Milking a goat and so on

The kids are off from school for the next couple of days so we spent the day doing some typical autumy things. Like walking in the woods...

 Roasting chestnuts...

And having a go at milking goats!

It's still autumn!

Autumn is still in full swing here! The mornings can be quite cool +4C, but during the day we have seen temperatures rise to +19C. This is very different from our home in Sweden. A week ago we went looking for chestnuts - one of those great childhood memories - the looking, roasting and finally eating. It seems to be a chestnut year because I have never found it
so easy and entertaining - there were so many just lying around open on the ground! Here are a few photos from the day:

 There are times when having kids that like to collect stuff is a benefit!

 8kg in just under two hours!

Autumn

We had great autumn weather on Sunday - sunny, calm, +19 C. So we went for a walk up the hill to an open field. Just the perfect place to try out one of these:

"It really does come back!" I remember playing with this as a child and it never came back :)
It didn't work much better on Sunday either. But we had a great time anyway.

 

Ready, set, throw!

 

 Please come back...

Maybe another time.

Chili!

I've already planted my first batch of chilis. I had to make sure they had survived the move. :)
Here are my Thai Birds Eye seedlings. I hope that my Habanero Red Caribbean will also show some signs of life soon...

Looking for work

This is the first time in almost 20 years that i have had to apply for a job. I realize that i have been very blessed - and i can see Gods guidance in my life. I trust him to continue leading me. We pray daily that he will open doors and close others so that we end up in the right place.

Eating habits

Since the kids have started school we've had to change our eating habits. They both bring a lunchbox with bread and fruit as a late morning snack (Jause). School finishes quite early here, so when they get home we eat lunch/midday meal - later than we used to eat in Sweden.
Here is a typical Jause we might eat at home - with the obligatory "semmel" (white roll).

 We stock up on butter when it's on offer. Our current 3,5kg stockpile :D

At last!

On Friday we picked up the kids from school and drove off straight away to meet up with some friends. We had made plans for a walk in the Alps! They had mentioned that we might be able to see a little snow - so we took plenty of clothes with us.

 The Alps - this is what I have missed and been looking forward to! Down in the town of Leoben it was 12 C degrees warm, but after a 30 minute drive and 1000m above sea level we were down to 6 C degrees. We walked for two hours, climbed up to 1582 meters and sure enough, after about half of the walk we started seeing snow on the ground and it even started to snow! The kids were overjoyed and ran around throwing snow in the air and shouting with excitement.

They even made a snowman!

The Leobnerhütte where we warmed ourselves and drank some hot chocolate.

 

"I feel at home, it's like Skellefteå"

A home full of memories

I grew up in this house and spent the first ten years of my life here. There are a lot of memories from here. Looking through some boxes in the cellar many more memories have come to mind.

This teapot and mugs reminds me of all the camping trips we used to take as a family. We had a huge tent which we had to transport in a trailer and which was always a team challenge to put up.

My brother's first camera. I had a similar one in black, but that hasn't surfaced yet. I remember the time when pictures weren't instant and when there was a very finite feel about them. As a kid I didn't want to waste film in case better opportunities arose. However, most of the time I didn't end up taking any pictures.

My pram, as in the pram I laid in as a child. I don't remember it as such, but I've seen pictures of me in it. Cool that it's still around.

Creative arts

Our middle son is really starting to feel at home in his new kindergarten. The other day as Elin was picking him up, she found him sitting at a table chatting away in german with some of his new friends. We've also seen a rise in the amount of drawings and crafts he brings home - so his creative juices are flowing!

Above is a machine that tears up and resurfaces roads.The small vehicle next to the road working machine is a "Uhu helicopter".

Below is a machine that can build houses. I asked him if it could build us a house and he answered: "Dad, it's not a real machine, it's just pretend."

Driving

Now that we have lived here a little more than five weeks we are starting to get used to the narrow & winding roads and the increased traffic. One of the differences with Sweden is that town signs also set the speedlimit at 50km/h (unless otherwise stated) and on countryroads unless otherwise stated, the standard speed limit is 100km/h. This makes for some very intresting driving -  not only does one have to pay attention to where towns start and end, but also many of the country roads without limits are not really suitable for 100km/h.
Here is a short film of a trip we made to some friends, thr scenery and roads are typical of this area!