#6 LPG and cutting down the tree - Our farmhouse in Italy
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
- Step by step we're getting all the necessities in place. This week the liquid gas tank arrives, a temporary solution that we'll complement/change later for more sustainable energy sources.
In January 2023 we bought this farm in Piemonte, Italy. We'll be moving there permanently in 6 weeks time, and right now our priority is getting it as ready as possible for habitation.
Thank you for watching!
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#homerenovation #italy #renovationproject #cottage #homesteading #farmhouse #diyrenovation
It lightens my heart to see beautiful places like yours being reclaimed and made even better. Thank you for letting me see your journey.
You certainly have enough roof line for water catchment, if you are thinking of tanks. We used to have them with a pump that switched on automatically when we ran any taps.
Fairly sure there will be tanks in our future :-) There's also an old cistern under one of the buildings, and we're curious if it would be a possibility at all to start using it again for water catchment.
I enjoy seeing people living their dreams. It is so gratifying to get the chance to do something you have always wanted to do in your life. Sometimes it doesn't happen on your personal timeline, but often you end up where you intended all along. I had a similar experience. I will continue to enjoy watching your progress! Tot siens!
We're super grateful that we get to do this! Every single day :-)
Every step forward counts! You accomplished a lot. Safe trip!
Thank you Andrea!
So beautiful where your home is. Thank you for sharing. Judith, Tennessee, USA
The scenery is incredible. I love your videos, thank you. I can't wait for you to permanently move in so we can get more updates. 🌷
We can't wait either! It's only 7-ish weeks so we can really start to count down the days.
I love your channel. You both are working so hard but just think one day you’ll look back and say I can’t believe we did that much work. I would be out doing a rain dance and I would be jumping for joy if I finally got a little bit happy you got a little bit of rain.
I imagine we'll be dancing in the rain whenever it rains! I spent a lot of my childhood summers in the Swiss Alps and dancing in the rain was one of my favourite things :-)
You accomplish a great deal in these two weeks! It’s so satisfying to clean out the old things and see how the rooms are going to come back to life.
Trees in the wrong place must be cut down. I’m sure as you go on living there you will plant trees that will be useful and beautiful in the right places.
Can’t wait to see how things will progress now. It’s almost June so soon you will be back and really get going on the work.
We're looking forward to planting new trees this fall! We are dreaming of an orchard/food forest with native fruit trees and berries. We already have quite a few nut trees (hazelnut, walnut and chestnut) but we want to add a few almond trees in the future too.
@@storiesfromthecascina food forest sounds fantastic!
I live on large property that belongs to my son and his wife. Last year they planted an orchard of different fruit trees. The part I live on is too rocky so I will gradually have dwarf fruit trees in large planters. Everything here in the mountains of NW Montana USA has to be well fenced to protect from deer, elk and bears. We are also encouraging native species that we won’t mind sharing with the wildlife.
Great video, thank you. Just the right balance.
Thank you so much for the shots of the scenery! To me, it's very beautiful. If you want to include more in future videos, I will be so pleased. The shot where you showed where your home is in relation to your neighbours was delightful.
I am a big fan of the video game Witcher, especially an area called Toussaint in Witcher 3, which seems to be a landscape similar to yours. More than anywhere else, I want to go to Toussaint.
I watch a man named Martjin Doolaard, a Dutch man who is restoring stone buildings in an area probably not too far from you, the area with the floods right now. He is at the top of a hill so he is alright. His area also reminds me of Witcher, perhaps it's the beautiful scenery but it also might be the sound of the birds. Spring has come earlier to his place and it makes me look forward to how your land will change as the leaves come back.
I will enjoy this video and look forward to the next one. Bye for now.
Happy that you're enjoying our video's!
Hi, thanks for another wonderful video :)
The views are just breathtaking - I’m not sure how much work I would get done …… I would be constantly stopping to admire another view - especially as they change with the weather.
I am amazed at how much was left at the property - good, bad and grim! I bet you were glad to get rid of some bits!
