There is a part of my land I’ve been ignoring completely. Hidden between the hazelnuts, there is a second structure on my land. A shed? A hut? When I got here, this thing was filled with cracked rain barrels, and a whole lot of trash.

I removed and inspected the rain barrels, managed to fix two, and then ignored the hut completely. I’d had a roof to fix after all. Out of sight, out of mind.

It was time to change that.

There is something special about meals made from scratch. Meals made from ingredients collected on our land give me this warm, cozy feeling. With the seasons changing, what we eat is changing, as well. It’s time for some cold-weather meals.

There is an ugly, moldy tarp attached to the garden house. I’d been pretending not to see it for weeks. But now, trash pickup was on the horizon. The sun was shining, and the winds had slowed. A perfect chilly fall day to head to the garden.

I’ve been cleaning up corners of my neglected land for months. But before long, the roof project took over, and I left the rest be. Now, it is time to tackle the trash before the owners of the land come to pick up the piles for me.

With the pantry low on stock, I can’t say no to a basket of pears. A basket of pears showed up on my table, so I took them home to dry. I forgot them under my shelf for a week, so I set out to “quickly” chop them up.

When I adopted this neglected land, I didn’t know how to build a roof. I didn’t know how long it would take. I didn’t even know what most of the parts where called. But slowly, I figured it all out, learned new skills, and built a roof. But let’s start where we left off last time.

The cold, dark days of living in Northern Germany are approaching fast. What sunshine hours we still get are spent in the garden. I haven’t started any of my dark-day projects. The apartment is essentially on hold.

Time is running out on the roof. I need to finish it before temperatures fall, before school starts, before the rain returns. Two lovely friends had helped me finish the wood, but now I was back to two hands. Two hands, and a whole lot of motivation.

Fall came quickly this year. Nights are getting chilly.

My afternoons are spent fixing the roof, but there are all the things that always need to get done. The usual chaos, so to say. I am getting better (and faster) at al of it. Slowly, I am adding more skills, as others become routine.

I’ve missed a deadline for the roof. One side of the roof has been closed for a while now. But there was still the second side. There, I hadn’t even taken off the old roofing material. And the wood was only the first of three layers.

Friends were coming to help with the second layer. But I didn’t finish in time.