Beautiful Pine Grove

We live in a village of Männisalu, which translates into Pine Grove. Our forests are full of different kind of trees, pine is defenitely one of them. We also have oaks, spruces, maples, birches, willows, aldens, mountain ashes and few others. There is lots of forest in the area where we live. Some has been cut, but luckily they also plant a lot of trees every year.

As I was driving kids home one day I noticed how beautiful the short 5 mile trip really is. Especially right now when Estonia's trees and meadows are in a very nice shade of green - a bright fresh green of new leaves and grass blades. Then I decided to take some photos of the sights I pass by as I am heading home from Viluste School.

The first farm house in our village is habitated only during summer month, as the owner is a high school chemistry teacher in Northern Estonia and during the school year she only comes for weekends. Her brother, also our villager, helps her to keep it in order. She is a passionate bee keeper. The rest of the farms in our village are full year around.

There is nice little birch grove around the next curve, which is currently being thinned. There are always so many anemones in spring time, the bottom of the forest floor looks like it is covered with a white carpet.

Next three farms are very close to each other. The reason for that is that originally their lands belonged to the same family and were divided up between the heirs quite recently. So they are also all relatives in those three farms.

One of them is rising cows. The milk truck comes every day and few villagers, who don't have a cow but still like farm fresh milk, collect their daily milk from them as well.

The other is rising sheep. They are also local veterinarians and very helpful neighbours. They inherited 8 sheeps from his father. By now, they have 120 sheeps. It is their life style. They still make hey and rake it together by hand, they let it dry on the meadow and when they are done bringing it in to their barn, the barn smells like heaven. And they enjoy it!
Everything in their property is in a perfect order. Some of the firewood for kitchen range is axed so thin, that you don't even need a paper to ignite a fire. And it will be a fierce and hot one, perfect for cooking.

Next household is our mail box holder. All the village mail boxes are in one place to make mailman's job little easier. The distances are so big between farms and as the weather during most of the year is rather tough, it just makes sence.

Our closest neighbours are a retired couple. Their grown up children are living away from childhood home. One of the daughters is a forestry teacher in a vocational school and she helped her parents to plan and plant a new future forest between us on an unused field.

And this is how we approach our residence, the beautiful Leppoja farm in the end of the driveway.

Pictures by KJ

A New Start - Co-op Rules!

Our house welcomed us in a friendly way: roof was on it, water had not done any damage what so ever. Doors and windows were all on and in one piece. It was so nice to see the red tip of our home visible already far away as we appraoched it.

The garden did not greet us in the same peaceful and orderly way. As soon as one could see into our court yard, actually even before, in the other side of the gate as well - all lawn was destroyed. It was done very properly and evenly by wild bores, from edge to edge, without touching flower beds. Thank God for that, all the flowers are OK and some are even blooming.

It was sad. I have worked eagerly and passionately for three summers to get it into the condition I left it. It probably took them few hours to turn it up side down. Well, it was an easy access to earth warms and other goodies, nobody there to destract them. I think neighbours let some hunters know about the attack, so some of the hunters came and did some shooting. After that they have not seen new damage, so it might have scared them little bit.
What's next? I simply cannot live like that, but I also realized that my own power is so tiny to do all that cleaning up before grass starts growing again.

So I decided to call for help. I posted an invitation to Facebook for my friends to come and help out on May 7th. As it was day before Mothers' Day, many of my far away friends from the Capital area could not make it, but local friends were really ready to jump in and to it together. As the area is close to 2 acres, I badly needed mechanized help as well. My good neighbours, local veterinarians, offered their older model tractor. I also asked another friend, a local farmer and folk dancer, who has more modern and powerful tractor. Although it is a very busy spring farming season, he had mercy on me and my hopeless situation, and also came on Saturday and did the most of the tractor work. That was enourmous help, as it made it easier for rakers to even the soil and get the grass residue out of the ground.

Going back little bit in time, when I first posted the invitation, I was very happy that so many people responded positively. First ones to back me up were my folk dancing buddies. Even few city friends were coming at first, but later on different things came up and we actualy did not see anybody on Saturday further than 30 miles from us.
My high school class-mate with her husband offered me to rent a portable lawn cutter and they brought it here with their truck. That was a good thing to have for edges and hard to get to with a tractor places. He worked on it all day, such a great help, thank you!