I hope you have a safe journey back to the Netherlands and I look forward to your next video :)
Ah yes, the changing of the views with the weather feels like looking at a giant television but better :-P
Ash trees seed themselves like weeds - mostly in the wrong places. They make good firewood, but save a few poles for your beans when you grown them. It is wonderful to see the early tortoiseshell butterflies wake up from hibernation on a warm day. And the violets! oh, the violets!
You'll be back before I can catch up with your videos lol!!
You guys are fun to watch! You are doing so many things the right way; Steady and slow camera movement; Any notes are well sized and left for a goodly amount of time; You show both inner and outer doings of the cascina; You take us out ( yes, the tip is counted as out!); Wonderful clear diction. These things are amazing in a new vlog. Two suggestions; (if you wish) block out your number plate (?) and one of those baskets that I see dotted around would be a great basket for morning and afternoon tea equipment. Prepped and ready to go when needed. Looking forward to your further adventures, Susan.
Sadly nearly all of the baskets in the house are damaged heavily by woodworm years ago. It's a shame because there's a few really beautiful ones!
Dear Isis & Bertus, This beautiful place is going to make you incredibly fit, Isis I could not believe you were handling that tree! I agree get the LPG now as a temporary measure and you can work out something more modern later. I am intrigued by Bertus' hat, its very smart but does it mean something? Forgive my ignorance..
The hat is just a Spanish bowler hat that Bertus bought in a beautiful shop with local crafts in Lanzarote a few years back. He has a small collection of hats, but this one is his favourite.
Ready for a little bit of costume history? Bowler/derby hats have been made in the UK since the mid-19th century and were popular with the working classes first before they were adopted by middle and upper class men. They were worn in many countries in Europe and in some places became part of folkloric costume (for instance in the Dutch province of Zeeland). It was popular in the US as well at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. The use of bowler hats declined in the 1970s but I can still remember my grandfather owning one. There's no "special" meaning beyond any of this - it's just an old-fashioned type of hat.
@@storiesfromthecascina Thank you for explaining, it is a super-smart statement piece. Looking forward to more 'films' . On LPG, do keep an eye on the level, we try to re-order at 20-25%.
@@andrewdean1216 Yes, we'll have to remind ourselves to check the levels every now and then. 😛
Marvelous series and congratulations on wearing proper chain saw pants! Absolutely vital for safety!
you need a small used tractor with a bucket or trailer.....buy one for your wife as a birthday present.....good idea
definitely on our very long list of things to buy ;-)
You mastered the chainsaw really well 😊 safe travels and look forward to your June video x
Things are changing on the property. Can’t wait till you come back. 😊😊😊
I've just discovered your channel and am enjoying your videos so far. Nice relaxed pace to all of them. It must be so exciting to see your new home coming together for both of you.
Thanks and welcome!
Start at the top and sweep the ceiling for webs and spiders then the walls. Then floors. That way you aren't adding more dust on top of where you already cleaned. Vinegar works well added to your soap. And helps to eliminate odors. Vodka is supposed to do well in getting rid of musty odors in older wardrobe cabinets and dresser drawers.
Haha yes! My adhd brain always forgets about the ceilings initially! Good to know about the wodka, we inherited a few still unopened bottles from the previous owners :-)
Lots of progress!! Your shot of the misty mountains has the same feel as the mountains here on the west coast of Canada! My favourite view.🇨🇦🥰
Really enjoying your channel. Looking forward to when you will actually live on your beautiful land and the interesting vlogs to come. Six weeks and counting.
Thank you for taking the time to let us know you enjoy our video's and project Linda!
You got a lot done in the time you've had! Moving there permanently will change the dynamic of your priorities, and give you more time to plan your way forward. Have a safe trip back to NL, and then back to your new home!
Easy watching, lovely look into your new life in your new home!
Just found your channel and playing catchup looks idyllic can't wait until you start renovating
welcome to our channel!
I love watching your videos and the progress of your home.
Great progress. Too bad you have to go back. We stack our firewood according to length and diameter. The thin ones for kindling and quick start up. They are great for yr woodstove too. Hope you can return soon. Have a safe trip back to nl
Hi Wanda! One of the things we'll do when we move over in July it sort out an easier way for us to dry and store the fire wood!
