The Heymann Family Journal

It's Saturday morning and I need to go clean the kitchen in Leimen. It sort of makes me sad/ mad/ discouraged that the house is not rented or sold. We continue to invest money into renovation and we continue to pay the mortgage on an empty house. I've looked around and I'm pretty sure it's the best house near Heidelberg for the price. We get calls from people who can not afford the place. This week I had to turn down a family with 8 kids, and an American family who would only be here one year and could not afford the rent. I feel sorry for these families but I can not go down on the price. We owe the bank money. Sometimes I do not know where I can find the courage to deal with this situation. I shut my eyes when the money leaks out of my bank account. There goes our savings. God please help us. I just want to go forward. But we do not walk by sight, or emotions. And God is good all the time, even when the housing market is slow! I love my garden, and I...

Today is my Mom's birthday. It was very special for me to see her on her birthday. I took her to a second hand shop and out to a nice cafe. We made a good dinner. Tonight we are watching The Pink Panther. I'll write more soon, I'm missing the movie. These photos are funny because we all have our eyes shut!

I planted a large bed of potatoes today. I'll have to list the types. I have some from Germany, South America, Denmark, and Scotland. I have red white and blue potatoes, big and small. I first loosened the soil, added peat moss, laid the potatoes on the peat moss, then put straw down, then finally mulch. I'll keep putting straw and soil down as the plants grow. It should give me a super crop of gourmet potatoes. Nicole planted seedlings in the next raised bed. We should get good kale, spinach, lettuce, onions and carrots(all started from seeds). Dad is helping us fix our well. Mom is trimming my box wood and my herbs. It's such a beautiful day to be outside. The sunshine really makes me happy!

I planted another dozen plants this morning. Our perennial flower garden is going to be very nice. We could us a little rain. It's been very sunny all week, more like May weather. I'm not complaining, but we could use some rain. We are trying to get all those bulbs in the ground. It's not so easy because the ground is a little hard. We are digging holes for the baskets, and replacing the hard clay soil with peat moss. I wanted to take all the grass out of the area, and till the soil. But the ground is like a rock. They must have put allot of the construction waste in the ground in this spot. I plan to cover the grass with peat moss and straw. The flowers will come up through this straw mulch. Eventually the grass should die back. The peat moss should help soften the clay. The straw will protect the whole thing, holding in the moisture. I'm sure the worms will like this area, and do their wonders. Philip has been helping Dad. If fact he has done such a g...

The weather has been amazing. We got a few more plants into the ground. I also took Dad to the garden center to buy some soil for the raised vegtable beds. Slowly we are getting it together. We are all a little tired and moving slowly. The sunshine does help me feel so much better!

Nicole and I went to the building supply store to buy wood for boarders in my vegetable garden. Juergen will put the boarders up for me. I've got all these plants started. They need to be planted. The wooden boarders are only temporary until the boxwood plants grow. That will take about 5 years. A garden is always a long term project. First you deal with the infrastructure, then add the plants. The plants will cover the infrastructure, and soften it. Just give us 5 years, it will be amazing (I hope). Juergen is in Leimen. He had an appointment to show the house for rent. But he just called, and the people didn't show up. Oh well. I just know God has someone in mind. I hate the wait and the work, not to mention the loss of money. But I will wait, and just keep believing God will provide us with the right family soon. I don't like it when people just don't show up for an appointment but that's happened to us over and over. It get's really frustra...

Today Nicole made apple & also Lemon pie with Mom and Dad. I can not wait to try it! It smells and looks so very good! We will eat it tonight after my small group Bible study. I took Jessica to visit the day care center we will most likely put her in. I got her to get out of the car, but she would not go inside. She stood at the gate and would not let the car out of her sight. The weather was wonderful. I sat in the garden with the people who did the evaluation. We all decided Jess needs her own aid, and should come to the center 5 mornings a week (half days). So when they find the right aid for her, she can come to the care center. I refused to leave the place until Jessica came and looked at the sheep. I had to wait because she was stubborn. But I did wait. She saw the sheep. And maybe next time it will be easier because she knows now that they have sheep and dogs. Jessica has been home for 9 months. She needs to get out more.

So today Mom and Dad slept and rested from their long trip. But I also put them to work. dad & Nicole planted about 2000 summer flowers. That's right 2000. Nicole and I had gone on a flower shopping spree last week. I got these cool green baskets to plant the bulbs in. Dad & Nicole combined flowers that would complement each other in size and color. We will actually plant the baskets (God willing) tomorrow. It will be a sight to behold this summer. Sarah and grandma also read together.