My class-mate herself and a good friend from gardening school era, a well known landscaping teacher were a good pair on how to do it properly. Participants were at first little doubtful, but as soon as everybody saw first results of well groomed new soil, nobody had any doubts left and the final result was amazing. Later on the neighbour's tractor was harnessed behind a big cargo base (??) and that served then as a final flattener and smoother for the raked area, before the seed could go in the ground.

To make things perfect, even old kids play shack was moved to a different location. Old stumps were moved and rotten fence postd were torn out.

During lunch hour soup, cucumber salad and cake was served. Good workers deserved even better meal, but I must admit that the spaghetti dish I tried to make, failed and I had to activate plan B and serve ready made soup. Evening ended with sauna, although everytbody was so tired that could hardly enjoy it - wash up and go to bed.

So much work got done, I cannot even belive my eyes when I go out and see the beauty back around me. I have more to do, but they gave me back hope. Thank you, Veriora, Räpina and Võru!

My sad boar disaster

Now, when I am writing this posting, I already know how much better it will look like, but when I took those photos of my house and garden, I was devastated and overwhelmed with work to be done. So I will not talk here too much about the damage, as there will be another posting shortly following about the happy day of united voluntary work -bee - on our yard.
There was one good side in this wild nature attack toward the human culturization (is that even a word?): none of the flower beds were touched. Did they consider flowers poisonous or are the earth worms not living in the flower beds? Good questions, who knows.

1. Very happy that the main house is in one piece:









2. The clothe rack is also standing, although rather rough underneith:









3. 'Plowed' passage between sauna and the big stable:

4. Proper and even work in the orchard:

5. Oh, Lord, sad view of the non existing lawn with the roofless barn on the background:

Farewell, Woolworks!

My dear friends on the other side of Atlantic! I am back home and starting to settle down a little. There are many things to clean and arrange, so its been few days I have not done anything but organizing to feel good. Mess makes me nervous. Anyway, now it is a good time to let you know how my travels went. Smoothly, very smoothly, indeed.
We started nice and early on Friday morning, as all the bags and suitcases were packed well ahead af time by somebody very diligent, ahahahaa! Josh's father prepared us a nice breakfast, although we were little too anxious to eat too much.
Grand Mercury, also known as Creamsicle, was jam packed. Both front and back row had a bag in the center of the sofa seats to allocate the weight more evenly. The big boat was really going heavy. But hey ... we got there. We took Merrit parkway and Tappanzee bridge and Graden State Parkway and arrived to Newark International Airport nice and early.
Our six suitcases and 4 really heavy carryon items would have required few carts, but Josh had to park the car too. So we ended up hiring a local helper who carted all our belongings directly to the check-in gate. As there were nobody there yet we chatted with the workers "to clear the air" for the upcoming luggage overweigth. I had no money, but they asked me to start loading the bags on the scale anyway. After parking the car, Josh would pay them. Well, nobody paid much attention to the reading on the scale, as some of the suitcases were rather hefty. I guess all that sweet talk in the beginning paid off - we were charged only $150 insead of 180 EUR. Thank you, Scandinavian Airlines!
Next thing we hear is a firealarm. Bot nobody was going anywere, so we also just kept going and finally it just stopped. The line were Josh could not come any further came quite quickly, so we had to say our good byes. He was worried about my crazy heavy carry-on suitcase, but I had good feeling about it and some back-up plans, so we just continued with three of us into the fun custom's "play area". Luckily I had not heard about those indecent searching procedures, and probably because of that innocence, nothing really happened. Nobody touched us, just the bags, nothing was taken away, just searched and re-searched.
There was still 30 minutes left before boarding when we got to the gate. Kids could look at the planes and we had little snack. Then the boarding people called for passangers how needed help, who were travelling with babies and ect. I looked at Zoe and decided that she would qualify as a small child and we took our stuff and headed to the plane. We were welcomed to board first and we had all the time to settle in, put the luggage into the overhead compartments, and take a seat. Then I felt so relieved and happy that we made it that I hugged and kissed the kids, told them how wonderful they have been and that it is already so easy to travel with them. It was just so smooth!
Plane arrived to Stockhom 45 minutes ahead of the schedule. There were movies and games on everyones seat, so kids were fully entertained. We were served dinner and a promise of a chocolate after the meal made sure that it was also eaten. Around 8PM Zoe crawled up on the floor and fell asleep. Janek stayed on the seat and snoozed there. Around midnight, when I felt for the first time that I could take a little nap, lights were turned on again and breakfast was served. Well ... were did all that long flight time go I don't know, but we were there and it was time to get up. Janek was fully awake and ready to rock, Zoe was slightly disturbed by the wake up.
We were last to leave the plane ( I just let Zoe to sleep as long as I could), so there was nobody in the terminal. When we went through the Swedish security, I was first time patted over my body. They even confiscated my toothpaste, which made me question. I tryed to explain them that I came from America, not going there, but they did not care and were very eager to search everything.
It was time to climb up into a tiny little Estonian Air propeller aircraft for our last leg of the journey. The plane was so small that they even took care of my carry-on suitcase. And the flight began ..... no turbulance, sunshine, snacks on board and extremely friendly steward Valeri. When we saw land again through the windows, kids cried out loud: "I see Estonia, Estonian is here!" and we all felt good and warm to be back on familiar homeland.