@@storiesfromthecascina when will you be moving in permanently. Because leaving each time will be more difficult each time. We did similar 12 yrs ago in Hungary. I know how you feel having to leave with still so much work to be done.
@@wandakoehorst8734 mid July, so in about 7 weeks! almost!
Bravissimi, posto fantastico, è che panorama.... si vede pure il Monviso, se non erro👍💪👋👋
Sì è il Monviso! Purtroppo, possiamo vederlo solo dal drone (o dal villaggio). Dal nostro giardino possiamo vedere il Monte Bianco e il Matterhorn, e anche le cime dell'Alpe Maritimi.
I'm intrigued by the tower in the near distance ?
Nice whistling!
Is the balcony safe?
The tower is in our village. It's an old castle but it's sadly closed for public. The balcony is safe to walk on, yes :-)
Thanks for another lovely video. You two are such hard workers! As for the water pressure, perhaps you should install an autoclave (water tank) that will turn on when water pressure is low. We are going to do that for our house in Abruzzo as the water often shuts off during the evening in our village (and other surrounding villages). An autoclave is common practice in our area. We are hoping that the initiative in Abruzzo to address the water shortages will obviate the need for this some day, but for now, it is the way. The water shortages are due to sieve networks and unbalanced supplies across Abruzzo - there are multiple water companies in Abruzzo and they don't balance water supplies between them. Probably more than you wanted to know, but I was on a roll!
thank you nancy! definitely not more than we want to know 😘 we had been thinking of something like that but now we have a name for it that will help talking to our geometra and doing more research!
Literally cooking on gas 😀 rainwater harvesting would be great. Love the journey. All the best
Great to see that you had some accomplishments on your visit. The most important is the tank for propane.
I don't know if you have plans for an ornamental garden. You mentioned once you plans on planting lilacs.
You might consider creating a rock garden since you have the sun and exposure. I have been to a magnificent one on the western slopes of Lake Garda which was originally created by a German, I believe.
The waste cement blocks could be buried in a berm for drainage and the stones from the ditch could be used on top to provide surfaces for sempervivum and sedum. You are in the Mediterranean and there is a host of jewel like plants.
Dwarf conifers and Japanese maples can add vertical interests. But I am speaking of my garden passions and you might have totally different ones.
Hopefully you can develop your garden at your pace and expressing your interests.
We're hoping to marry the style of Mediterranean gardens with English cottage garden. We like our gardens a bit wild and natural. And we want to encourage more wildflowers to to grow in our meadows too. We'll definitely be keeping the stones for creating walls and pavement in the garden, and the cement too, for drainage and filling up a few terraces we hope to create.
It’s been a while I was searching for you and I didn’t realise I hadn’t subscribed then … before, UA-cam was showing me your new videos and not doing that anymore for a while … so, I was looking on Google for the Dutch/Belgian couple who bought a farmhouse in Italy … finally today, I found you … and subscribed … you must have guessed, I like your videos … good luck with everything …
Throwing away all those old and dirty things must have been unpleasant, but I guess it was very satisfying!
Very satisfying indeed :-)
Nice vlog! Seems the washing machine works so that's money saved you put the gastank in for.
That tree really had to go, no doubt.
Love to see you guys growing into it an really go for it also.
Great filming and editting and a happy subsrciber here.
Safe travels back and forth and as I may pressume from july onwards it's 24-7 Italy non stop so good luck with closing all your afairs abroad and onto a new life.
Yes, from July onwards it's Italy 24-7. We can't wait :-)
If you can find a farmer or cooperative with a chipper, a wood chip boiler would be the obvious solution for you. You'd need a storage bunker and an auger thad feeds the chips into the boiler but otherwise it's a drop-in replacement for the current gas boiler. You could even have a dual setup, using the LPG boiler to keep the house frost-free if you're not there to clear out the ashes and the wood chips while you're home.
We've been looking into wood chip burners the past few days. Definitely wood (either logs or chips) is one of the ways we'd love to go with heating, and having the combination of gas and wood would be perfect. :-)
Stunning photography of your beautiful scenery.