Sorry I didn't post anything. It was pretty stressful for them. Dad was very uncomfortable on the flight. He looked pretty bad when they wheeled him off the plane. I didn't take any photo's. That would not be a pretty picture. But but they slept well. They look a bit better. It takes awhile to get over the jet lag. I'll write more soon. just to let you know Mom and Dad are here!

My parents are coming and we are busy getting ready for their visit. My Dad has a few special needs. His legs are a bit weak and I don't want him falling down in the shower. I looked into renting a special chair you can put in the shower. I found out they don't rent bathroom things. You need to buy them. So I looked at chairs I could buy. They cost between 60€ and 250€. OK! But then I saw this beautiful white thrown for only 17€. It's strong and waterproof. We even have a seat cover we meant to put on the toilet in our guest bath, but never got around to it. So for 17€ my dad can safely sit in the shower (in style I might add)! He will have a designer shower chair!

I love this photo for me with the Japanese tourist on the famous bridge in Monents garden outside of Paris. I have many other photos from this place. I've been there 4 times. When the kids move out I want to replace the grass with flowers. Can you have too many flowers?

Today I'm getting ready for my parents to come. I'm trying to do all the laundry and cleaning. I'll clean the ground floor today (that's the living room, hallway, a bathroom and the kitchen), and the 2nd floor tomorrow. We will also clean Nicole's room tomorrow. My parent's will have her room, and she will sleep in the office. I also need to finish Fridays Bible study on James chapter 2. I don't want to concern myself with much when Mom and Dad get here. Tonight, We will sign the new loan on the house in Leimen. We will need to rent the house for at least 3 years before we try to sell it again. We keep getting requests from families who would like to rent. Today I got a request from a German family that has 4 kids, 2 cats and a dog. I guess we will just talk with them and see how good the dog and cats are. I've seen cats that are really fine, and others that scratch up all the walls. Some dogs are fine, others will pee all over the hardwood ...

My new blog is called Veggie Trade. You can find it HERE . I want to grow as much fresh veggies and flowers as I can, and trade what my family does not use for your good stuff. So far a friend will give me grapes for tomatoes, sharpen my kitchen knives for herbs and flowers, and find me canning jars for sweet peppers. I will only trade with local friends. Maybe I could send seeds in the mail, but mostly this is a local thing. But who will trade with me?

I like this idea. If we put this tunnel house on a concrete block foundation that is say 1 meter high, and then do a mosaic on the wall, it would make the tunnel house taller, and look better. You can buy kits for tunnel houses, but I think it would be easy just to cut the parts our selves (cheaper too). Here are some photo's from our gareden work yesterday.

Tomorrow my parents will drive to my brothers house in Seattle. They spend a long weekend there. Tuesday they will get on the airplane (God willing) and fly to Germany. I'm very excited about their visit. I just wish I was not so busy. I also have Alpha Course and Small group next week. And I just found out there is a special meeting with the daycare Jessica may go to. I guess it will be OK as long as I can prepare next weeks Bible study ahead of time. I don't want to be so busy when Mom and Dad are here. I just want to focus on them. But I don't have a house keeper & gardener. I am the taxi driver. Normal life does have it's daily business. That isn't going to stop. I just hope it isn't too stressful for my parents. If you think of them, please pray for their trip. Just driving to Seattle (about 5 1/2 hours) is stressful for them. My Mom just had foot surgery in December, and Dad does not drive anymore. And the 10 1/2 hour flight, plus the ...

The bank guy just came. He offered us a loan but the terms were not as good as we had hoped. The rent on the house will not pay the house off. In fact, to pay the house off in 30 years we would need to pay additional money per month (over the rent). And to pay the house off in 15 years (when we retire) we would need to pay 1000 Euro per month over the rent (killer)! It's very bad news for us! Each month we would lose money on this house, and be responsible for renovations and maintenance. It's really a bad deal to have it as a rental house. It's better to sell it at a loss. But we have no buyer. We have until Monday to sign a new loan. We needed a few days to think about what we should do. Honestly , we asked until Monday hoping for some kind of miracle. If we could just have a buyer it would be such a gift! But the other option is to rent for a few years, then try to sell when the market improves. They say Germany is heading into a recession. Know one is bu...

