2021-05 Garden Planning

It was exciting to see the much brighter days at the end of our first winter. To pick up some parcels we had to cycle to the next nearby town along the coast. There is a dedicated cycle path with a beautiful view of the coastline so it made for a great weekend ride.

New Path

The ground in the garden was soft after winter, and not yet baked hard as it would be in summer. We used the opportunity to cut out the route for a permanent path from the house to the bridge over the stream, which leads to the footpath to town. This might seem like a lot of physical digging work on top of all the concrete work. I’d end up injured next month.

We wanted to be growing plants. After arranging a wood delivery with the local hardware shop, we made our first raised plant bed and filled it with soil from the digging of the path.

Hedge Laying

The hedge out the front of the house had grown vertically and the trunks were too thick to hedge lay. This is a process that involves skimming part of the bark off on two sides of the trunk, then bending the branch. So I cut off every fifth trunk, with the hope being that smaller shoots would grow up from each cut. I realised we’d have to repeat this for five to eight years, and lay the finer shoots as they grew, or plant new hedge sections.

Litter Clearing

The house had an old farm “burn pile” near the stream, and as the snow had melted I edged down the steam bank to remove any metalwork or similar I could find. Removing any litter seemed like the right thing to do. All the metalwork I stored and later took to a metal recycling skip at the town’s sports ground. Getting there with lots of metal was a fair walk without a car.

Garage Painting

I took the gutters off the garage and repainted the black eves of the garage white. After reattaching the gutters I levelled them so that they consistently sloped towards the drain pipe. The aim was to stop big leaks when it rained. It was tough getting the big thick metal gutter holders to adjust.

Food Cellar Finishing

I put a layer of self-levelling compound on the food cellar’s new concrete slab. It reduced the surface problem but there were still some minor issues with height changes. I suspect if someone else had laid the slab and poured this layer I would have been fine with it. Because I laid it I was quite critical of the surface.

Permission to Stay in Sweden

The emigration second assessment, caused by Brexit, was hanging over us still and causing a lot of continued stress. We had passed the original assessment when arriving, and the reassessment should have been the same process. Our experience was that we saw quite different behaviour and requests. We got repeated requests for more evidence. This would be a letter giving 10 days for evidence to be submitted for the item in the letter. It didn’t help that the letters took 8 days to arrive. We rushed to send evidence back via physical post and email. We didn’t know if we were at risk of being kicked out.

I saw a post online that asked if the tax agency (Skatteverket) and migrations agency (Migrationsverket) talked with each other about the applications. One reply stated this wouldn’t occur. Another said that their Migrationsverket paperwork was authorised the next day after paying their tax amount upfront. As we were under the self-sufficient route, which is based on income, this might apply to us. We paid the pending tax bill upfront (before it is finalised) and were approved the next day.

It must have been the final bit of supporting evidence someone needed. I was so relieved to get the letter saying we had the right of residence. It meant we could start investing in the property as there would be much less risk of being forced to leave due to some minor technicality.