Satisfying work clearing rooms and tidying the land.
Very! There's still a lot of clearing and tidying to be done but we're definitely not growing tired of it yet ;-)
Very nice daily activities
You should catch that rain water for plants and such.
Great progress! You must be looking forward to the move in July 😀
we are 😊
Thanks guys I’m enjoying your videos , can’t believe the people left so much old junk at the farm house , getting it out will lift the energy for you !
We're kind of happy that they did, because among the junk there's also quite a few beautiful pieces :-)
Gloves are one boat friends.
Great video!
Here’s to the house 🥂 I agree your surrounds are beautiful! And some lovely 👁️ story telling too.
cool vid again, amazing how much wood a small tree provides
love from the pyrenees
to get rid of the tumps. cut a deep cross in them and burn them out
yes! we'll absolutely have to do that with this one as it's a variety that's often used for coppicing so it will most likely produce new shoots.
also amazing how fast you burn it all up 🤣🙈
@storiesfromthecascina If you let the stumps grow they will provide wood for the fire and for making fencing. Those are the purposes of coppicing. You can cut it when it gets to roof height.
Stap by stap, victory after victory. Nice!
Hey, it's really great to hear you are fully intergrating into that village - talking to neighbors and speaking more and more italian! That's amazing! :)
Also - do you have plans for the house as your own and/or farm or a guest house?
the people here are otherwordly friendly and making it very easy to integrate :)
it will be both our home and there will be room for guests! we do plan on in time growing (part of) our own food and getting chickens.
Slowly the rubbish is going,looks like time to buy a second wheelbarrow makes jobs so much quicker and easier,if you do go for a builders one they are deeper and hold more it will be a great investment even though you might not think so at this stage
More wheelbarrows, yes! We've been looking for one of the deeper models but they seem to not be super common in Italy. When we drive to one of the bigger Home Depot stores in the city we'll look out for them.
Hi Bertus & Issis, well great progress Gastank placed the three down and cleaned and away driving with overflowed furniture and other items to the recycling place, Well done🇮🇹👍🏻, Greetings.Hubertus.🇮🇹 🇳🇱🇳🇴🙏🏻☮🍀
Enjoyed
Progresso!
Another winner! 😊
The place is beautiful .. so are those old buildings .. just wow! But there's something that would make me think quite seriously about the future - it's a huge amount of work this place constantly needs - renovation, maintenance, taking care of the land and garden .. etc etc. It's a never ending process coz this farm is OLD and HUGE just for two people .. are you ready for that?! IF you feel you can manage and not become slaves to your possessions, good luck .. you gonna need it !! ✌
We have of course given this some thought before going into this wild adventure ;-) The way we see it is that there's many ways to run a property like this. You can be very hands-on, cultivating all of the land, or you can do it in a less intensive way. We have a contract with our neighbour who mows all of our 20 acres of meadow for us, which literally cuts our land maintenance in half. We can focus on renovating first before going all in with a vegetable garden, or getting animals, or ... we will be taking it step by step and see when the time feels right for us to take on extra projects. My mother lives on 9 acres of land all by herself and is perfectly fine :-) It all depends on what you want with a property like this. And if your goal is to have the gardens perfectly manicured 100% of the time yes, it's impossible for two people to manage for sure. And of course there's always things that you can't foresee that might happen, but we've chosen to not live our life based on that kind of fear.
i LIKed and enjoyed
great progress!.....LUV your hat...you are now an Italian "cowboy"!🤠.....looking very much forward to your next video in Italia!🙏👌
Moving right along, and just seeing things take shape. Very satisfying I bet. Awesome piece of land, everything will be fantastic!
Ok the reasoning for the gas makes some sense
Cleanup is always a great place to start. Let’s you see the potential with a blanc canvas. Congrats on the install of your LP tank. Get back soon!👏👏🍾🍾
The blank canvas feeling is wonderful!
It must been a very satisfying feeling to look back at what you did in such short period of time. Again beautiful vlog and thank for sharing. I would love to hear about your solar panel adventure. We are going to install them as well.
