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Hägertorpet

9 Feb 2020

Besides the house, we got a stuga as well. Since we do not use it ourselves, Brenda decided to try and rent it out as a hobby.
It combines well with my hobby, so it now has a bunkbed and a small kitchen for basic usage. Being a little stuga (two persons) it already got nick named 'Piggelmee' but that's very dutch and probably a registered trade name. Then what?

Hägersjöhylte points to a farm a kilometer down the road. Hägersjö feels odd since we have no lake/pond nearby and it points to some families 10 kilometer away. Not that easy to come up with a name that suits and is not yet widely used.
The I remember when looking closely at the garage doorstep, they wrote a name there back in 1984. Hägertorpet. After some searches that still seems quite unique. And someone already put in the effort, so we go with that.
We now do have the website http://hagertorpet.se and also the Facebook page http://facebook.com/hagertorpet .

Maybe we can do more with the name. Today I brewed my first beer. Might as well be "Hägertorpet Porter". Next in the series will be a "Hägertorpet Blonde" and the "Hägertorpet Triple" which are already waiting at my sister's place.
Hägertorpet ... the start of a whole new brand ?
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Roadkill

20 Jan 2020

It already dark as I drive home on the main road 23. Occasional headlights blind a little but that's nothing new. And then just a few kilometers out of VäxjÃit happens to me. A deer jumps from the roadside in front of the car.
I realize there is no upcoming traffic and try to avoid it. A little ahead I find a place to stop. Even though I hear a bang, I see no damage. I head back to check, but find nothing.
Amazing how awfully quick things can change. Unfortunately a bit too late I find out it should be reported so authorities send out a hunter with a trained dog to search for an injured animal to avoid it from suffering. Lesson learned for the next time which i hope won't come............
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How does it work?

10 Jan 2020

The one thing that is most different is the one thing that everyone has started to take for granted: Utilities. Many are surprised by the differences, and never realized it could all be so different. In the city there are communal services for most, but not in the country side. So what is different? How does our utilities work?

Water
cold water: comes from our well. Basically a six meter deep hole in the ground. Enforced by setting concrete rings in it. A pipe hangs down by which the pump sucks it up. A hydrofor -a pressure tank- builds up a bit of pressure so the pump not constantly has to run.
We live in the woods, so water is clean and ready for use. We do have a filter to keep sand from the pipes. It is also common sense to regularly send a water sample to a laboratory.
warm water: the warm water system leverages of the cold water system. A boiler of around 100 liters uses electricity to heat up the water. Hot water is there, just no 'endless' hot showers.

As mentioned in posts before: that makes our water directly connected to the weather. That well is just for the household. Whenever we need water for the garden/greenhouse, we take it from another well which collects rainwater from the rain pipes from the house.
Gas
Gas is very rare in Sweden. Nearly everything is done with electricity.
Heating
Without gas, heating is done by either electricity, a stove (wood, pellets, oil), solar panels, earth warmth or rest warmth from industries. T.ex. the heat from VEAB (Växjö energy) is routed to the city and used there for heating. It's not or, it's also possible to use a combination.
We got a wood stove and electric panels. The electric panels are not centrally controlled, but each got a thermostat and a day/night switch. We use the stove ad main heating source, but at night the electric panels make sure a minimal temperature is maintained. Since a stove is a very common heat source, Sweden pays good attention to stoves. If it's primary heat source, you need a permit for which the energy class is a major factor. Government send someone once per year to clean the chimney for which you have to pay yourself. Since it's usually a reduced fee because they go from door to door. Even though it's allowed, it's not appealing to book someone yourself.
Electricity
Electricity is the main energy source. Lights, refrigerator, cooking, heating, water-pump, boiler it all runs on electricity. And even thought Sweden is in the North, the number of solar panels increases here too.
Internet
We have no wired phone so DSL is not an option. I don't even know if it's available here, but the speed would be horrible if it would be. Mobile broadband (4G) is widely available. In (south)Sweden the roll out lots of fiber. Getting connected usually cost around 2000 euro's so 4G is a good alternative for many. We are lucky the former owner took fiber when they had the chance. So we have fiber in the country side while many colleagues in town don't even yet have that option.
Radio/TV
There is no cable-TV, so we can choose between satellite, air broadcast or internet TV (IPTV). We started with the dutch satellite, but have now switched to Swedish IPTV. For radio I mostly use streaming audio via a raspberry pi. Sweden got some really good rock and metal stations which even broadcast over air, but just around the bigger cities.
Waste
Every other week, waste is collected from the houses. In most cities, you dump everything in the same container. GFT in green bags, the rest in red bags. These are easy to get. Just tie the last red and/or green bag to the container, and you receive e new roll of bags when they collect the garbage. For recyclables like paper, plastic, glass and metal, there are containers at many places. You can use them anywhere, they are freely accessible. Everything else you can drop off for free at the station.
Sewage: There is no communal sewage so that is another installation you have on your property. Here too, government set the -environmental- requirements. Most common now is a septic tank with three stages. Non-fluids sink to the bottom, bacteria help decomposing and at the end you have clean water that is released in nature. Once per year they empty the first stage. And here too, 'they' are the ones the community send out door to door.


And now what does that all means?
It means everything is there, just on a small scale, and much is your own responsibility. Electricity is key. Power-outage means no electric heating. No cooking. No light. Also no pump therefore no water. But it's not the end of the world. Keep fridge and refrigerator closed as much as possible. Warm the house with the stove, and use it to make food at the same time. You can also cook on the holiday stove or get the BBQ out. There are rainwater reservoirs for water to flush the toilet. Drink water can directly be taken from the well with a bucket or picked up at public tap's freely accessible just for that purpose (assuming the have electricity).
Sounds like we practiced, but no. We have had one outage that lasted longer then 15 min. And that has been at night around 4:00 and lasted roughly 3 hours. So apart from the alarm clock, no pain felt from that one.
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