Here I would love to share with you our travels and adventures as international mushroom consultants. MEMOIRS about husband Pieter Vedder, who was a SCIENTIFIC PIONEER in Commercial Mushroom Cultivation Education. His practical handbook is in 9 languages and is called the MUSHROOM BIBLE: https://mariettesbacktobasics.blogspot.com/2020/08/modern-mushroom-growing-2020-harvesting.html
For dear friends, I've done many stitches of hand crocheted labor of love.
Measuring and designing these peacock curtains, then crocheting the 80 hours with double mercerized French DMC thread; the finest crochet cotton available.
For these, I've worked a lot at Schiphol airport, while waiting to board for our flight to Indonesia...
Also while in Indonesia when I had a spare minute.
Just wanted to show you the result.
Pieter hung them, using the tiny brass nails that he used for our Rose Curtains.
Pattern taken from a Burda special for Filet Crochet
I've only left off some leaves, that are shown on the left...
A lot of counting and paying attention to all the details.
Did you ever work some peacock pattern into something?
In Georgia the weather can be unpredictable at times.
Like this SUDDEN WHIRLWIND without rain on Friday, June 19 of 1998.
Quickly I grabbed our video camera and exited through the veranda door to capture our trees bending in the wind.
A very dramatic sky came suddenly...
Next I walked to the wood garden, across the creek where Pieter was working and he showed me a tree that got lifted out of the ground by this strong wind.
Pieter shows that he can place his fingers into the opening created .
If you click on YouTube watching you can see at clickable 2:23 how it is lifted up a few centimeters.
Above video from Easter Saturday, April 6, 1996 is a nice musical medley with Mom & Dad and Pieter first playing the keyboard and later playing the organ.
Keep in mind, this is just IMPROMPTU...
The video can best be viewed on YouTube, so you can read the text below, where I've better explained with clickable points.
Songs being partly sung are: Thank You Lord (Dad) with Pieter playing the organ.
Dad with Mom and our friend singing 'Ich bete an die Macht der Liebe', a German song 'I pray to the power of love' by Russian composter Dmitri Bortniansky (1751 - 1825) and text by Gerhard Tersteegen (1697 - 1825).
Next is Guten Abend, Gute nacht (Good evening, good night – Brahms lullaby (1868).
German – Strophe 1:
Guten Abend, gut' Nacht,
mit Rosen bedacht,
mit Näglein besteckt,
schlupf unter die Deck':
Morgen früh, wenn Gott will,
wirst du wieder geweckt.
Strophe 2:
Guten Abend, gut' Nacht,
von Englein bewacht,
die zeigen im Traum
dir Christkindleins Baum.
Schlaf nun selig und süß,
schau im Traum 's Paradies.
English – Stanza 1:
Good evening, and good night,
With roses adorned,
With carnations covered,
Slip under the covers.
Early tomorrow, so God willing,
you will wake once again.
Stanza 2:
Good evening, and good night.
By angels watched,
Who show you in your dream
the Christ-child's tree.
Sleep now peacefully and sweetly,
see the paradise in your dream.
Pieter also gets summoned by our friend to play How Great Thou Art (which Dad never had heard...).
Video is ending on Easter Sunday at home and it shows that Pieter could not refrain from pulling some weeds!!!
With my passion for cooking, baking and fine table setting...
Once again I offered to do a HIGHT TEA for the bi-annual local Rotary Club's fundraiser.
Pieter wearing his Gianni Versace jeans and I wear my sewing creation Silk Batik bolero jacket, hand painted with gold and made from Indonesian formal shawl on Escada skirt.
If you watch on YouTube you will be able to see all the text with explanation as to what was being served in detail.
At 1:25 you see my Tea Cups with paper doilies and also Demitasse Coffee Cups.
Lydia is the lady in white silk blouse...
A happy group of ladies and we both enjoyed hosting them!
Tablecloth used is our Portuguese Guimarães white work, we bought in Coimbra in 1994 while on tour through Spain Portugal for 19 days.