Loputult lummav reis Pennsylvanias

Meie aeg Ameerikamaal hakkab otsa saama. Et seda loppu vaariliselt tahistada, otsustasime sel koolivaheaja nadalal kodust pisut kaugemale reisida. Kuna lapsed on veel sellises ornas eas, et pikki otsi soites kergesti igavuse katte voivad surra, otsustasime esialgse plaani uhendriikide pealinna Wasgingtoni kulastada asendada pisut lahemal asuva Pennsylvaniaga. Ja otse kohe kui sellest marsruudist joudsin sopradele pajatada, hakkas info selle osariigi kohta kokku jooksma. Siin on tulemus.

Esimese paeva pika soidu saime pooleks jagada vahepeatusega Cooperstownis New Yorgi osariigis. Selle suure osariigi lounatipus asub New York City ja pohjaservas on kuulus Niagara juga. Meie jaime kuskile vahepeale, suure jarve Otsego aarde, kuhu oli rajatud Ameerika meelisspordiala pesapalli kuulsuste muuseum Baseball Hall of Fame. Soit Cooperstowni kais labi kena kuplirikka maastiku, mis oli Eesti maastiku sarnaselt tais pikitud kulakesi. Eestit meenutas see kant uhe teise nurga alt veel: millegiparast armastas sealne rahvas samuti oma aedadesse vaga palju igasugu kola ja trana koguda.

Pesapalli muuseum oli vahva, sest palju oli igasugu ponevaid vidinaid mitte vaga kaugest ajast kokku kogutud. Spordihullus on mulle arusaamatu soltuvus, aga Ameerikas on vaga palju vaga intensiivseid pesapalli austajaid. Mulle meeldisid koige rohkem just need kujukesed, mis olid toelistest fannidest tehtud. Ja nood inimesed lausa elasid pesapalli elu, jatmata vahele uhtegi oma voistkonna mangu.

Esimese paeva ilm oli vihmane, mis oli igati sobilik tubasteks tegevusteks. Ka jargmiseks paevaks oli planeeritud uritused, mis ei oleks vihma tottu ara jaanud. Tuli aga valja, et selleks polnud pohjust, sest terve selle nadala jooksul oli valjas vaga kena ja koige lounapoolsemas otsas isegi pisut liiga soe ilm.

Oobisime Scrantonis, is asub Pennsylvania osariigi loode nurgas, seega olime joudnud sihtosariiki. Enamus oodest peatusine EconoLodge nimelistes motellides, mis on soodsa hinnaga, samas varustatud koige vajalikuga, k.a. wifi, duss, kaks laia voodit. Muud meil vaja polnudki.

Scrantonis asub Steamtown - vanade auruvedurite ja rongimuuseum. Teel sinna nagin tee aares reklaami Lackawanna soekaevanduse kohta. Need kaks kohta on omavahel ajalooliselt seotud. Selles piirkonnas arenes auruvedurindus just seetottu, et oli saadaval rohkes koguses vaga kvaliteetset ja korge kuttevaartusega sutt (anthracite coal). Seda kasutati kutteks ja seda veeti ka rongidega kaugematesse piirkondadesse. Koik see ja siis veel ka tohutul hulgal uusi asukaid, immigrante Euroopast, andist tugeva touke auruvedurite ehitamisse ja soekaevandamisse. Kaevanduse omanikud ja vabrikandid teenisid uskumatuid kasumeid, ehitasid ilusaid paleesid ja arendasid raudteede vorgustikku.

