Maria Hammarblad's Blog, page 3

Possible Project Cottage II - I have learned more

I got a response from a lovely woman at the local community association. She told me the cottage is an old soldier's croft, built in 1772. There is a newer addition to the back, I'd guess 19th century. The cottage was inhabited until the last family member passed away in the 1940s. 

There was originally a barn too, but it was moved to a local folk museum in 1947. I plan to go see it this spring/summer. 

The amazing thing is, they've tracked down all the people who lived there, back to the original builder who was born in 1745! And they have details, like one person born here moved to the USA. One became a seamstress and another became a forest worker. 

According to their records, the house has been unused since 1953. People have obviously been there since, but no one has officially lived there for almost 70 years.

And, it gets better: she found a couple of old photos!

The place was so nice and the original house can still be salvaged. Yes, there's a lot of work to be done, but it's possible. My "renovate and restore" itch was already triggered. Now it's revving the engine. 

Fingers, toes, and paws crossed for a good meeting with the forest company next week. With any luck they aren't interested in things like this and will be happy to give a good price to someone willing to put in the work. 

Possible Project Cottage II

This past weekend, the dogs and I went for a road trip and ended up by an old cottage where the the map claimed there would be interesting things to see. There was; I found some really cool super-old rock walls and piles of rocks that are allegedly Iron Age graves. 

Yearning to learn more, I found this interesting anecdote in an archive, but I don't know what year this would have happened. (Translation below) 

When Herråkra Church was to be built, the people attempted to find the perfect spot through letting twin oxen out in the village of Råsa. They intended for the church to be in Råsa, since this was in the center of the parish, and assumed the oxen wouldn't go very far.

However, they walked into a neighboring parish and eventually stopped in a meadow. This was where the church would have to be built. According to local lore, trolls came by every night to tear down what was built during the days, but the "trolls" were probably just jealous people from another part of the parish.

As the construction failed, the twin oxen were called upon once again, and were once again released in Råsa. They headed in the same direction as last time, but didn't go as far. This time they stopped just on the border to the other parish. This wasn't a good spot for a church, but they built it anyway. 

The outer rock wall from the first build still remains today, and nearby is a croft called Kyrkemo. 

I saw the wall intended to surround the first church, and it's really cool. Photos don't do it justice.

By now inquiring minds may wonder, what does this have to do with Possible Project Cottage II?

Well, the cottage named Kyrkemo is still there. It looked abandoned, so there was a 0% chance I wouldn't approach and at least walk around it. 

It looks like an average forgotten Swedish house - but someone has cared enough to make sure it has a functional roof, and boarded up a broken window. 
But, in the back, the door is just... very sad. I suspect someone has broken in and torn it off - seems stupid since there isn't a lock on the front door, but petty criminals may not think that far. 

This sign hangs above the front door and if it's accurate, the oldest parts of the cottage are from 1772. That's older than the USA! I contacted the organization who put it up to ask if they know more, have old photos, or something like that. Keeping paws crossed for a reply. 

I thought that if it were my cottage and I had bothered with giving it a new roof, I'd want to know if the door was missing. It isn't in an area where people would drive by just like that, so unless the owners made a point of going to it, they might not find out for years.
I went home and looked up the owner. Turns out this is a part of a gigantic forest lot, belonging to an organization that owns immense amounts of Swedish forests. My stubborn brain cell claimed they might still want to know about the door, so I e-mailed them.
Monday morning, customer service responded and said they'd forwarded my message in the organization. An hour or so later, a person wrote a kind message, saying they would check it out. This could have been the end of the story, but he reached out again yesterday, asking if I would be interesting in purchasing the cottage.
Brain cell Smarty said, "This is a HUGE amount of work, and we have other things to do. Count on two years before it's usable."
Brain cells Dumby and Worky teamed up. "A building from 1772 is worth preserving. It's a part of our cultural heritage and do you really think someone else will do it if we don't?"
I will meet him there next week for an evaluation of the cottage and to see what we can do. If the price is within reason and something I can manage, I will purchase it. The government has hoops to jump through - and fees around $6K - to split a lot of land, but this organization must be one of the largest land owners in the nation, so they may have a shortcut. Or, it might be possible to purchase the cottage and have a rental contract for the land. 
We'll see how all this turns out. No matter what happens, it's an interesting experience. And if it's meant to be, it could be mine! 

Another year went by...

Yesterday was my birthday, and for the first time ever I wasn't sure how to feel about it. So many things happened during the past year, so many people I loved aren't here anymore, and the world changed - but probably not as much as it needs to do to ensure anyone's future.

That sounds pessimistic, but the bees are still dying out. Birds are starving to death because there aren't enough insects to sustain them. The Gulf Stream has slowed down by 20% and if if slows down too much or even stops, my part of the world will be inhabitable. To name just a few. These are problems that must be dealt with within my expected lifetime.

