Weeks 4 & 5
A mixed bag
Work experience
Cooking Club
Work at de Swingel
More firewood!
Ben
New kid - kids weekend
Bird Nesting Boxes
Clearing the forest
Janny's Birthday
het water komt
Our work experience lad of 12 weeks shouted the cake on his last day. His parents and caregivers are at the stage when they have to find something suitable for his future. It is not with us. They are now going to look at something in the hospitality industry - something like "Brownies and Downies" - one of which we have in Drachten. Sadly, there is a waiting list...but, again I can't help but admire the system.
The local Country Women's Association Cooking Club again cooked for us (including Janny's Mum) - A 4 Course Meal that we hardly need, but enjoyed nonetheless.
Janny has become the main organiser of the work at de Swingel - or so it seems with the amount of time she has been there - but the results are now to be seen...
More Firewood!
We found some previously considered "too hard" blocks in the hayshed and tackled some other trees that had been felled but not cut for about 12 months...
With the electric chainsaw
Which gave another 3 cubic metres of (useable) firewood...
...and yet another temporary roof!
Coming and going...
We had a new boy for the kids' weekend, but we are going to lose one because he is being taken out of his home to be put in care. I only ever have limited time with the kids and have rarely had any that I can't handle...but apparently he is too difficult for the mother at home - our place is obviously good for him but it's not enough...
Bird Nesting Boxes...
We have finally settled on a particular style and have received an order from a Bird Watchers Club in Heerenveen (via our fishing enthusiast client).
Older variations...
Our new style - with various jigs made so that they all end up the same...
"our" forest just over the road,,,
At about 0800hrs...
...and the end result
Het Water Komt (The Water is Coming)
A young Dutch historian has written an open letter to every Dutch citizen - in the form of a printed pamphlet... expressing his concern (after research and discussions with many "experts"...)
A bit of a read (from Google Translate)
Dear countryman,
Let me describe the threat more clearly.
The survival of the Netherlands is at stake.
There is a chance that our children will have to say goodbye to cities such as The Hague and Delft, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, Leiden and Haarlem. I don't say that, (it is what) so many Dutch scientists say. I spoke to seven last summer and was stunned at how frankly they speak about the scenario in which we have to give up large parts of the Netherlands.
'If you have children now,' says Maarten Kleinhans, professor of physical geography at Utrecht University, 'you are talking about people who may be losing their country. Who will soon no longer be Dutch, because there is no longer any Netherlands. We are talking about that. "
Geographer Kim Cohen, a colleague of Kleinhans, fears the same. 'I think we can handle a 2-meter rise in sea level in the Netherlands. But if it becomes 3, 4 or 5 meters, then I wonder. The measures that we should then take are draconian. I think we will then start giving up cities. "
Geographer Kim Cohen, a colleague of Kleinhans, fears the same. 'I think we can handle a 2-meter rise in sea level in the Netherlands. But if it becomes 3, 4 or 5 meters, then I wonder. The measures that we should then take are draconian. I think we will then start giving up cities. "
For a long time, a sea level rise of up to 85 centimeters was expected for the year 2100. But in recent years the predictions have come up higher and higher. Even if we are able to limit global warming to 2 degrees, then according to the KNMI we run the risk of a 2 meter higher sea level in 2100.
If the earth warms up more strongly (to 4 degrees in 2100) then we almost certainly reach that 2 meters, and in 2200 we can reach 5 to 8 meters.
To give you an idea: the Delta Works are calculated on an increase of 40 centimeters.
The flood
Almost seventy years ago things went wrong. In the night of February 1, 1953, the dikes broke in more than five hundred places in the Netherlands and 1,836 Dutch people drowned.
But then we built the Delta Works, one of the seven modern wonders of the world that have protected us ever since.
When the law for the Delta Works was adopted by the Lower House on November 5, 1957, construction had already begun. Foreign journalists were surprised at the Dutch decisiveness. "What those crazy engineers now represent," wrote The Saturday Evening Post, "is a Maginot line of three new dams [...]. This concept has been around for a while. But, as one Dutchman said, "We first had to get angry to forget that it was impossible."
If the earth warms up more strongly (to 4 degrees in 2100) then we almost certainly reach that 2 meters, and in 2200 we can reach 5 to 8 meters.
To give you an idea: the Delta Works are calculated on an increase of 40 centimeters.
The flood
Almost seventy years ago things went wrong. In the night of February 1, 1953, the dikes broke in more than five hundred places in the Netherlands and 1,836 Dutch people drowned.
But then we built the Delta Works, one of the seven modern wonders of the world that have protected us ever since.
When the law for the Delta Works was adopted by the Lower House on November 5, 1957, construction had already begun. Foreign journalists were surprised at the Dutch decisiveness. "What those crazy engineers now represent," wrote The Saturday Evening Post, "is a Maginot line of three new dams [...]. This concept has been around for a while. But, as one Dutchman said, "We first had to get angry to forget that it was impossible."
We Dutch are less interested. The information signs at the Haringvlietdam are worn, the letters have fallen off. On Neeltje Jans, the working island in the Oosterscheldekering, there is an amusement park that has been sold to a Spanish multinational.
A new Delta Plan
And meanwhile the sea level is rising.
"The models now assume that it will really start around 2050," says Marjolijn Haasnoot, water management researcher. 'My children will then be the same age as I am now. It is not as far away as we think. "
In short, it is time for a new Delta Plan. And this time it's not just about dams and dikes, bridges and islands. The Delta Plan of our time is also about solar panels and wind turbines, flash trains and mega batteries.
This realization seems to have finally penetrated The Hague. On 28 May 2019, the Climate Act was passed by the Senate. In 2030, as we have agreed, we will emit 49 percent fewer greenhouse gases than in 1990. In 2050, at least 95 percent. Is that a lot? Is that fast?
Let me make the challenge more concrete.
Eight million buildings have to get rid of gas, nine million cars have to be powered by electricity or hydrogen, the electricity grid must be at least three times as heavy, a quarter of the North Sea must be filled with wind turbines, 75 million solar panels must be connected, 100,000 hectares of forest must be planted, and we need fifty technologies that are not even yet invented.
This will be the largest renovation in our country. Ever.
The future of our country
Among the dike graves of Holland there is an old saying: "Give us this day our daily bread, and occasionally a flood." And yes, in the past a disaster was always needed to wake us up. In 1916, the Northern Netherlands first had to flood before we started building the Afsluitdijk. In 1953, the southern part of the Netherlands first had to drown before we started building the Delta Works.
So should it go wrong again? Should the water advance to the Veluwe before we stop crying about expensive heat pumps and ugly windmills? Will we then realize that we must go through a revolution, transform the total economy and be a guide country for the rest of the world?
One thing is certain: if we want to keep our country, we have to fight. Fight against the water and fight against ourselves. Against our own apathy. Against our own frugality. Of course, on the one hand, we are a people of complainers and whalers, naggers and grumbles. A people who can remain blind, even if the truth is rubbed under our noses for years.
Yet we are also a people who can rise above themselves. That is capable of incredible things, and can be a guide country for the rest of the world. Yes, it will take a lot of time, money and energy - but it has always been that way. We have been fighting the water for a thousand years. And we can, because we are polderers. Because we are turning water into land. Because our future, even now, is in our own hands.
After some weeks of to-ing and fro-ing, he has finally landed a job for Samsung...we think he is going to be dressed up in this suit - which had to be specially made to fit him...
Janny's Birthday...
And meanwhile, the madness continues. Brexit is upon us and the other farce continues...I have had to force myself to stop listening...
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