Next morning we had this as our view from the bay window breakfast area...
The 🌳BUCKEYE PREFERRED SERVICES LLC truck was right in front of us...
Our very LAST morning of seeing the huge Oak Tree standing!
This Google image is from 2014 and the oak tree is shown on the left.
The Black Gum tree got cut in 2015, seen to the right...
These 11 seconds give you a clear sight of how the pulley got fastened on a limb, for letting the branches land safely.
Limbs that were above our home, are off already...
That huge oak tree split into a V-shape.
All the branches are already off, of one half of the V-shape...
Took this video of 1 minute and 22 seconds, for showing the GREAT EXPERTISE and PRECISION for getting those tall limbs moved above our side of the vinyl picket fence, and then lowering them.
You once more can see clearly the pulley being used.
The left side of the tall oak's V is completely off here.
All is being done while saving the Holly tree to the right!
You can hear me talk when dew drops fell down onto me, from the shaking of the branches...
Pieter was studying the KUBOTA as it proved so perfect for removing all the limbs and branches and dumping them into the truck alongside the road.
Here you clearly see that our Southern Magnolia did get trimmed up quite a bit!
More and more of the limbs are being lowered down via pulley...
Once down, they were being cut by one of the three team members.
Photo taken from the road, you clearly can see the limited space we had for letting this tree fall.
This short 56 second video showed the precision skill with a long handled saw!
And yes, those two men were in constant communication via their headsets.
The one below operating the rope for the pulley and the one in the cherry picker.
Here is the other half wearing the headset and the rope is being tightened around our big Holly tree.
This 41 second video shows you exactly their great team work and skilled precision!
The backside of our home looks so much better without the huge Live Oak Tree!
A bird house is standing on the table outside on the little patio at the Rose Suite entrance.
Next day, they did use the stump grinder for taking all this out.
We're now ready for the pressure washing of the home and gazebo and then the exterior painting.
Exactly: Cowboys throw a lasso but 🌳BUCKEYE PREFFERRED SERVICES LLC throws a pulley rope with precision!
One has to admire their skills.
Now they went up with two men, inside the bucket from the cherry picker.
Meanwhile the Southern Magnolia is being trimmed.
And branches being hauled off to be loaded onto their truck...
The very top of the 2nd V-section is skillfully being taken down by 2 men inside the bucket.
Now the lead man by himself tackles huge sections, till he reaches the beginning of the V-section.
Here the beginning of the V-section has been reached...
A rope gets fastened for helping pull the tree down after having cut out a wedge below...
Too bad I missed this final part as I had to meet with someone and Pieter was taking his nap.
But down it came!
Here you view the top of that V-section till where they'd cut it down segment by segment.
Wonder what the Japanese Magnolia is thinking now his huge neighbor is down?
And now, our Holly tree has full freedom and it will probably take a couple of years till it has restored itself.
Still some mistletoe left in this tree as well.
A large poplar tree with a broken branch hanging down.
The one to the right is on our neighbor's property and right above our greenhouse!
BUT he did not give us permission to cut it...
Pieter just was going to dump some fruit and veggie peels in our compost bin when he stopped near the downed Poplar tree. Another huge one, with a broken top hanging down on its bark...
And way too close to our green house!
Pieter let them stack this wood near the creek in the back, for woodpeckers to enjoy and chipmunks to roam around in.
We both were so pleased that finally those big trees had come down!
From April on, the weather was not cooperating, too wet for such heavy equipment to come into a soggy garden...
Living on a rather big property, constantly asks for upkeep.
Trees do grow and we're now living here 31 years...
Photo taken on October 15, 2021 and showing our Live Oak behind our home.
At one time, after an ice storm, a huge branch got ripped off, due to all the weight...
It never again had a 'good' shape since then.
See two links below post.
Our balcony's drain always got clogged up by catkins in the spring, then leaves and acorns in the summer and fall.