It can sometimes feel like everything's moving slow, but when we look back to all we've been doing in just under 4 fragmented weeks at the property, indeed a lot has happened already!
A large wet dry vac comes in very handy. And does a very good job of vacuuming your vehicles as well. A steam mop will save you a lot of time cleaning floors and sanitizes as you go. Just purchase several pads for the steam head from the start. A power washer and paint sprayer are worth the investment because of the size of the house.
We're blessed with all of those :-) a compressor that can be used for both power washing and paint spraying came with the house, industrial vac was donated by a cousin and steam mop was gifted to us by Bertus parents! Now to get it all in Italy ;-)
That cardboard could be useful for weed suppression on future vegetable patches
I love watching you guys - you have a calmness and peace about you compared to so many others on here.... Bertus - nice work felling the tree, anyone would think you were a pro at it! I did see that Isis was the one dragging that big section of tree out of the way, though... 🤪
wonderfully relaxing to watch and keep up with your progress.
Amazing progress !Safe travels to you Both.Such a gorgeous property you are truly Blessed
Lots of great progress! I look forward to June and seeing what is next. I think the gas tank is great idea, and I like how you guys plan to be more and more self sustainable as time goes on. I think little by little is the best approach. Cheers!
For us the little by little way is the only way. If we tried to do it all at once it would be too overwhelming. It would be potentially faster, of course :-P
Great job you two! A lot done in such a short time. Also, I for one would like to see the place you will be moving here from if that would be possible? Time goes by fast, you will be back in no time, and in the meantime, take care!
We'll be showing you a little bit of our corner in The Netherlands in our next video. It couldn't be more different from the cascina and its surroundings :-)
@@storiesfromthecascina Great, Thank you!
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It is a cold area where you have the cascina, windmills and/or solar panels only is not advisable as they can freeze or been covered by snow for weeks, or months.
it's not in the warmer parts of italy but we don't get more than a few weeks of snow each year. while we could rely on solar alone with a good battery system, we are connected to the grid and are fine with using grid electricity if needed. it's nice to have both :)
Love love your channel. Save travels.. can’t wait to see you move in soon❤️
Looking amazing!!
Congrats on 11k already! 🎉
Thank you Liz!
Isis, as impressive as you look with that big hammer you can't fool me: at 3:33 your bravata created a perfectly shaped heart, betraying your true nature. Ha! And you Bertus, a high-five monster turned into a fearless chain saw master. :o) Much has ben done in such a short time, including a necessary yucky clean-out, however, interspersed with paradisiac drone views that makes everything worthwhile! Safe trip back home, see you some time in June!
Predro I love how you always find new dimensions in our stories!
Beautiful country side. What a beautiful stop to sit down and look over the hills and valleys, a lovely thinking spot next to the barn.
Je hebt zoveel bereikt in de twee weken en ik wens je een veilige reis terug naar Nederland en hoop dat je een veilige overgang hebt als je in juli definitief intrekt. See you back in July.
So hard to leave that view but lots done. Are you watching Farmhouse in the hills on youtube ? They are also in Piedmonte !
we are :)
You guys need an atv with a little trailer to haul wood
Mooi werk!👍
The next object to buy is a trailer so you don’t have to put the horrible stuff in the van
heerlijk hoe jullie aan het opruimen zijn!
😊😊😊
Thank you for wearing a face mask. So many on these videos don't.
We're definitely not perfectly consistent with it but we do our best to wear them :-)
en schoonmaken natuurlijk!
progress
bit by bit :-)
Makes me sad that you'll be moving in a couple years. I was hoping it would be your forever home.
hi linda! this is definitely our forever home! i don't know where we confused you, but we have every intention of staying. we do still have to move from our current place in the netherlands to italy. we are making that move in 6 weeks. after that we will hopefully never move again 😅
@@storiesfromthecascina I'm so glad to hear that. I thought you had mentioned it wasn't. Thank you.
It's fascinating that there still are countries that allows fossil fuel heating in 2023!
we don't disagree with you :) in new builds in italy at least 60% (which is progress but it could still be better of course) of the energy has to be renewable energy. our is obviously not a new construction 😅 and we hope the current gas-based system will need to carry us through only 1 or 2 winters. we're also partly heating with wood currently (which is partly coming off of our own land).
