest and do a perfectly choreographed musical number.

So last winter I had the idea that I might get a real job here instead of WWOOFing, so I did some reading on how I might go about doing that. One of the books I read was about German culture and what to expect while living here. It painted a picture of a quiet reserved people who avoid eye contact and were reluctant to invite people into their homes. To be fair the book was a) about cities and b) written about ten years ago, when the wounds from reunification were still raw. I have happily found things to be the exact opposite of what the book described here. The community on Am Stührberg (the street on which HSM is) is very warm and close knit.

Neighbours stop to talk as they walk, ride their bikes, or even drive their cars by. Every few weeks it seems someone else is celebrating a birthday or anniversary and everyone gathers together to celebrate. It’s rather the opposite of my life for the past few years, where I knew few of my neighbours by name, or even sight. I’m really glad that I decided to visit Germany this way. I have a much better feel for the Blenhorst community than I could ever have gotten from a neighbourhood in Berlin even given twice the time. I hope that I can stay in touch with the wonderful people I’ve met here.

I wake up shortly before eight and roll out of bed. I get dressed and step out of the door into the thick fog that rose overnight from the moor. After a breakfast of tea and muesli (yes, I am a granola eating hippie, why do you ask?) I make my way around the house to the shed where a large bag full of grain and various other seeds is kept. I throw a couple scoops in the general vicinity of the chicken coop, then fill a couple green buckets. I walk back around the house to Heidi’s reliable German three speed bike.

It’s especially foggy today, so I make sure to switch the generator on, and with a bucket hooked over each handle I pedal down the road. The dog, Sunny, is very excited, she wants to go for a run with me! However, I’m the new kid here, so she doesn’t listen to me very well, and tends to run across the road whenever she sees something interesting. I like Sunny, and would rather she not become jam, so I firmly admonish her to “Bleib!”, and I ride on alone.

At the first field, the sheep see me right away, and come running while I switch off the electric fence. These sheep are experienced in the ways of humans - they aren’t afraid of me at all, and they know what the green bucket means. They follow me closely, and I make sure I hold the bucket well above hungry noses as I walk to the plastic and wood tubs scattered around the field. I have to make sure I dump food in quickly, or the sheep stick their heads in while I’m still pouring and get nicely covered in food. I manage to fill all the tubs with minimal grain hairdos, so I switch the fence back on and proceed on to the next field.

There are sheep in four fields, three of which I cycle to, and one of which is right next to the house. Today all the sheep have plenty of green grass and clover left to eat, so we don’t need to move them. Moving them isn’t that difficult: we set up new fences, and then convince the sheep that they’d really rather be where there’s lots of fresh grass to eat. Usually that’s pretty easy, as long as you don’t move too quickly and scare them.

After I’m finished feeding the sheep, Timo (a WWOOFER from Berlin) and I work on making new permanent fencing. Once this is set up, Stephan won’t need to set up new fences and take down the old every time he wants to move the sheep - he’ll just have to open and close a couple doors. Each segment of fence takes a couple hours to complete. The ends are attached to solid posts with wire that’s threaded through a ratcheting mechanism to keep it tight, and then the fencing is nailed to recycled plastic posts placed every few metres along the edge of the field. It’s hard work, but hammering is satisfying, as long as it’s not one of those days I keep hitting my thumb instead of the staple…

Around noon we take a break from making the fence. We head inside for a hearty lunch of tea and bread with delicious local organic cheese and some very local mutton sausage. Over lunch, we discuss the day’s work, and I practise my listening skills while Timo and Stephan talk to each other in rapid German. I’m getting better! I definitely understand more than I did a couple weeks ago.

Today we finish the segment of fence shortly after 14:00. A couple days ago, we had to move the sheep, so we didn’t finish ’til 16:30, but that’s as late as the day’s work goes. In my down time, I sit in the house for a bit and talk to Heidi about the English test she’s giving tomorrow and eat some cake. Then I head back to the new house and read German comics, or knit and write in my journal.

At 20:00 we all get together in the old house to eat the wonderful supper that Heidi has prepared. Today, it’s falling-off-the-bone roasted mutton with tomato sauce and beans. Over supper we watch the news and discuss the day’s events - more practise at listening to fast German. After supper, I stick around to watch an episode of Stargate before heading to bed. Before falling asleep, I listen to the latest Quirky Nomads and finish off my mittens. I fall asleep halfway through the third Final Fantasy track and sleep soundly in the country silence.

So somehow I actually managed to make it, safe and sound. I should really figure out what to write, since time is ticking steadily away on my half hour of electricity. I guess they don’t mind having to reinstall every once in a while, since the way the hostel regulates computer use is with a box that turns off the power once your time is up.

