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
COME, only 6 km (one way!) of walking through the Tengger Sand Sea...
The Sand Sea is some 10 km² in total surface!
It is an area scarred by magma from a believed stratovolcano explosion 250,000 years ago!
Mount Bromo is a stratovolcano 2,329 / 7,641 ft.
Part of Java's Ring of Fire
Our driver dropped us off near the entrance...
Both of us felt sorry for the paltry and poorly fed horses; so we walked!
Volcanic ash sands covering this ancient caldera.
We both embraced this Sunday challenge!
Feet still looking clean... but we were of course covered with volcanic ash upon completion of this trip.
Looks like you're walking on the moon...
Another of the Tengger mountains is Mount Batok, the inactive volcano and green. It is 2,440 m or 8,005 ft above sea level.
Me looking back...
Below you see the Pura Luhur Poten Hindi Temple
A tribe that still to today is bringing live offerings by throwing animals and birds into the active volcano... 😡
The walk up the 250 steps to the crater rim goes slow (yes, I counted them!). They're only wide enough for 2 people, one line going up, one coming down. But it was not crowded that Sunday.
Pieter is happy for having arrived at the top for viewing the crater...
The B from Bromo to my left is kind of faded away... But we sure got there!
It is an unreal feeling for walking along the crater's rim; on the videos below you get a better idea of that as we did not capture any photos from our act.
This was on May 26, 1996 and since then several eruptions have changed the size of this crater.
That was a nice thing for our Sunday and tomorrow back to work, high in the mountains of East Java where the mushroom farm was located.
While living and working in Indonesia, we had our new home built in Dublin, Georgia after moving all our belongings back from Italy and kept in storage.
In November of 1990 we moved in but had to leave again for Indonesia, for a couple more years.
When not there during construction, all sorts of things can go wrong...
So, finally in January of 1995, husband Pieter got to hang anew our solid oak indoor shutters.
Our contractor had put the mortise hinges in face-mounted and by doing so, they did of course no longer shut...
So they went on by mutilating them even further by sawing the excess on the center (closing) panel off!
The face-mounted hinges resulted in ugly gaps between all panels, causing furniture, rugs, to fade from sunshine and also losing full privacy.
Too bad that such fine craftsmanship by Historic Windows in Virginia got ruined by non-professionals!
When viewing the video on your PC you see at clickable minute 0:30 in text below video, how Pieter painstakingly added narrow strips of wood to the window casing for making the window smaller to fill up the space.
Gaining just a little and then putting the wooden corner strip back on at minute 0:50 and start hanging the shutters anew.
At minute 0:58 Pieter places mortised hinges on correctly instead of face-mounted. Painstakingly chiseling out the space for hinges, precision job... 24 mortise hinges for each window!
At 1:50 hinge is now mortised into the edge of the shutter, thus preventing shutters from 'gaping'.
At 1:59 Pieter is showing how much they actually had CUT off... because they had placed the hinges face-mounted.
At 2:16 showing how Pieter added about 1.5 cm to casing and on other side 0.75 cm to compensate for what they had cut off, then caulking, sanding and painting.
At 3:50 painting in living room with the Dutch World Radio on... flooding in The Netherlands.
Pieter speaks in Dutch as this was our 'spoken' letter for my Parents, back in The Netherlands...
But you still get a very clear idea!
Happy for having those home videos archived!
We selected the CHARLESTON as that is exactly what we got for all doors, except in living room; dining room; kitchen and veranda where we have French doors with 15 glass panels.
Both of us like indoor shutters far better than curtains.
Curtains can become very dusty, and may interfere with certain health issues.
Easy cleaning instead of curtains.
Eco friendly as they insulate very well; both for cooling in summer and heating in winter.
Their historic look is also a big plus.
Too bad that HISTORIC WINDOWS where we got ours for our previous home, after getting rid of all curtains and again for our present home that we moved into in November of 1990, no longer produces...
~
Similar solid wood interior shutters you can find at Colonial Shutters in Mattapoisett, MA
This also shows you, when professionally hung with mortised hinges, they CLOSE!
On Saturday, October 26 of 1985, we got our new front door hung by the carpenter and I'd already hand crocheted the French DMC Rose Filet Lace Crocheted Curtains.
Before we had a solid, metal door and I did hate to open it, as I never knew who I was opening the door to...
So we changed it for this one, with small windows, so I could look out.
Pieter had done the tedious job of hammering in the tiny brass nails that I brought over from The Netherlands. Brass, on purpose, as that would never tarnish the fine filet crochet work.
Another Mega Task accomplished.
We also put a new window in the living room, one that allowed us to look outside instead of the previous higher window in a small size!
Yes, in our previous home we also had those solid oak window shutters, made by a craftsman from Virginia. They are excellent and eco friendly, in saving energy and you can close them for privacy, if needed.
That's me, crocheting on some curtains for somebody...
(The wool Smyrna rug under the table, got hand done by me—knotted with a latch hook).
Comfy and lazy!
So, now I was happy!
Finally having my roses back and LIGHT coming inside the hall way as well.
On December 24, after having taken the curtains off, Pieter managed to give the door its first coat of paint.
On the link below this post you can see more photos, also from a couple of years later, as well as from my previous two homes' Rose Filet Lace Curtains... Also you can clearly see the pattern.