Lackawanna kaevandusse sisenesime koos reisijuhi Tonyga labi Ava 190. See viis meid ca 300 jala (100 m) sugavusse, et saaksime tutvuda eluga maa all. Tegevus lopetati seal 1966 a, 6 aastat enne seda lopetati vee ules pumpamine ja viimased aastad kaevandati vaid veetasemest korgemal. Korva jai see, et vaga palju kasutati lapstoojoudu. Muulaajajateks olid lapsed, shafti ukseavajateks olid lapsed jne. Neid ja ka kaevureid sai muidugi palju surma, kull murgigaaside labi, kull jaadi vagonettide all ja saadi uksega pihta. Karm too oli, aga see pole eestlase jaoks mingi uudis.

Edasi soitsime piki Sasquehanna joge lounasse, et jouda Kodusoja piirkonda, osariigi pealinna Harrisburgi ja otsustava lahingu paika Gettysburgi.

Tee peale jai vanaegsete autode muuseum Hersheys. Seal samas asub ka kuulus shokolaaditehas Hershey's, aga selle atraktsioonid olid veel talveunes ega olnud kulalistele avatud. Kulastasime Indian Echo koopaid.

Gettysburgis toimus otsustav lahing pohjaosariikide ja lounaosariikide vagede vahel 1.-3. juulini 1863 a. Tanapaeval meeldib inimestele seda soda orjanduse vastase voitlusega siduda. Rohem oli aga tegu vist lounaosariikide taotlusega suuremale iseseivusele kui foderatsioon seda neile voimaldas. Rassisimiilminguid leiab palju ka veel tanapaeva Ameerkas, nii lounas, kus palju neegreid elab, kui ka udini valgetes kogukondades pohjapool keset maad.

Selle kuulsa lahingu maadele oli rajatud vaga informatiivne maastikumuuseum. Koikjale oli pustitatud monumente ja infotahvleid, sai soita autoga voi matkata labi metsade mooda radu. USA presidendiks ja pohja liitlaste vagede ulemjuhatajaks oli tol ajal Abraham Lincoln. Lounaosariikide kofoderatsiooni vagesid juhatas kindral Lee. Nagu ajaloost teada, siis soja voitsid pohjaliitlased ja Lincoln jai presidendiks. Seal samas lahedal on ka teise, hilisema aja Ameerika presidendi Eisenhoweri elukoht peale seda kui ta abikaasaga Valgest majast lahkus, et 'troon' ule anda Kennedyle. Kuna meil ei onnestunud oigel ajal ekskursiooni sinna karjamoisa reserveerida, siis jai too talu kulastamata, sest niisama tulijaid seal vastu ei voetud. Kahju, sest Eisenhower on mulle vaga sumpaatne president, kuna tema loi kogu Ameerikat labiva kiirteede (Interstate) vorgustiku.

Jargmine paev viis meid maa kaunimasse botaanikaaeda Longwood. Sellest ei saagi eriti palju kirjutada, sest oite varvide ilu saab paremini nautida silmaga pilte imetledes. Palju oli kevadisi sibullilli, puud ja poosad olid taies oites. Kasvuhooned olid tais oitsevaid troopilisi taimi. Purskaevud purskasid ja ilus oli jalutada ning uurida erinevaid vaid Ameerikas kasvavaid taimi.

Nagu ikka Ameerikas, oli seal palju noortele kulastajatele moeldud. Kaks suurt mitmekorrulist puust maja, kus sai ronida ja taimi ning linde oppida, olid lastele suureks vahelduseks. Samuti sai mitmes kohas veega mangida ning kalu soota. Viietunnise jalutuskaigu lopuks olime koik taitsa labi.

Pealelounaks oli planeeritud kulaskaik kuulsa arhitekti Frank Lloyd Wrighti loodud sunagoogi Beth Sholom Philadelphia aarelinnas. Sellele oli raske laheneda mooda kaunist teed, sest et ta asus usna karmis ja ohtlikus rajoonis. Parast poole muutus umbrus pisut kenamaks, aga vahepeal pidin gettost labi soites vajalikuks autouksed igaks juhuks lukku panna. See, mis meid seal ootas, oli vasitavat soitu vaart: tegemist oli geeniuse loominguga, nagu ikka FLW puhul, aga ikka iga kord imestad ja ullatud.