On my way to the airport, I ran into a couple student types from Germany who were heading home after a 4 week holiday in Canada. They’re from Freiburg, and suggested I make a visit there, since it’s apparently a hotbed for solar power. I’ll have to check it out. Having not found out where my flight was leaving from, I decided to follow them in getting off at terminal one, on the logic that international flights might all leave from the same terminal. Of course, I was wrong. Ah well, I got to take the train back to terminal 3, which was fun anyway.

It was nice getting there super early - I think I was there 5 hours before my flight left. I was first in line at the check in counter, and got the entire gate b18 to myself for a few hours. I even managed probably a good full hour of sleep, stretched out on several padded seats.

The flight across the pond was surprisingly pleasant. We were lucky and got the plane with the big leather seats, so it was spacious and comfortable. There were, of course, a few poor kids who got overwhelmed by being on a plane, but that’s ok and to be expected. Poor kids. Fortunately, I brought some earplugs along, as well as my mp3 player, so I was comfortable.

The only problem with the flight was that I didn’t sleep. Ok, there were a couple 20 minute naps, but no real sleep. This was stupid. Next time I do a red eye, I’ll bring gravol. Oh, also, it was odd that my window seat had no window, but that was ok. I might have been sitting in the middle. It was pleasantly surprising that two meals were included in the ticket price. The food was not gourmet, but certainly palatable, although I skipped breakfast because I was still stuffed from supper.

When we landed in London, it was a beautiful, cool (8 C), bright summer morning. Sitting on the Gatwick Express heading for Victoria station, I watched the countryside slip by. It was somewhere along this trip that it hit me. I’m in London! London! What?! (Imagine 10th Doctor impression here). I got off at Victoria station and wandered around. I practised my juggling in front of Buckingham palace, and took a walk through the park. I wandered past the Eye, and saw the spot where Rose and the Doctor ran along to stop the Autons. I walked past the Tate, and the Globe Theatre (that’s for you Wade). I even got to ride the tube!!!!!!!!!111!!oneoneone!

Ok, my time is about to run out, and I don’t want my first day in Germany to be spent at a compy, so I’ll write more later.

I love cycling. It’s not that I hate walking or taking transit, it’s just flying along the road on my own two wheels is so much fun, and lets me keep my own schedule. So when I started planning a trip, it was just natural to assume that I’d bring along a bike. I thought about bringing my trusty companion; along. I’ve taken it along on bus, plane, and train trips before, but after seeing the dents in the front forks after sending it on the bus, I didn’t really want to do that again. With careful consideration, I realised that the bus leg couldn’t be avoided.

So, I needed a bike that was tough, one I wouldn’t have to worry about getting crushed. It would also be an advantage if this bike could pack into the size of checked baggage, since I wasn’t sure if bikes could even go on the bus. With the help of Juergen and the rest of the folks on the HPVOoO mailing list I decided that a Raleigh 20 folder would do the trick. Juergen had one that he was willing to sell. He’d lent the bike to a friend of his who was driving across the country to Seattle. Perhaps it was time for the bike to make another trip?

Here’s the bike shortly after I got it.

Since this photo was taken, I’ve replaced the seat, gotten the front forks spread, the front wheel replaced with a standard 20 inch wheel, replaced the front tire again with a smaller tire, and gotten the front brake housing and pads replaced. I can now actually stop the bicycle in less than 50 feet, which is nice. Stuff I plan on doing includes cleaning the rear brakes and rims, replacing the rear tire, and installing new fenders. The chrome fenders look nice but they make lots of noise.

I’m really enjoying zipping to school, the library, and the market on it. The longest ride I’ve been on with it so far was a short 30k ride around Wolfe Island, which was a very fun ride. I’m looking forward to travelling with my new companion!

Back in 2004, if I remember correctly, Juergen held a bike building party at his house. Lots of people showed up with projects in varying stages of completeness. At this party, I started building my own bike. Since I don’t actually live in Ottawa anymore, the project has been languishing a bit since then. I have continued to work on it every so often, and hopefully after my travels, I’ll be somewhere convenient to finish working on it. Since some folks (hi Vic!) have expressed an interest in it, I figured I’d put up a post about the basic idea behind the bike.

First I took a crappy mountain bike.

I chopped off the top tube,

Then with Juergen’s help, a couple pieces of square stock were brazed on:

Then, a piece of round tubing was welded to a bottom bracket shell. The other side of this tube was filed down to fit against the head tube. The next step will be to braze that on.

The wheels have been replaced with 20 inch wheels, to put me closer to the ground (the shortie that I am). This means, I’ll need to braze on some braze-ons to attach the brakes, fenders, etc, where they need to go. Then I’ll have to make a seat. The finished product should look something like:

Cable routing is not going to be fun.