Nichtstun in der Ilmesmühle

Unbelievably we have been here at Ilmesmühle for nearly a week now.  We had one outing to a close by town Bad Heresfeld, and other than that we haven’t really been doing much at all, which has been great and very, very relaxing.  Just what we needed. Here are finally some photos of Ilmesmühle…

The main building.

The barn. Cows used to live here a long time ago and now we are staying here.

We have gone for walks most days, one was for an hour and a half.   That day we had really sunny weather, too.  The valley as well as the surrounding villages are so picturesque…

The road went on and on and on

The forest around the Ilmesmühle.

Local Farm House

The children really enjoy playing with Moana, who is a beautiful golden retriever.  Moana is totally devoted and loyal to Holger and she is enjoying the children’s energy, too.  Along the courtyard of the mill runs a narrow creek, which has a dam that has been slowly freezing over in the last few days.  The boys have been particularly taken with the thicker growing ice and are breaking it for Moana, as she likes eating it.

Moana likes jumping after snowballs.

I have had discussions with the boys about not walking on the ice and  hyperthermia in case of falling into the ice, however after two days of playing along the ice, the inevitable did happen and Ben fell into the ice.

I understand that at least he wasn’t trying to walk on it, but it was a case of lost balance as he and Nick were playing.  The boys told me that Nick helped him out of the water and then Ben came screaming towards the house, very upset, cold and slightly blue. I went outside and helped him out of the wet clothes, which was a mission and a half, and then we packed him into a blanket and in front of the fire place, where he slowly defrosted.

His clothes were taken off on the front steps and his shoes were tipped out.  This formed a little puddle on the steps, which was frozen in less than fifteen minutes!!  It was -9C this morning.  The clothes that I had quickly hung over the railing while Ben was undressing were frozen in the shape of the railing  by the time I took them down half an hour later.

Ben told me that he won’t be playing by the creek anymore…it’s good when we learn from our mistakes!  He really liked his hot bath shortly afterwards.

In fact he was lucky to be able to have a hot bath at that particular time as the heating system broke yesterday (Friday!) afternoon and it wasn’t fixed until just after midday today.  The heating guy had only just left when Ben took his plunge.

With the heating system not working the dishwasher didn’t work either, because the cold water pipes of the dishwasher usually are kept at an even temperature by the pipes of the heating system running just below them.  With the heating system not working and the temperature being -9C the pipes simply froze!  That too started working once the heater was going!

So, all is good again, Ben is dry, the heater is hot and we don’t have to do the dishes by hand!

Unfocused, but fun photo of Tessa..

Hanging of the railing.

Good night for now.

Tanja