You're all too sweet!

Moving: We're BUSY now. It turned out that we'll be able to move already on Sunday -which means that T's father and brother can help us with moving stuff, which means that we really move (mostly, at least) on Sunday. It also turned out that T's grandmather celebrates her 85th birthday on Saturday, and we've been invited to the party- which will be in central Finland, so that's where Saturday goes and we're left with just Thursday and Friday for packing. To top it all, T said that he's not feeling well. I have my period starting, and a huge load of work to do (though I've given up all hope of being able to work until I've survived the moving and set up my new workroom). So, everything seems to be a huge mess right now, and my goal is just to survive it.

Strike Day 18

Hair is "steadily greasy"- I haven't noticed any big changes during yesterday/today. Which is good- as the days pass by my hair could well become worse day by day. At least that isn't happening, and I'm happy. Not that I have had time to make much observations- just to do what's absolutely necessary. Yesterday I was so busy I didn't even have time to rinse, comb or scalp massage properly. Today I'm planning to do better though.
   Weather has been nice this week- the little gardener in me misses rain though. But the temps are pleasant and I've been able to wear buns with pretty hairsticks (MT's Lemony Snickets pair today). Small joys count!

Moving: Tomorrow is the big day, so this is my last "regular" update for near future. We have been busy packing, and right now I feel good and confident about that we'll be able to move most of our belongings during tomorrow and after that we'll just need to clean this place up- which isn't a big deal after the place has been emptied. And then there is of course of furnishing the new place. Since it's so much bigger than this, we'll have to buy a lot of new furniture- but that's just fun, especially since T is a dream friend for furniture shopping. I'll try to remember to take some pictures when we are settled a bit.
   
Hair/ Strike Day 21

Hair is greasy, but for the next couple of days it won't matter much, so I'm planning to continue the WO experiment during moving time. The water in the area where we are going to move is a bit harder than in Järvenpää -it's soft, bordering medium hard while here it was very soft. I wonder how that will affect.

I'm going to miss this place and all the wonderful people here. *waves*

Hope the move goes smoothly.  We will all anxiously wait for your next update.

G, glad to hear from you!  I know you'll enjoy your new home and new stuff very soon.  Hang in there!!!

I hope you'll share some pics of your new house...when you get a chance, of course. 

I hope to be able to take a few pictures in coming weeks.

Our garden

Our garden is an old-fashioned Finnish garden, established at a time when Finland was a poor agrarian country and people needed large gardens for cultivating as much of their own food as possible. Times have changed, Finland has become one of the richest countries in the world, and also gardens have changed. Nowadays most people have much smaller gardens where they grow mostly flowers and small, decorative shrubs. In public, large gardens are portrayed in a rather negative light- it's always remarked that they require too much work and are in every way unsuitable for a modern lifestyle.
     But our garden cares little for fashions of outside world. Over 10 apple trees and almost as many plum trees and a couple of cherries provide pleasant shade, and lawn is dotted with lush shrubs: red, white and black currants, European gooseberries, blueberries and some raspberries. Vegetable patch features flowering dill and potatoes waiting for reap, and tiny pretty violets flower in between. Now that reap season draws near, one can see ripening fruits and berries everywhere, and a mild, pleasant scent fills the air. The atmosphere is a charming mixture of tranquility and peace of an old place and joyfulness- once again, the garden will fill the cellar of its keepers.
     Besides learning the secrets of canning, juicemaking and preserving, we have been busy planning the future of our garden. We have decided to tend it gently and to preserve its style and spirit. Due to bad health and old age of previous owners, the garden has been receiving only minimal care for the past few years. We wish to establish a few new flower beds (mostly to place the ones that haven't survived years of neglect), as well as to add some variety by introducing two new pear trees and experimenting with some less hardy plants like peach and sweet almond- you never know, they might survive after all! But even in future, I can see our garden still being easily recognized as a remnant from the past.

Garden Today: The effects of the worst draught in 50 years can be seen in the garden. Previous owners didn't water the garden in the beginning of the summer and now it's too late to do much. But considering the situation, our plants are producing a good amount of fruit. Only cherries and blueberries will be completely lost, but that's not a big deal.
     What I did today: -Started our compost. We bought a compost unit a couple of days ago, and today I officially started it. Along with our unit that is capable of processing also bio waste from household, we have two additional dump-style composts for garden waste.
        -Started turning the old strawberry patch. We will plant strawberries next summer to a new place. Haven't decided yet what will come of this patch, but in any case it needs to be turned first.
        -Collected apples from the ground and took them to compost. Last night was windy, and though we did "the apple round" yesterday, it needed to be done today too.
        -Picked black currants for jam experiment. I also picked and dried blackcurrant leaves- they are supposed to make a nice tea.
Wow. This looks like quite a lot of work, but it didn't feel like that much- our garden is such a pleasant place to be in. T cut down a dead plum tree. He hadn't ever held an axe before, and was excited of his accomplishment. He was a bit hesitant about getting a garden this big, but now he has fallen in love with it just like I have and enjoys working in there.

Hair: Not much news in the hair front. Rinse when in shower, otherwise bun it and forget it. I have decided to continue WO for next week- many people say that week 5 on WO is quite bad but after 6 weeks it should get better. We'll see. Right now I'm not that happy with my hair. I'm thinking of starting to wash it once a week in future, with rinses in between. I should also resume using SS hair oil- just now it just seems that I don't have that 3 minutes that a scalp massage takes.
 

Thanks, khrome! I haven't yet been able to take pictures, but I found couple we took before moving in. The draught wasn't here yet, so it looks all nice and green.




Our well.

Health: Due to heavy physical work, we both are incredibly sore. Neverthless, I decided today that it was time for me to get back to my exercises. My home gym isn't complete yet, but there was enough equipment to construct a nice, effective exercise: a fitball, a gymstick and exercise rubberband (or whatever it's called in English). Since the crosstrainer hadn't arrived yet, I did the warmup downstairs, doing aerobic exercises with accompaniment of a Rammstein cd  Great fun and very effective! Overall, I enjoyed also the rest of the exercise, and have a feeling that this might evolve to something way more fun than gym.
I'd probably be wise to schedule an extra stretching exercise or two for this week though-  my stamina and muscle fitness are ok but otherwise I'm one big cramp on two feet.

Hair: Nothing to report on that front. I still feel that unless a miracle of some kind happens, I will end the WO experiment at Saturday's sauna.
 I need to order some new stuff from Ida- unfortunately three of the soaps I had planned to order have temporarily sold out, so I must wait.
 The urge to cut I had before moving seems to have passed! Maybe it's the lack of big mirrors (before we find a nice one, there are only bathroom mirrors and my hemline falls below their edge  ) or maybe I've got a good dose of long hair from the Lord of the Rings movies we've been watching lately.
   It's been hot and the greasy spot at my crown is hideous, so I've still worn mainly scarf caps.

EDIT: Pictures of the house have been removed.

Great pictures!  Your garden sounds lovely... when we lived in Iowa on a farmstead, we enjoyed having an apple and cherry orchard.  Harvesting the fruits and processing them was a lot of work, but we loved to enjoy the sauces, baked goods, etc from our own land.  I'm sure you will as well - good luck!