Arhitekt loi alumiiniumist ja klaasist ja betoonist puha mae Siinai. See on Lloyd Wrighti ainus sunagoog ja nagu tema puhul ikka, siis ka koik moobel ja valgustid on tema loodud. Onneks katsus Zoe koik uksi ja kuigi ei olnud ei ekskursioonide ega ka jumalateenistuse aeg, osutus üks uks avatuks ja sealne sobralik tootaja lubas meil ka sunagoogi sisse piiluda. Vagev elamus!

Reisi viimane peav viis meid Doylestowni, kus asub Merceri muuseum ja kus Henry Chapman Mercer viimased paarkummend aastat oma ehitatud betoonlossis ka elas. Samuti asub seal tema kahhelkivitehas, kus siiani toodetakse kuulsaid Moravia poranda ja seinaplaate. Henry Mercer oli aarmiselt varvikas ja andekas mees, kel oli palju ideid ja huvisid. Ta kogus juba varajasest noorusest peale koikvoimalikke huvitavaid asju. Kui tadi talle kopsaka summa paranduseks jattis, sai ta kogud uut hoogu juurde ja kui raudbetoon tulekindla maja ehitamise voimalikuks tegi, ehitas ta oma asjade naitamiseks muuseumi.
Aasta aega planeeris ja joonestas ta oma kodu: betoonist paleed, kus kogu sisemus oli kaetud varvikate ja kunstiliste glasuurplaatidega. Isegi maja katus oli betoonist, raakimata aknaraamidest. Kuna ta teadis juba oma aeluajal, et sellest majast saab kord muuseum, siis margistas ta koik oma kogud korrektselt ja nummerdas koik plaadid.
Koik see kullus ja ilu vaimustas mind lopmata.

Logee's Greenhouse - troopiline monu kargel kevadpäeval

Nagu uhes ajaleheartikliski kirjutas, siis Ida-Connecticuti vaikne vaike linnake Danielson on usna kuulus just tanu Logee's troopilistele kasvuhoonetele: vt http://www.logees.com/. Olin sellest paigast juba enne kuulnud, aga polnud mahti minna. Nuud votsin selle kulaskaigu ette ja olen siiani suures vaimustuses sellest ajaloolise honguga ettevotmisest.

Ilm, nagu juba mainitud, oli karedalt kulm. Astusin uksest sisse ja olin hetkega pimestatud. Ei miskist eredast valgusest, vaid niiskest troopisest ohust kattusid mu prillid hoobilt paksu uduga. Kulm fotoaparaat oli kahjuks samas seisus ja objektiiv oli kasutuskolbmatu. Proovisin mitmeid kordi sisse-valja kaia, aga koik see oli asjatu, aitas ainult ootamine ja soojenemine.

Samal ajal juba kiikasin kasvuhoone poole ja ainult ahmisin ohku: avanev vaatepilt tahtis hinge votta. Olin sattunud troopilisse vihmametsa (ilmselt mitte vaga sarnane seal kainule, kull aga minu jaoks), koik lohnas ja lokkas, silmapiir kubises suurtest ja vaiksestest koikides vikerkaare toonides oitest. Uskumatu ilu sundis mind igat oiekest pildistama ja tanu Joshi kingitud fotoaparaadile, onnestus mul omaarust enamus neist.

Alatest aastast 1892, mil Logee perekond alustas troopiliste taimede kasvatamist, on ilmselt palju muutunud. Hiljuti oli neil veel mitu eraldi seisvat kasvuhoonet, mis on aga tanaseks koik kokku ehitatud. Nii et klient ei peagi valja minema, vaid saab mugavalt uhest kasvuhoonest teise liikuda.

Uhe tiiva laes ronib hiigelsuur ja lopsakate roosade oitega liaan. Selle nime ei onestunudki valja uurida. Teises tiivas on palju tsitruselisi. Eestis tehakse erinevate ounapuu sortidest nn perepuu. Siin oli poogitud nii, et uhe puu otsas kasvasid nii apelsinid, sidrunid kui ka greipfruudid.

See kollane valgete tiibadega siin vasakul on Pachystachys lutea 'Lollypop Flower'.

Pildid, mis siia postitusse ei mahtunud, panin oma Facebooki lehele, fotode kausta nimega Logee's Greenhouse. Kutsun tuvuma.