Week 15

April 15, 2023

Week 15

How the memory works...sometimes

On Monday, we were stilll enjoying our long weekend. We had the kids from thursday night until Saturday late afternoon - and still had 2 full days off!

I get up early, no matter what and on Sunday found that I had to get some kindling for the fire - I had my hearing aids in and went outside - to a wall of sound from the birds!

At 0600hrs now it is just starting to get light. I am constantly delighted by their activity - but I did wonder if they know about global warming? or are they like us? too busy just trying to survive...

I began to also wonder where my delight comes from - old age, probably...but then I remembered the Gould Bird League from 4th Grade with Mr. Delacca...I looked it up and it still exists...

The nitrogen problem...

The Dutch word for nitrogen is stikstof - in the articles describing the nitrogen crisis they use the term stikstofoxide - which my mind translated to nitrous oxide N2O.

So, in the absence of laughing cows, I think I got that wrong :(

From the Government pages comes this far better explanation.

Nitric oxide (NO) is a gas that is produced during all kinds of combustion processes. At high temperatures, chemical reactions occur, for example between nitrogen (N2 ) and

oxygen (O2 ) from the air. In the air, the nitric oxide (NO) emitted is converted fairly quickly into nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ). The sum of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ) is called nitrogen oxides (NOx ). Nitrogen oxides (NOx ) are mainly released when fossil fuels are burned, for example by traffic.

Nitrogen oxides precipitate in nature (deposition). This occurs through both dry deposition and wet deposition (as nitrates in the rain). As a result, nature and the soil are enriched with nitrogen. Plants that grow well on nutrient-rich soil, such as grass and nettles, displace plants that grow on poor soil. If those plants disappear, the animals that live on those plants will also die. Eventually there will be fewer species of plants and animals: biodiversity will decrease.

The main sources of nitrogen oxides are traffic, the energy sector, industry and agriculture.

The agriculture sector has been the main area under scrutiny (they would use the word attack). The Netherlands produces four times the quantity of nitrogen than any other country in Europe - with the added problem from the intensive dairy farming - the cows' urine mixes with the manure and produces ammonia NH3.

The most recent election was for candidates in the Provinces - these ultimately determine the make-up of the Senate

The Farmer–Citizen Movement (Dutch: BoerBurgerBeweging, BBB) is an agrarian political party in the Netherlands.

This link gives a fairly good description of the politics...but where the solution comes from, who knows?

https://apnews.com/article/netherlands-election-farmers-bbb-mark-rutte-cc59032d926a1585002ce9e10aee0886

With most votes counted, the BBB was projected to win 16 seats in the upper house and a combination of Labor and the Greens had 15. Rutte will face a choice of working with a left-leaning bloc that is seeking more ambition in environmental policies, or with the BBB that aims to soften policies aimed at cutting nitrate pollution.

I read Umair Haque every day...I couldn't resist this quote...

You did what? You boiled the planet, killed off life on it, made water and food a luxury, and put the lunatics in power to boot, undoing centuries of hard work building modernity, democracy, prosperity, freedom? Good job, guys.

A Dutch Wombat

A baby wombat has been born in Brabant’s BestZoo in what zoo officials say is a first for the Netherlands. The infant was first spotted by a visitor when it poked its head out of its mother’s pouch earlier this month. Zoo staff do not know exactly when it was born, but it is believed to be the first wombat birth in a Dutch zoo. Its parents arrived in Best in 2021 and are thought to be the only wombats living in captivity in the Netherlands. Baby wombats are extremely small and remain in their mother’s pouch for several months. ‘The wombats are doing well,’ the zoo said in a statement. ‘The youngster sticks its nose out regularly.’

Another Birthday Party (Ilona 23) - and more cake!

Boat works.

The boat had to go back in the water so that I could run the motor - just to see if there was still a problem after some repairs.

The motor is fine. but it remains a mystery how some water came to be in the bilge. Snow or the high pressure cleaning - the boys deny the latter and I can't imagine anything with the snow...

On Saturday, I began the cleaning up in advance of going "in the shed" on Monday - have to put the main hatch back on and paint the bottom.

The mast and nav lights back on...

Around the farm...

Tjeerd said he saw an animal at the side of the road - so, with hearts in mouth Janny and I went to have a look to see if we had lost yet another cat...our knees sagged as we saw it - an animal with the same colouring as Tassie - but, it turned out to be a young badger...

Janny rang the Local Council to see if someone could pick it up - but they said someone else does it now - Janny found a phone number but was told that it had to be reported on line - nobody wants to actually talk these days! Janny filled out the form, but...

...we waited a couple of days and I ended up burying it myself - in the forest next door - with all sorts of animals over the years.

When I was going through my photos last week, I found this one of our place from around 1970, Janny said she remembers climbing up the silos and over the roof... We haven't found out how the photo was taken - it may have been a balloon, but they weren't a thing then as they are now. (so maybe a plane with the lines at the side). At the front of the house can be seen one of "De Twa Buken" (The Two Beeches) which died the year before we went there...

...and now

We're fitting out our clients with some clothing...shirts and jackets and jeans, all with our logo...screen printed by Janny - we have to learn the process all over again!