It’s been five years since Artur and I first visited and fell in love with this decrepit little house in “deep Brandenburg”, left abandoned for over seven years. From the moment we stepped into the corridor, saw the half ripped wallpaper and and huge crack running through the wall, we both knew that this was the one.
I’ve had a lot of people tell me that it is their dream to live on a farm and grow their own vegetables. I may be ‘living the dream’ but it was never my dream. I sort of just fell into this life.
Oh how I love to be alone.
Something I am most grateful and proud of is the community that has formed around our little Datscha Fröhden. When we first bought the place, we were scared that we would just be out there in the countryside alone, just the two of us.
Here is a collection of questions we get asked quite regularly.
It feels quite arrogant and obnoxious writing this – but I have a pretty amazing life. Previously, I struggled with splitting my life between city and countryside, but since quitting my job in September, I couldn’t be happier.
I haven’t posted much recently because I’ve been quite busy with our garden and different things around the house. The most exciting news, however, is that we got four brahma chicks last week. They are now two weeks old. We don’t know the sex of any of the chicks, so it’s possible we could end up with at least one rooster.
We’ve been back in Germany for over a month now and have been extremely busy at Datscha Fröhden. Falk, our friend and neighbour, is undertaking a permaculture design course and has come up with a new design for our whole outside space. Artur’s parents visited for two weeks and brought us a car load of plants, which took about a week to replant in the garden. Here are some of the main changes we’ve made in the last few weeks.
Last week the chicken man visited Fröhden and we got six new chickens! Who is this chicken man? He is basically a man that drives around Brandenburg and Sachsen in a red van full of chickens. He comes once a month and you call him up the day before to make your chicken order.
Our fourth chicken death and it doesn’t get easier. I was heartbroken to find out that Squash somehow fell ill, and died a day later. I really wish that I could have been there to pat and cuddle her during her final hours.