While driving to The Boulders, we did pass some impressive solar carport structures on N. Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale Arizona. That looked really neat and just imagine with those high temperatures how 'cool' it will be to get into your car. So back home I did some research because in our town, right here in Dublin, we do have a company that produces Photovoltaic Solar Power Panels. The company is from Germany and is called MAGE SOLAR USA. This company no longer exists... Jewish Community Center, Scottsdale, AZ ←click it and you can enlarge photo # 4 which I used here above. This is the Scottsdale Arizona Skyline Solar we saw when passing by.
For Central Georgia it is quite rare to see Icicles but today, January 29, we did have lots of them. Our trees were hanging down under the heavy weight. So please come with me on a tour to see the Icicles in Our Garden...
This photo is showing our iced gazebo roof through the icicles that hang from our Drake Elm - Ulmus parvifolia.
To the left you see the Rose Stepping Stones...
Two new Rose Stepping Stones in weathered bronze are still waiting to be placed.
The table and chairs in front of our Rose Suite, on the little patio, are covered with ice as well...
The fronds of our Palm Tree are full of ice too.
Icicles hanging down from our Golden Live Oak 'Quercus Virginiana Grand View Gold'
Our Fragrant Magnolia Grandiflora 'Namnetensis Flore Pleno' with iced leaves...
Icicles on our Castanopsis cuspidata--Japanese Chinquapin
Our Cedrus Deodara or Cedar Rose Tree with big frozen teardrops hanging down on it.
Buds of our Our Japanese Somei Yoshino Cherry with icicles hanging down...
Our Sky Pencils - Ilex crenata Japanese holly with ice on the red polished beach pebbles...
Closeup of the red polished beach pebbles on ice on top of an Eco Friendly Tree Ring from recycled rubber.
With our low economy, we have to look UP for saving some money! Better insulating our attic as best as we can. That's exactly what we did; investing in the attic, in order to create a more energy efficient home and lowering our Carbon Footprint!
On Monday, March 18, husband Pieter started with building a floor in our attic. That served two purposes: making it possible to walk on; without falling through the ceilings and also making it more energy efficient. We already did have Eco friendly white cellulose on our attic as an insulation.
Remember that in my post about {Our Hallway} I left the following note under the last photo: Looking up to the ceiling where a foldout staircase leads to the attic.
THAT will be another project...
Okay, here you will see what this was all about.
Behind the light you see the cord for pulling out the fold down staircase that leads up to the attic.
In the hallway you see two sheathing boards, that Pieter had cut in half at Home Depot in order to fit them through the opening, up to the attic.
Two by two, brought in through the front door; the shortest distance from the little trailer, behind our Toyota RAV4.
Wearing gloves, I did hand them up to Pieter, who grabbed them from the attic, reaching down.
Many Sheathing plates we handled...
Lots of dust we 'ate' for weeks!
For those of you, not familiar with the construction way in Georgia, USA as well as in many other states, this is under the roof. A very sturdy construction of solid red cedar beams.
They just nailed plaster boards onto these red cedar wood beams and you could not WALK on them; only on the sections where the cedar wood beam is underneath!
So husband Pieter worked for weeks in order to hand cut those sheathing boards
Using no nails but screws as to not damage the ceilings and creating lots of dust downstairs...
Many trips up and down the foldout staircase!
Here you also see the outlet and switch that Pieter first installed in order to have working light up there!
Pieter did compact and egalize the Eco friendly white cellulose to work it neatly under those sheathing boards.
Literally 'cutting corners'; many corners that is! Using a mask for the bulk of the dust but no matter how, you still 'eat lots of dust'...
Pieter did tighten up all those red cedar beams, many of which were rather loose.
He used screws for doing so.
Heavy duty time for his equipment...
He also had to crawl underneath those air-conditioning ducts...
Pieter did not go all the way under the shallow part of the roof but he did place an upright plank to keep the insulation material neatly behind.
All the above photos I've taken on March 29 and this one is taken on April 9 when he was about done with this mega job. It took longer than estimated due to so many different corners to be cut out.
This is the short end of the 'T' section, looking towards our front porch.
That pipe is from the ventilation hood above my cooktop in the kitchen...
Now looking the other way of the short end of the 'T' towards our gazebo.
On the sides under the shallow parts of the roof there are the open cellulose insulation material 'beds' with only a plank in front to keep the material from spilling over.
Now we are under the long side of the 'T' section (shape of our home), facing the driveway.
This attic fan, Pieter installed already two years ago in 2011. You can read my previous post below: {Going GREEN with Attic Fan}
Stepping back for a better over view.
Now the attic looks neat and ready even for storage if necessary!
Turning around towards the bay window area (in the back).
It was quite a job to manage working around all those wires that are all over the attic like spaghetti...
Stepping back towards the driveway side and you can see again the opening down with the foldout staircase.
Quite a difference or not?
You see the tile floor in our hallway down the staircase opening...
View from the other side towards the foldout staircase.
Pieter has changed the outlet and switch and installed better permanent light in all areas.
We were so glad to get rid of all the saw dust and I just managed to do a thorough cleaning down stairs, right before we left for our vacation in Curaçao!
That was mission accomplished; quite a nasty job!
For sure such a floor makes a difference in insulation as well and it certainly will pay off.