I would never have imagined any of this as a child. I thought we would have warp drive, sentient androids, and flying cars by the year 2,000. I used to count to figure out how old I'd be in the year 2,000, because I worried I'd be too old to enjoy it. Compared to that, reality is quite disappointing.

It isn't a local to "anywhere" kind of problem - we humans are the issue, and too many of us have learned nothing. As an animal advocate I recently got involved in a local debate about foxes. My village is tiny and surrounded by a forest, and people - who literally live adjacent to the forest - complain about wildlife. How is a fox supposed to know where the woods end and someone's garden starts? These arguments do nothing to sway the haters - the foxes have to go. Someone must shoot them. They must die.

A Swedish fox weighs around 11 pounds, so these are small animals. One woman's argument for killing the foxes is that they may sneak up on her children when they're playing in the yard and drag them into the woods. She believes an animal the size of a large house cat will be able to approach a group of children, grab one of them, and drag it into the forest. When some of the residents of the village suggested being afraid of something doesn't necessarily mean it's dangerous, she lost it. Because obviously, people arguing with her is quite hurtful and someone pointing out that she might not be correct is a danger to everyone's ability to voice an opinion. Hmm...

One of her supporters said, "We shouldn't have any foxes, because they might have worms and other parasites, and then they poop in the forest on berries humans pick and eat, and then we'll get worms and parasites too."

Alrightey then... We humans think so highly of ourselves that other animals can't exist even in the forest because they might poop there, and this is an inconvenience. That says all anyone needs to know of our species.

Anyway, birthday. Last year on my birthday was the last time someone visited my house. It was just on the verge of the Covid-19 outbreak in Sweden. A year... 

Without today's technology, that would be unbearable. But luckily we have social media, Skype, Zoom, and FaceTime. And at least for me, that made all the difference. I felt the outpour of love from friends on social media, and my colleagues in Lakeland threw me a virtual birthday party. They sang to me on Skype, and had even purchased a birthday cake. Both cute and funny!

Looking forward, what do you think of the upcoming year? Will we be back at something resembling the old normal in twelve months, or will we find something completely new? Will we have bested the virus with vaccines, or will it mutate enough to keep humanity on our toes? Will some new and unexpected disaster arise, or one of the ones already lurking? I don't know, but I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

Project cottage: Progress report

We're about to get cooler weather, so I've spent as much time as possible at "Project Cottage" to get things done before the ground freezes again. (Frustrating, but it's technically still winter.) 

I've taken a bunch of tiny trees down - everything that can be cut with the lopper and doesn't require a saw - started raking up an inch or so of dead leaves, nearly completed the excavation of the stairs, and the door can now be closed. Progress!

I will soon be able to sit on the top step with a cup of coffee. 

And, I'm excited - I'm getting unexpected assistance. I think I mentioned the cottage is part of a huge forest lot? I'm guessing the land owners didn't really expect me to do anything, and apparently they were over here during the weekend and noticed things are happening. They're going to have someone come work on the forest and asked if I'd like the crew to take down all the shrubs here while they're at it.

Yes! Please!

I hate sawing down trees - it feels like murder. I'm not particularly good at it either, so it takes a long time. I've counted two weeks for it in my planning, but professionals who have the right tools will probably clear it all in an hour.

This will be super helpful. It's close to the top on my to-do list too - it will be a lot easier to work on the house when it's easier to reach, and it will send a clear signal that things are happening and the place is no longer abandoned. 

Project cottage: Just keep digging...

I planned to have the steps to the cottage dug out by now, but yesterday muscles I didn't even know I had protested over my recent adventures, so I decided on a day of rest. Pretty sure the muscles yelled about "middle-aged chubby woman who spent all winter sitting down with a computer and a cat on her lap." 

I always feel in a hurry when I do things - I want to see results - but this will have to be a long-term project. At least that's what the smart brain cell keeps telling the others... 

Before - looks like a hill!

Not quite "after" - but getting there.

This is so exciting - I am eager to see the end result. With my pace and weather permitting, I hope to be done with the digging phase of the project (all around the cottage) mid March. But, this time a year that's truly depending on the weather. Paws crossed!

Project cottage: the excavation has started

We've had a few days with lovely weather, the snow has melted, and if it were up to me it wouldn't come back. For now, the great outdoors is green and welcoming again. The first spring flowers have even popped their adorable little heads out of the ground. 

Milder weather means the dogs and I have resumed work on "project cottage." I work and they watch, looking like: 

"She's sure doing that backwards." 

"Should we tell her?" 

"Nah, it's more entertaining this way." 

I've been trying to fix the door - some hooligan kicked it in and destroyed the hinges. When I first spotted the cottage I thought it didn't even have a door, because one half had collapsed. 

