Pieter ALWAYS Worked Hard and Did Things Himself

 Being an immigrant makes you START OVER LIFE...

Below video on YouTube you find clickable links with information...

Pieter standing proudly in front of his meticulously straight placed fence! 

Seen at clickable 12:26 in above video.

Great job!

Now looking the other way towards our driveway (left) and street.

Corner posts and intermediate posts every 25 m in the concrete.

Total length of 110 m and DAYS OF WORK... Yep, another mega task DONE!

This was also the very day (February 10 of 1984) that Pieter officially had become a member of the Rotary Club of Dublin, Georgia/U.S.A.

Pieter was already a member in The Netherlands since May 11, 1976 of the Rotary Club of Venray, The Netherlands district 1550, where he was President in the year 1978/1979.

That very same year, Pieter was also Honorary President of the Rotary Club Royal Forest of Dean, UK district 1100.

Our late friend Roy J. Chappell wrote this to Pieter on Valentine's Day:

Dear Pieter:

Welcome to my Rotary Club—both you and Mariet.

The worldwide reach of Rotary is manifested in your joining our club.

Whenever I may help you in Rotary—or any part of you and Mariet's life here in Laurens County—please call on my.

What a very kind gesture and he's been a tremendous friend over many years and he did tour Mom & Dad and us around through Laurens and surrounding Counties to show us the rural agricultural part of it.

Forever fond memories!

Such a NEAT fence and here you see the wood that had to get split for burning it in our wood burner in the living room.

Our 1st home's garden was of a perfect size, not too deep in the back. To the right you just can see our veranda.

The other end of the 110 meter long fence with our rock garden.

~

It was on March 9, 1984 that we also had our front porch tiled with the imported Dutch tiles and our garage got tiled with the leftover tiles from the Campbell mushroom farm that Pieter designed.

Just had scrubbed them with authentic Dutch Green Soap and mopped it dry with a real Dutch dweil...

Our tiled garage... also scrubbed clean!

We both loved our 'new' garage with tiles!

Do you have tiles in your garage or front porch?

In our present home we also do...

Related link:

On August 29 in 1983 we arrived as Immigrants in Georgia, USA | previous post by me

Husband Pieter Doing it ALL | previous post by me showing the now tiled patio and wall added for privacy—done by Pieter of course

My 3rd Home with my French DMC Rose Filet Lace Crocheted Curtains | showing the new front door with windows and my crocheted curtains...

A HUGE Snapping Turtle | previous post by me

{Do you know Dutch DWEILEN for Mopping up Water?}

When we had the Flash Flood problems we were using 17 Dutch style DWEILEN for mopping up the ground water that came in our basement. Besides the two wet vacs that we ran all the time. What a job. I ended up ordering 6 more of these Dutch Witte Dweilen, from Michigan's VanderVeen's also called: The Dutch Store. Just click on both links and you also might want to get their Dutch Chocolate Letters in time for the holiday season.

From Albert Heijn

A 50 x 60 cm DWEIL in white cotton...

It is woven such that it has a high absorption of water.

The way I use this is with a squeegee that I place over the wet 'dweil'. This one is dry, just for demonstrating on our balcony.

Next you turn the 'dweil' over the squeegee  and now you can move over your tiles.

I do this with a wet 'dweil' then I rinse it out and wring it dry and go over the same spot again for drying it off.

Those cotton dweilen (plural for dweil) I throw into my Miele washer and they get laundered on 170°F for cleaning and disinfecting them for the next use. This is a very hygienic way of mopping floors.

{Fighting the Water + Scanning Slides}

• On Friday we drove to Atlanta, early morning in heavy rain... Luckily on the way home it only was drizzling. 
• Saturday was my day for cooking a dinner for 8 people, at our home. You did see some pictures from the table setting earlier this week. 
• While entertaining our guests, husband Pieter went downstairs twice for emptying the full, 6 gallons, wet vac in his work  shop. Water was seeping in from the outside wall, where our gutters could not hold all the rain water, neither were the pipes big enough for transporting it away from the house. Maybe some burrow from a chipmunk; who knows why and how; but it found its way inside. 
• No damage, nothing as we have all tile floors. Great thing was that we have those TRINITY EcoStorage™ NSF 6-Tier Wire Shelving Racks on wheels from Costco, so we could easily wheel them off! Imagine having fixed shelves... But it is quite a challenge that Water Control!
• After serving dessert to our guests, I did scoot downstairs to empty the big bucket and to mop up some water. 
• But we had no idea it would worsen over night. It was nearly impossible to keep up with it and we could not go to sleep. 
• Pieter did lie on the bed a couple of times to stretch his back and during the in-between time, I sat at my old laptop + Epson scanner (my second) for scanning our slides. In the office upstairs I keep another Epson scanner for non-slide scanning jobs. Archiving everything...

On the left is the opening for pushing strips of negatives inside...

• Got a lot of slides done that way, because it did not stay with only one night. In fact, on Thursday night we had everything dry and could sleep in one stretch through the night without any bucket-emptying duty.
• But kudos to the inventors of those wet vacs or shop vacs. Ha-ha, shop vac it was, as it worked for us in Pieter's work shop! 

• This one, our second, came from The Home Depot and holds 6 gallons or 22.7 liter.
• It takes some muscle power for lifting them, all night long = divided by two humans!
• Also wringing out those floor cloths takes some energy...

• Soaking up some water with old raggedy floor cloths... called 'DWEILEN' in Dutch.

• This kind of work did ask for some 'Popeye' food so I sautéed some baby spinach with garlic to eat with scrambled egg, made from egg beaters. 
• That makes for a yummy and healthy heart meal! Read about how to on my FB Page: facebook.com/MariettesBaktoBasics

• Pieter got smarter as he opened up the wall, so he could attach the hose right there to suck the water up.
• He left his knee pads still on the floor...
• The noise of this 6 gallons shop vac changes when it's full, so next door in the Rose Suite's living room, I got up from my slide scanning job and took the lid off in order to empty it out.

• 6 gallons shop vac - wet/dry utility vac
• It served us very well!

• My hands sure didn't look that happy after wringing out floor cloths that many times...
• I never wear any gloves; just use my bare hands.

• My left hand with the Dupuytren's Contracture after one year...
• Still functionable and even able to perform heavy duty.

• Did any of you have to fight some water?
• We're lucky with no damage, except that the wool/silk rug in the Rose Suite living room got wet on one side, earlier on February 12 on my Mom's birthday when we also had to fight the water.
• I really feel for all those that lost valuables such as photos or whatsoever due to real flooding!

As Pieter's Dad always used to say: 'Water is like Money; there is Enough of Both but it only is Poorly Distributed...'

Related links:
{Table Setting for Friends} | previous post by me
{Our Wild Creek} | previous post by me
{Our Rose Suite Work Shop & Mariette's Back to Basics Shipping Center} | previous post by me
{My Hand and Dupuytren's Contracture} | previous post by me