It’s raining man!

Which doesn’t hold us back to eat fresh salmon bravely grilled outside – thanks Tom for freezing in the dark night for the happiness of our stomachs!

Anyway, since the weather pushes us back in the house, I thought it would be a good moment to share with you the level 2 of being a farmer at the Dixon’s house!

“Scions, scions du bois”

The Dixon family has a very big land, on the side of a very large river. Parts of this land are fields, other parts, woods.

Woods are nice – even in winter. They hide an umpteen of animals, such as dears, rabbits and opossums. But woods also require quite some maintenance… especially in an area affected by hurricanes…!

That’s where the Duntchies’ team attacks (sounds cool)!

Ray (Tom Dixon’s brother, the Asterix alike on the pictures) brought a machine to cut the logs into slices. Someone keeps a log steady on the machine, pushes the iron lever and the kind of iron sharpened triangle divides the log into pieces.

Above, the machine in action!

Tobacco barns

Hey smokers! Wanna dry your own tobacco?

Follow the guides then!

(ok no relation between Mr Lapin Crétin, the frog and what follows buuuuut... was just for fun)

First, if you are keen on staying close from old fashioned methods, you need a bit of space and a lot of wood. Take your hammer, a bunch of nails and some wood planches – maybe you even want to create your own planches then go back to the previous item of this post to learn about slicing your wood logs ;-)

You gathered it all? Then assemble your wood in the shape below:

Pay attention to the sides, since you have to be able to open and close the bottom to manage the amount of air getting in. Now, add some wooden bars in it, in the width of the structure.

And finally, if you are a poet in building, you even can reach the next level and create this so-cool-top, to help the drying process:

Good job! You created your own barn!!! So cool. You really rock…

Time for you to collect some tobacco leaves that you will hang on the bars. Well, maybe you want to know how to plant and collect tobacco?

You lazy butt: check on Google.

AfteR work parties!!

Or how to dive in the american way of enjoying their evenings!

Following the steps of Washington D.C. inhabitants in an Irish pub - with your ID card, Dave, with your ID card :-)

As you can see, we enjoyamerican food quite well. And because we eat like Duntchies, we also need to sport. Intensively... Football and table tennis are our load almost every evening...

Time to leave the Starbuck where we write these soooo fascinating posts!!

But stay connected, since we know you can't wait to learn how to use a gun and brew your own beer - and eventually how to clean a garden...!

We'll also share with you our trip in Wahsington D.C. You will see beautiful pictures of amazing monuments - for some kind-of-painted with goose shit... Wow! Can't wait!!

Duntchy kisses from Maryland!

A&A

    A survival story...

Alors voilà.

Some months ago, we did it, we bought them: we had our flight tickets for New York and Washington DC! Thumbs up!! Still, it was in September. And it felt so good…! And now, here we are!!

LET THE TRIP BEGIN!!

Once upon a time, a niggardly (gierig / avare) Dutch man and an arrogant French girl decided to quit their comfortable lives to experience the world differently, learn more about the human being and also about themselves. Their chosen area? South America!

“South America! And only with your back-packs and your tent? Wow!! Awesome guys! So cool: you’ll stop wherever you want and wash yourselves in the rivers – you’re adventurers guys!” Well, yeah… We kind of are on our way to reach that path…!

For now, thanks to the Dixons, Arthur’s old host family, we spend a couple of weeks in the US, Maryland, in their beautiful and cozy house, surrounded by amazing nature! 

   Getting down to the ground...

After 2 days here, we have finally dealt with the jet lag and we can help more and more the Dixons on many different things: gardening, cooking, repairing computers, drinking Tom’s homemade beers - it does help, for sure!!

Ow yep, we are busy!!

Even when it is rainy weather. Here for example, Arthur just started his new mission: smashing hard drives.

Thankfully, the US culture has a lot to reward us – and make some of us crazily happy!!

Taco Bell!!!!!!!

Homemade pancakes!!!!!

Evelien, you told me that I lost weight, right?

As you can see, I’m working on it!!

And just for your eyes and imagination, enjoy below what we see as we have breakfast or lunch – and diner, about the same, but with sunset colors.

Let's end with our first step: New York!

When you have less than 10 hours to discover a city like New York, including check in and check out, finding a locker for your luggage and reach the city center, well, what do you chose to see? Easy: you chose it all!

In other words, we've seen:

-         - Statue of Liberty => check, from the plane

-         - Time square => check

-        - Central Park => check

-        - Empire state building => check

-        - Broadway avenue => check

-        - Macy’s, the big kind-of-Galeries-Lafayette of New York => check

In between, we spent our time being flabbergasted by busy Broadway Avenue, big, noisy and everywhere lighted, crowded with people and advertisement on every building. The amount of details, colors and movement in this avenue must be so inspiring for a writer!

I met my dream in a shop full of cheesecakes and Arthur, after a looooong fight of 12 minutes with his conscience, cracked and ran in a Taco Bell restaurant!

And we shared a coffee time with Stephanie... in a Starbuck of course!!

Then back to the train to reach the airport aaaaaand, in the train station: time for a big and tasty great hamburger!!!

“And how would you like your meat?” Aaaaah…! I loooove this question! "Rare please” And heaven opens its doors…

And I’ll close this post on this tasty sentence. Mmmmhhh!!!!

Time for us to buy some groceries in the typical US malls!

Cheers,

A&A

One small step for us, euuhhh, no!

Yesterday, Anaelle and I have cleared out our appartment (one of the big steps). Most of our belongings have been sold, recycled, or given as presents. So, our flat is empty again.

Some of the belogings went back to France (la stockage); some went back to the Netherlands. Speaking of that, Anaelle and I are living with my parents!

Now, still 3 days before our departure, Anaelle and I are preparing the last bits. Anaelle is going to the dentist to get her molar (back tooth) fixed. I will return my car to the company. Then get all my junk stored in a fashioned order. In the meanwhile I am having an email conversation with "The Dixons" - the family who we will be visiting first in the USA. Just to get an idea, here is a nice snapshot of their house, their lake, their wood and farmland :-).

Now I need to rid of that headache, since the beers of yesterday are still having some effect... and not only on the inside!

See you!