It's not perfect yet, but it is an improvement. And with some more time and work I think it will become a decent door again.

Inside the cottage, one of the ceiling tiles has fallen down. They're far from original - deeming from the material they were probably put up in the 1950s - but that's not the interesting part. It shows an old layer of newspaper in the ceiling that belongs to a more original ceiling covering. The newspaper is dated 1896 and has ads for the White Star Line that would eventually build the Titanic.

I would guess the cottage itself is even older, but I don't have any proof of that besides a hunch. Some details look much older. Of course, they may have been reused from another building.

Anyway, I've been looking forward to the snow disappearing and the ground thawing, because there's a good deal of digging to be done. 40 years of sediments has built up small mountains of soil, and all this must be removed - before I do anything else. I'm not particularly good at digging, but I'm hoping this soil will be fairly soft and easy to move. 

I wanted to start with digging around the front door, partly because it will be easier to get in and out without having to climb and crouch to get through the door, and partly because it's impossible to close the door.

Many of these older houses without a porch has a slab of rock or something in front of the door, and I was hoping to find something like that. Guess what? Reality is even better. 😍

I found stairs!

There's one more step that's currently below ground level - three total. All this has been hidden under 40 years of sediment build-up. I stood on the top step with a feeling of awe. I am the first person to use it for four decades, how cool is that!

I didn't have time to complete the excavation today - I had to go home and get ready for work - but that's probably a good thing or I'd have to roll out of bed tomorrow. (My muscles are already complaining, lol.) But, weather and Mother Nature willing, I'll be able to show a photo of the cottage with stairs soon! 

Exciting! 

Kårtäkt - yes, that is the name of a Swedish village

Someone asked why I'm so fascinate with old houses. I wasn't aware of it at the time, but it started in this cottage, back in the 1970s. It's very old, located in a tiny village named Kårtäkt.

When I was a little girl, the cottage was called "Hildurs Kammare" - Hildur was the woman who owned it, and "kammare" is short for "Slåtterkammare," which means a cottage that was used during harvest season. Her last name might have been Sundin, I think Hildur Sundin sounds right, but don't put any money on it.

There was a crumbling cellar behind it, and a barn where the cows and such used to have shelter during summers. I haven't been here for decades, but I bet both cottage and barn are still there. I don't know exactly how old they are, but a couple hundred years at least.

Anyway, Hildur was the lady who rented it to my parents. She was very old and super nice, and we went to see her once a year to pay the annual rent. Going there was exciting, but also a bit terrifying. She had a huge house she didn't live in and a one-room cottage in the same yard that she did live in. She also had a farmhand who used to drive around on an ancient moped. He was always drunk.

I was so small when I last saw her I don't remember many details. She eventually sold "our" cottage and surrounding fields to a nearby farmer. Visiting them to pay the rent wasn't anywhere near as exciting.

There was one room and a hall, and it was smack in the middle of nowhere. No water, the well had gone dry a long time before we got there, so we brought that from the city. No electricity. Mom would keep a fire going in the open fireplace and cook over the open flames. She was very good at it - and I learned to make fires when I was like 7. I can still see her crouch in front of it, stirring the fire to make it just right. All this was in an era long before cell phones and other types of entertainment, so if you wanted something to do, you'd better have brought a book. 

It was also in an age before digital cameras, so I don't have a lot of photos.

Down the road was a farm, and with a little luck they would have cows or horses out on pasture. There were two other children in the vicinity, both older than I. A boy who had a birth defect so he was in a wheelchair - those were big and clunky things in the 1970s - and a girl who had a horse. I can't remember her name, but the horse's name was Salván. (Typical me, remembering the name of the horse and not her...) He was a Norwegian Fjord Horse and sometimes when I was really lucky she brought him down to us so I could pet him.

Other friends included the neighbor's cat and a moose. My dad was terrified of moose, so he didn't approve of the company I kept. But seriously - there was nothing there except for the animals in the forest!

All this was okay as long as I was a child, but frustration and boredom grew with age, and as a teen I loathed being there. My mom and dad eventually got divorced (that was a relief, actually) and mom kept the cottage. She had it up to the mid 2000s - over 30 years! Around that time my aunt got cancer and it was the last straw for my mom. She didn't want to do anything after my aunt passed, and not even the cottage was any fun. I think the owner's daughter wanted it too and mom was probably happy that someone else would care for it. 

I pretty much grew up here - we were here all spring, summer, and fall every year. Apparently winters too since it's winter on the photo, but I don't remember that. And I guess this is why I have such a fascination with small, old, red off-grid houses. 

They represent innocence and the freedom of childhood. Nostalgia, peace, and a simple way of life that isn't possible today. And they must be protected.