So when i need to throw out items. I break them down. Wood parts i burn, motors i take out and sell the motor to scrap. I pile up all the metal and sell to scrap. Paper i burn in a steel container or drum. Is this in idea for your area? When i saw you using safety glasses and mask, I said to myself...very smart... Hubby is becoming quite a wood cutter.
Ah yes for sure. The solid wood we've been using in the stove. Paper as well but there is a point where there's simply more than you will ever burn. We'll save the cardboard of our moving boxes to use as mulch in the garden. We haven't been throwing away any iron bits because Bertus works metal and they might become something new in the future. For everything else: we pay a yearly tax for recycling, so we might as well make use of it :-)
@@storiesfromthecascina ok, i didnt know about your trash deal. Interesting yearly dues for trash.
6:00 What's the name of that dish? lekker 😋 save travels!
Hi Gustavo! It's not a specific dish - just loosely inspired by the many traditional Italian recipes for bean stews. I can't remember exactly what the ingredients were even but for sure cannellini beans, polpa di pomodoro (canned tomato cubes), salsicce (sausages), prezzemolo (parsley) and cippola (onion). I think also finocchio (fennel). When you google salsiccia e fagioli you will find a similar recipe.
Buon viaggio! A quando il prossimo video?
Grazie Alberto! In due settimane come l'abitudine :-)
That install here would be $3-6k.
How do you get the LPG tank refilled, if it is underground? My parents retired to rural Texas, where they installed an above-ground propane tank. When running low, you had to call and a huge truck would drive up to the tank. Yours is on a slope, which seems inconvenient.
it can still be reached and refilled by the truck 😊 i imagine the size of truck used here in the mountains is probably a bit smaller than the ones used in texas though!
Where did the heating system get LPG from before, was an old tank removed before you bought it?
Yes. The old tank was above ground and much closer to the house than the current safety regulations allow.
Ik ben geen kenner, maar bij het zagen met de kettingzaag zie ik je de kam niet gebruiken. Dat zit tegen de motor aan en kan je als draaipunt gebruiken. Dat zaagt minder zwaar, de zaag trekt dan niet zo aan je armen. Hoe dikker de stam, hoe meer je het verschil zal merken. Kijk maar wat je hiermee kan.
Iets om even uit te pluizen. Dankjewel Jasper!
Did you learn Italian before you moved there? I love your videos :o)
we did two years of basic italian class before moving and spent a lot of time on duolingo :) we still have a lot to learn but having a basic knowledge of the language has been really helpful.
@@storiesfromthecascina It takes a lot of work. I learned Catalan when I lived in Catalunya, but found found the local northern dialect almost impossible to understand! :o)
Local dialect here is also pretty impossible to understand and speak. It's sounds like a mix of Italian and French, but it's neither :-P I love the sound though and can only hope that one day I can understand it.
🌟👏👍🍀💐
je kan een kleine druk pomp toevoegen voor extrawaterdruk
uiteraard, maar je wil eerst weten wat precies het probleem is voor je er een oplossing tegenaan gooit 😉 het bleek later een lek te zijn. intussen allemaal opgelost :)
@@storiesfromthecascina kijk dat is fijn !!!! opgelost !,... wist niet dat jullie de oplossing van een pomp al kenden.
Veel plezier met jullie avontuur !
dankjewel!
Ik zag dat er flink afval werd weg gebracht. Is het systeem daar in Italië het zelfde als hier in Nederland? Zijn er kosten aan verbonden en zijn die hoog?
In onze gemeente is het vergelijkbaar met Nederland. Je betaalt gemeentelijke belasting voor het verwerken van afval en hoeft niet extra bij te betalen voor de spullen die je naar het afvalcentrum brengt. Wat wel een groot verschil is: niet elke gemeente heeft er zomaar een. Wij hebben geluk dat er eentje op 8 minuten rijden van ons huis is.
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I have the same floor in my kitchen , also mine ex ferm house😊