Hemen
The Schwalbenthal is at least 270 years old. So is the roof truss. But up here on the mountain it was often exposed to harsh weather. That didn’t do many of the beams any good. Now there is an urgent need for action. The timber framers are due to arrive next week and we are preparing the building site for them. It’s great that the State Monuments Office has granted us partial funding for the stabilisation measures :-).
Last summer, the Kalbesee lake above our house still had a very low water level. But the last 10 months have brought us so much rain that the lake is now almost full to the brim. That’s nice, but at the same time problematic for us. This is because the lake was created by open-cast mining and has no overflow and the higher the water pressure, the more water is pushed through the mountain rock to our house and the Keudelbrunnen. As a result, the slope behind our house, which hadn’t moved for a few years, started to move again and over the winter the slope crept 3cm closer to the house. This is not good for the already badly damaged kitchen extension. We can only hope that we will soon come to a negotiated solution with the Hessian Ministry of Transport, who want to build a slope stabilisation for the road behind our house. However, we still don’t feel that our interests have been sufficiently taken into account in their construction plans :-/
Last week, we had a visit from the Hessian State Office for Monument Protection. Together with the lower monument protection authority and our architect, we discussed the mapped damage to the house and discussed a procedure for securing the house. Unfortunately, the damage to the roof is so severe that complex structural support structures have to be installed and the south gable also needs to be partially supported (see picture). The State Monuments Office has now promised us a subsidy for this. Nevertheless, we still have to bear some of the considerable costs ourselves. In order to reduce these costs, we want to take on some of the preparatory work ourselves and look forward to active support. We will soon be announcing a date for a solidarity building week.
We were also pleased that the monument protection authority has also promised us that it will defend our interests with the Hessian transport authority with regard to the construction of the planned slope stabilisation (wall). We do not agree with the plans of the transport authority and are demanding changes to the planning.
The terrace and the slope in front of the terrace had become overgrown over the years and many small trees and branches had almost completely blocked the view. However, the trees, which were pruned shortly after planting, have to be cut back regularly to prevent them from developing branches that are too large and would then break the whole tree apart. Last year, we were unable to do this in time for the breeding season. Now the forestry administration cleared the slope at the end of February and we also had the old lime trees cut back. What remained was a huge pile of wood that had to be untangled and cut down.
It was a good thing that we had been given a chainsaw from Wolf. It is now serving us well. Thank you 🙂
In the meantime, things are looking a little better and the snack hut has been cleared of tree trunks and branches 🙂
And plenty of wood was stored for the winter.
And had to be stacked up again afterwards :-/
We keep coming across old postcards of the former Schalbenthal inn and health resort during our research and also in the house. This inspired us to create our little promotional postcard and now it’s finally here and being distributed.
If you have places to display them, please write to us and we will send you some.
Here are a few of the old historical postcards that inspired us.