A new fun project

There's a cottage about a mile from my house that I've passed so many times when exploring with the dogs. It has looked increasingly dilapidated, obviously empty, and one day when the dogs wanted to explore the path to it I just followed them. Okay, that isn't entirely true; I may have encouraged them. 😆 

A couple days later, curiosity got the better of me. I went back and snuck inside. At some point in time, someone must have kicked the door in.

This used to be a kitchen wood stove. The actual iron stove is tossed out in the back yard. Why anyone would bother with pulling it out and putting it outside is a mystery to me - it has to weigh a couple hundred pounds.

The rest of the kitchen is also ruined. These photos are from December, and since then someone has shot at the covering of this window. What is it with people and wanting to destroy things?


There are two rooms besides the kitchen. One is tiny and more of a storage area, and the larger one is in poor shape. I don't know what happened to the floor in here, but it can't have been good. I mean, the wood obviously rotted, but that doesn't explain the hole. 

Imagine how proud that stove must have looked once upon a time!

There are mysteries in the yard too. Like, what the heck is that?

Anyway, the place kept calling out to me. I posted about it on Facebook and one of my neighbors said no one has lived there for at least 40 years. At that time an older couple used it as a vacation home.

I looked it up on a property map and it's a part of a gigantic forest lot. The owners live in another city. Just before Christmas I gathered courage and reached out. The person I talked to confirmed that it has been empty for all that time, and said they keep trying to board it up, but people seem dead set on destroying it. 

I feel compelled to try to save it. This little house has been through a lot, and it's still standing. That says something - I'm not sure a modern house would look this whole after 40 years on its own. So the owners and I have come to an agreement. We're making a contract to show I have the right to be there - and that way I can call the police if the people who shot at it come back. I'm going to try to fix it up.

Carpentry is not on my list of skills, but this is a small and friendly building to practice on. I am good at painting and yard work, so that's two out of three... And it's okay if it takes time. I'm super excited to get going, and I am so happy the owners and I are thinking along the same lines.

Now, here's the comical part: I want to save this for the sake of saving it. To me, it is something worth doing. 

Maybe I will use it as a creative retreat - a place to go to write, read, or just sit in nature. Or maybe there's a future where a family from a city has this as a much needed escape to get into the countryside. Maybe children will play in the yard one day, and maybe I'll drive by and wave, delighted because I helped make it possible.

I joined a Facebook group about saving old houses and posted photos of this project. Within five minutes I had 26 comments telling me what a horrible idea this is, and people were still typing. It was all along the lines of, "Why would you do a thing like this when you don't own it? You can't make any money on that. And what if they sell it to someone else? Are the owners at least paying you? What do you mean you're doing it because you want to do it? How can you profit from a thing like this?"

On top of that a guy was mansplaining how I will need heavy machinery to dig out around the house and the yard, and lift the building to make sure it becomes straight. Okay then... 

I felt like I was talking to a bunch of Ferengi. I tried to explain, but that got old quickly, so I deleted my post and left the group. This isn't about making money; it's about saving something. Doing it can benefit both me and the community.

I don't have to own everything. There might be a point in the future where I ask the owners if they're interested in selling to me, but it's much more likely that I think this is a super fun project until the house is whole and pretty. I love the process of making things whole and pretty. Once that's done I usually need something new to work on.

We'll see. Right now I am excited, and the Ferengi among us will not steal my joy.

Now I just need the snow to go away. So I can get there with my car, and start taking the shrubs down, and, and, and... I'll keep you posted!

Winter, winter, so much winter

I'm not great with winters, but I live in the southern part of Sweden and they're usually not all that bad here. This year, warm air masses are pushing polar air down towards us - not just here but all over the American continent too. It's cold - we've had down to -5 F - but I must admit it's beautiful.

This is my back yard. I took the snow blower out to make paths.

Here are a couple of photos from strolling with the doggies. Beautiful, but I must admit they appreciate it much more than I do. At least we don't have to worry about alligators, lol!

Happy New Year!

2021 is here. I doubt this many people have longed for a new year during my lifetime, and I hope the new year will bring you joy and happiness.

Hopes aside, I don't share the general optimism about everything returning to normal in 2021. Sorry!

We humans invented measuring time in minutes, hours, and years, and our measurements have zero impact on the world around us. For our overall situation to change, we would need to change. Thus far we didn't, not really.

This might sound pessimistic and I'm usually not a pessimist, so I see it more as trying to be a realist. Humanity and our world is in a slump, not just with the virus, but with climate change and extreme weather patterns. Insects dying and this will lead to mass death in other species - we're already seeing it on population of birds - and so on. I believe we as a species need to start thinking and acting in new ways.

Can we change? Of course.

Do we want to change? Probably not.

What do you think of all this? Will we return to "before" or charge towards a new normal? Can we return to "before" or is that world gone forever?