Christmas Message 2008

As expected, our lives have changed significantly in 2008. Going from being a married couple to a family has brought it's challenges and with them incredible joy.



Our son, Une, was born on April the 9th without complications. A quick labour and a healthy baby weighing 4.27Kgs. Since then, as I'm sure with all babies, he's developed quickly. Now it's full speed over the floor, opening drawers and emptying their contents, finding his way into the dogs water bowl, eating us out of house and home and so on.

Norway has an excellent Maternity/Paternity support system, which has allowed us to share 10 Months of leave with more or less full pay, this finishes in February 2009. Mari took the first 4 months (apart from 2 weeks when she was on a course and I was full time daddy) and after that we've been sharing 50/50. I can't say it's always been easy, but I feel very priviledged to have been able to spend so much time with my son in the early days. It's also been good for Mari to be able to follow up on her PhD and Masters without loosing out too much.

Other than the baby, my new job is going well. There's been a bit of travelling but nothing too much. This year I've been to Morocco and Saudi amongst other places. Mari's Phd keeps her very busy, but she is enjoying the change and the challenges of it.

We had a big family holiday in a nearby chalet (on an island) before the Christning, it was great to have everybody in one place again. Also, this year hasn't been completely without some progress on various projects in the garden and the house. We stripped out and put new panelling and ceiling up before decorating the baby room, I've now got 2 functioning tractors (never knew how I managed with just one) and a "field" to use them in. All this and more can be found written earlier in the blog and on More-power for the mechanically interested.

Wishing all a merry christmas and all the best for 2009.

Down in the Basement - Part 1

Some weeks ago, we had a couple of mates visiting who, in exchange for good food and company were put to hard work in the basement.

When this house was built in 1952, dried Clay was used as an insulation means between the basement and the house above. This was filled in on top of the ceiling before the floor boards were laid.

Whilst this does insulate to some extent, it is not as good as modern insulation and it invariably sinks leaving an air gap and hence, cold floors. This job has always been on the cards, and having a little one crawling about seemed like an important reason to do something about it.

So, once our guests had removed all the internal walls, shelves and so on,

leaving a clear (ish) working area.

We did our best to seal up the other half of the basement, got our PPE on (it's incredibly dusty work) and set to work.

The pile of timber at the end of the basement grew,

As did the clay in the trailer.

and after 7 hours, with one break for a drink and a new set of overalls and masks the job was done.

After an estimated 4 tons of clay was carried out of the basement and that's only half of it, I am truly grateful and in debt to my assistants, they worked heroically and once we had decided that we would get the job done, they wern't going to leave without doing it. All thanks and credit to them.

Saying that, I think I'm going to have to find someone else to help with the other half, I'm not sure they be so keen to visit again if that's on the menu!!