‘The first year was really terrible’

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‘We are not from this area and have lived together in Amsterdam, but we both wanted to live outside. Erik comes from a farm and I really didn’t see myself as a mother in the city, every time lugging the pram outside to sit in the park. A search on Funda brought us to this place, near Megchelen.

“It is so remote that I wanted to build something here that I could earn money from. There was already a cottage when we got here and there was a tea garden, so we ran it the first year. That was really terrible: I had just become a mother, we were in a new place, had guests in the holiday home and were dependent on people who did or did not blow in to eat or drink. Due to the arrival of corona, the tea garden was no longer allowed to open and we started to focus on the rental of our house, the dome tent and our camper spots.

“Erik has a lot of work outside the home as an industrial designer and pays most of the fixed costs. I pay myself a percentage of what comes in from the vacation rental. Also because our daughter relied a lot on me until recently, a much more traditional role pattern has arisen. Not that I’m against that, but it’s nice that, now that Woesje is a bit older, I get a little more freedom to develop myself.”

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‘I recently took a ceramics course and bought a turntable and an oven. I’m not quite sure what I want with it yet. But I can imagine that in the long run I will start making tableware, and put that in a display case here for a start so that guests can buy it. The material is not that expensive, but people sometimes mistake the amount of work it takes to turn a lump of clay into a plate.

“The nearest supermarket is ten minutes away by car, so we buy in bulk once a week. If we miss something, we sometimes take the bike so as not to use the car too much, but you really have to set aside time for that. We usually just make do with what we have. What I also like about living here is that I am not so easily stimulated to buy new things. Normally we sometimes went to a bookstore or another store and then you often came across something. There are no nice shops here at all!

“In addition to childcare, our daughter also participates in toddler swimming. Erik and I really like swimming, but because of corona the swimming pools were closed last winter. When we were allowed again, we noticed that Woesje found it very exciting. We hope that the swimming lessons will make her feel a little more at ease when we go to lakes often.”