It also does stain the balustrade and lounge...
Bags full of leaves and acorns and one needs to scrub hard for removing the stains.
The other large oak tree you see over the roof, is across from our bay window area and between our home and that of the neighbors, on our side of the vinyl picket fence...
Several years ago lightning did cause a huge limb from the top section to come down; barely missing the neighbor's home.
Here you see how close to home, picket fence and everything else that V-shaped oak tree is!
To the right of it, right above the rose arbor, is our Holly tree that we want to save...
Our Southern Magnolia in the front (Magnolia Grandiflora) needed to be trimmed up in order to let the equipment pass by...
Photo is from October 15 with picket fence visible to the right.
Monday, November 1, around 8:15 AM this huge Live Oak had come down... It was easy as there was plenty of room for it to fall in its full length.
Quite a trunk size and huge root system.
Photo taken from balcony with one leaf from our Florentine Fig, shown bottom left...
Here, Pieter is standing on top of its trunk, for giving you an idea of its proportion.
Lots of wood did get hauled off...
After trimming off some branches from the huge Southern Magnolia, the truck with cherry picker could pass by...
Standing in our front porch...
One can tell that our exterior pressure washing and painting are the next jobs!
Literally branch by branch all of the tall oak's branches got taken down...
Branches stretched as far as above our roof.
By using a rope, via a pulley that got tightened onto a strong branch, the branches got guided down.
In the front to the right is our Oak Leaf Hydrangea.
Working at quite a height and being careful for not damaging the Holly tree next to this huge oak and the Japanese Magnolia tree visible to the right here. The Southern Magnolia is behind the vinly picket fence, not yet trimmed up...
Lots of limbs have already landed via the rope on a pulley and are below.
You see Pieter talking to the man from 🌳BUCKEYE PREFERRED SERVICES LLC
To the left you see the Southern Magnolia, center is the Japanese Magnolia and to the right we are freeing up our evergreen Holly tree.
Bird baths have been brought towards the patio area...
Those branches remained on the ground as a buffer for next days heavier limb parts to land on...
This shows how Dad was digging in the roots for their 220 chill hours, in December of 1956.
Those roots are being required to grow in a dark environment.
Dad did this outside, this was before he had his first greenhouse built.
The greenhouse to the left is from a neighbor.
December 1972, from my scanned negatives.
This shows Mom setting in those Belgian Endive roots for being grown in the dark.
With the two wheel wagon, Dad has dumped the roots along the section to be set in.
Tedious work!
Dad on his knees, doing the very same and to the right the 2 wheel wagon and part of the 4 wheel one.
Labor intensive!
Dad shown here using his Agria Baby 1100 a unicycle degree milling machine with single axle.
For that time quite an invention! Click link for seeing one in working...
These photos are not good, my very first Kodak camera!
It almost looks like Dad used some straw to cover it up...
Can't ask my Dad anymore; wish I'd had these negatives scanned before he died on June 30, 2019.
Photos got scanned by my sister.
These are from 1973 where Dad used his Kramer tractor and the 2-wheel wagon behind it and the 4-wheel wagon.
Showing wooden crates with the dug up roots that now have grown the Belgian Endive on the top.
Quite a harvest...
For cleaning them and preparing them for the auction, the job could be done indoors.
Here Dad did bring in some of the wooden crates with Belgian Endive into the greenhouse.
With some plastic curtains and the use of a HiLo petroleum heater, they kept it more 'pleasant' during the cold winter days!
Too bad that this is not in color as the paper used is BLUE, which perfectly does set off the white, now cleaned Belgian Endives. The outer leaves are being removed and also properly cut off.
Mom took this photo of Dad holding two wooden crates with cleaned and weighted, ready for auction, Belgian Endive.
It was Dad's pride, he always loved growing them and as with most veggies, he grew them well and with excellent quality. Not loose but rather dense heads.
Did any of you KNOW how this special veggie is being grown?