We had our first English Alpha Course last night. There were 11 students and 5 helpers. I got to sit with a table of amazing Asian women. It was wonderful. I can not share with you the questions asked, people need to feel like they can ask anything with out it being broadcast to the whole world. But thoughtful interesting questions were asked. And I think I talked too much. I need to be careful not to dominate the discussion. I will try hard to listen more, and let everyone else talk. I think it's just because it was the first night, and people were not sure how much they could say, so they were quite and so I talked. I feel so honored to be with such bright and amazing students.

It's a full week and next week will also be full. I finally sat down and finished the Bible study for Friday night on James chapter 1. I actually love doing the study but I get very distracted. I'll sit down to learn and the phone rings, the door bell rings, or Jessica needs something. It's hard to get going on it. But I managed to finish, and now I can relax. Tonight is the first English Alpha Course. I will be there (God willing) but I will not be leading it. We have a good team and we will share the leadership. There are going to be 10 International students. 4 of them come from China! My heart sings!!!! Tomorrow I need to clean my house. Friday I will cook for the pot luck. I think we will do something easy like homemade pizza. I got my grape in the mail today. I also got my potato seeds. I also ordered some hey for the garden. I will use this as a mulch. It came today. Maybe I'll plant the potatoes? Or maybe I'll just take a nap. I'm so ...

I worked for hours in the garden today. First with Nicole, then with the boys. Nicole set up the tomato house. We sunk the posts in the ground. I also used tent pegs to hold the covering down. I want to get some long boards or even larger bamboo poles to make the sides more stable. Right now it's got some tools in it. Later in the season it will house tomato plants. They do better when they stay dry. You water a tomato from the ground. I've had this tomato house for a few years. It works well. I may decide not to get a greenhouse. I can start my plants pretty well in the heater room. I would mostly use the greenhouse for tomato's. Maybe I just need one more cheap tomatoes house? Knowing myself, I will not be using the greenhouse in the winter. I'm not really sure I'm going to need it, so I think I'll just wait and see if I can do without it. Juergen is showing our Leimen house to a person that needs a guest house for a business. This makes m...

Our English Alpha Course starts this week at the FEG in Heidelberg. If anyone knows someone who may want to come? It looks like we will have 10 International students joining us. You can be a seeker, or even a believer . It's 9 nights with dinner and talking about what Christians believe and why we believe. Juergen and I are going to help lead the group with a few other really great people. We could use your help by praying for our group. The whole world is going to come, and take what they learn back home to their home lands. I just love International students!

An update on my painting "The China Cabinet", 27th hour of work: The Chinese porcelain is done and I'm working on the metal buttons. The next thing will be the pandas and the lucky cat as well as the shelf boards.

Has anyone ever done bartering? I have this giant garden (100% organic). I hope to grow an over abundance for fresh vegetables and flowers this summer. More then I can use. This is the hope! We will see if it actually works out! I thought maybe I could barter with people using the extra vegetables and flowers. For me it is sort of a game to see what I could get using my extra veggies! I thought I could set up a website. On the website I could list what I have available, and a list of the stuff I want. For example You come cut a large bouquet of flowers and give me a loaf of fresh baked bread, or some milk. You come over and cut a large salad in exchange for some coffee or bottled water or a few tubes of tooth paste. My fresh flowers and vegetables for your stuff. Does anyone have interest in such an arrangement? It will be a few months until I have any vegetables of flowers. But I could even plant your favorite stuff if I knew I had people to trade with. I’m planting se...

I like plants. I guess I got that from my dad. His entire garden is full and over flowing with beautiful flowers and trees. It is really something to see! And right now the stores have all the flower bulbs , plants and seeds on sale. It's too hard to pass up! I finally have a garden to put them in! I am like a kid in a candy shop. I have got to stop buying bulbs! I have Lillis and Iris, Hollyhocks and Roses, Baby’s breath, Dahlias , Lilacs , Peonies and the list goes on. Just wait 5 years...we will have a park! Next Thursday the Rhododendrons, Hydrangeas and Azaleas go on sale. My parents come in week. I want my dad to help me plant a knot garden in my front yard. I have red, white, and blue perennials to plant in the center of the knots. I’ll also plant red , white and blue tulips. Should be fun! I have also bought flower bulbs for the house in Leimen. I want to go there some time this week and plant some more summer flowers. I will also put mulch on the beds s...

This is how I plan to plant my potatoes this year. I just ordered my seeds.

or maybe a dome because it's so cool. But I would skip the water plants. notice how they put a insulation on the north side. And she has water but not so much as the first dome. I would love to be in a warm sunny dome in the winter time. It could chase away the winter blues.

