Warning

Here is no park

Some people expect short mown lawns and flower perks. And paved roads from terrace to fireplace. But none of those. We do cut the grass once in a while, but it is hard meadow grass. There are no flower perks here.

Around the house you can also find nettle. In spring you can use the young plants as spinach. Really tasty. But make sure your children know what it is. Also some types of thistles are growing around. They make no harm if you don't try to pick them.

Dependency on utilities

We have a good mobile signal with 4G but only on Telekom. Orange can be reached from the Main house, but only from the kitchen window. For O2 you'll have to walk up to the road.

For electricity we depend the public electricity service, which is above ground and fails when weather is bad. Snow or storm will cancel our electricity and can leaves us for hours back in the middle ages until the tree has been cut and the cable repaired.

Our water supply relies on the electricity net and without electricity we can't pump up any water. That means that you can only once more flush the toilet and shower no more. And let's not think about the trouble if our waterpump will die

A country style access road

Where we live the houses are spaced out in the valleys. Access roads are always a challenge here. To get home, also under less great weather conditions, a four wheel drive car is no luxury. But we think that our road is actually rather good. Only in real muddy conditions, we rather leave our car at the main road, because driving a muddy road will damage it.

In winter when snow and wind howl around the house while inside the fire is nicely burning, we might get snowed in. And than it might take one or two days to dig us out.   

When the weather is rainy for a longer time, our road gets muddy. We have loamy ground so when dry the road is very hard, but longer rain will inevitably turn it into a muddy road.

But you can always leave your car at the main road and take the last 400 meters by foot. Healthy and enjoyable.

Animals and bugs

We are in nature. And we get visited by deer and wild pigs. But also by marters or a badger. Actually there are living 3 foxes just around the corner. Someone even spotted a bear. Deer and wild pigs come near the house at night, and might make scary noises.

We have hardly any mosquito's. But we have had an ant invasion in the house. And in summer a lot of noisy crickets. And spiders and flies. But also butterflies and dragonflies. And firebugs in spring. And ticks. they are really annoying, we had too many bites, but you might want to be careful with them

Country cats

They need their own topic. Our 8 country cats live outside and eat mice. Your own inside cat does maybe the same, but is regularly dewormed. Our cats are not always regularly dewormed. They sleep in the hay. Neighbor cats come here to fight, and some choose to start living here, what we actually don't appreciate. 

We advise not to feed the cats. And you better don't leave food on the table unattended. Cat's just have one hobby, to find some good snack. Cat's are also not allowed inside the house. 

Temperatures

The cottage is easy to heat in winter. Just keep the fire going and you'll  be fine. For the night you can use an electrical heater. But if you'll use it only to sleepover, this is not the place you want to rent.

The Main house, although fully isolated, needs more to stay hot. For us it was never a problem, we just put on a sweater when we are cold, or two.  Some guests try to heat the whole house, but in such house, you only heat the places you use, like kitchen en living. In the bedrooms are thick duvets and extra covers to stay nice comfy and warm in bed although the room might be (relatively) cold. 

So if you don't own a sweater or two, and you want to have even 23 degrees in the hall, be prepared to pay for electricity.