Juergen rented a big truck and picked up the kitchen we bought for our house in Leimen. The handyman will put it in (God willing) next week. We also got a request to look at the house by a pastor who lives in Heidelberg and has 4 kids. That could work! I’ve been praying God blesses who ever gets the house. I’ve been trying my best to improve the house. I even planted spring flowers there this week. If anyone wants to buy our house they need to do it by March 15th. All the info to buy or rent the house is at http://heymannhaus.blogspot.com/ I really am praying for God’s blessing to touch who ever rents or buys this house. I pray they will be very happy there. That they will feel peace and at home there.

Juergen does not want to ruin our party tent to make a greenhouse. Besides, it's too big for the space I want to put it. But I found this party tent on eBay for an amazing price. It is just the perfect size. The windows would face South and North. The doors would be East and West. I could sink it into concrete, and add some wooden supports to the sides. Maybe put straw bale walls on the North and West sides. And I could put another door on the East side. Can you follow me? Anyway, maybe this could be the starting point for my greenhouse, high tunnel? I would love to replace the tent plastic with green house plastic just for better insulation. I don't think the tent would be warm enough in winter to grow anything. But on the other hand, it would be a little better shade in the summer so plants would not burn. What an awesome tomatoes house this could be! So maybe I should just keep the tent plastic? And it cost less then 300 Euros delivered. Much cheaper then any ...

I'm still thinking of using my tent frame as a greenhouse/high tunnel. The construction would be something like this. I like the sliding doors! I know where I can buy the greenhouse plastic. I think it would be the cheapest and best way we could get an oversized greenhouse space. I just need to get Juergen on board with the idea!

Nicole and I did some work in Leimen today. We planted 3 window boxes for the front garden wall. They are beautiful with spring flowers. Then we put new carpet on the stairs. Finally we dug up some plants that are directly in front of the garden wall, The painter needs to put new plaster on the wall because of some water damage. He would have stepped all over these plants, so we took them. We left allot of good plants there. The garden still has many roses, grapes, kiwi, herbs, trees and spring and summer flowers. And Juergen decided to leave the covered porch. It was made perfectly for the house. So it will bless anyone who lives there...renter or buyer. I just hope God blesses who ever gets the house in Leimen. It’s a nice place, and getting nicer all the time. Juergen will pick the kitchen up tomorrow. It will be put in by our handyman, God willing next week. We got two more inquiries about buying the house, and one more request from a renter. I guess Juergen will try...

Juergen bought me 8 1/2 cubic meters of fine mulch for my vegetable garden. We spread it over the black weed blocker martial. We want to let it sit for a few weeks. Then we will put the boxwood in as an edge around the vegetable beds. Inside the beds we will cut the black weed blocker material out. Then we will plant the vegetables in the beds, and surround them with mulch. The paths will remain with the mulch & weed blocker. Eventually we will replace the pathways with something more permanent. We used the frame of Jessica’s metal bed. She broke the frame this fall. We sunk the frame into the soil, and then planted flower bulbs in it. It will be a "flower bed". mulch provides protection and improves the soil. There are two types of mulches: organic and inorganic. Depending upon the type, mulches: Reduce surface evaporation. Improve water penetration and air movement. Control soil temperature fluctuations. Protect shallow-rooted plants from freeze ...

I found this beautiful little kitchen on eBay yesterday. It was going to sell next week. I asked Juergen to email the seller and offer them something. Maybe they would go ahead and let us buy it now. Well, they agreed. So by God's grace we will pick the kitchen up on Friday. And I hope the handyman will be available to help set the kitchen up either this weekend or next week. It should look lovely with the terracotta tile. Maybe I'll go repaint the wallpaper yellow or a pale green? So our house in Leimen will have a nice kitchen. I'm very happy about it! I hope it's a blessing to the family that will live there!

Juergen is home from work this week. He is pretty tired. I'm glad he can get this break. We had breakfast out together. Nicole watched Jessica for us. He also got our taxes done. We have a good refund coming, and we need the money. There are a few people looking at our house in Leimen (buyers). This is the last week it is for sale. Next week we will need to refinance it as a rental house. So it's either now or never. The stair well was painted yesterday. Juergen says that it looks very good! I found a nice kitchen on eBay I hope to buy next Monday, unless a buyer happends to already have a kitchen. I got my tiny boxwood plants in the mail today. 100 tiny plants. It will most likely be 5 years before they grow large enough to trim. No matter! When the mulch gets layed down in the garden, I'll be able to lay out the garden beds, and plant boxwood boarders. Juergen ordered the mulch. A gardener will deliver it some time this week. If the weather is OK, we ...