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Stihl FS 89 Experience: The Perfect Brushcutter for Property Maintenance

Eine Motorsense (Freischneider) der Marke Stihl mit Tragegurt liegt auf trockenem Gras. Im Hintergrund sind eine alte Natursteinmauer, traditionelle Bauernhäuser und bewaldete Hügel unter klarem Himmel zu sehen.

Anyone who owns a large property knows the constant challenge: nature does not wait, it grows. If you are not permanently on site to do your rounds with a classic lawnmower every week, the grass quickly shoots up. It dries out in the summer, forms a dense, resilient mat, and often weeds, small woody shoots, and thick undergrowth mix in. This was exactly the task I faced on our roughly 1000 square meter property in Cincu, our second home in Romania. Continue reading “Stihl FS 89 Experience: The Perfect Brushcutter for Property Maintenance”

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Old Fruit Varieties in Transylvania: Preserving Tradition

Auf einem rustikalen Holztisch liegen alte, naturbelassene Äpfel, Birnen und Pflaumen, im unscharfen Hintergrund ist ein traditionelles sächsisches Bauernhaus in Siebenbürgen zu sehen.

Old Fruit Varieties in Transylvania: Preserving Tradition

In the villages of Transylvania, fruits were the only source of vitamins during the winter. Back then, fruit was vital for survival. Each type had a different purpose – some were good for eating, others were used for jam, and still others were candied or used to produce schnapps or wine. Continue reading “Old Fruit Varieties in Transylvania: Preserving Tradition”

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Supporting Ceiling Beams in an Old Building: How to Safely Prop Up a Wooden Beam Ceiling

Temporäres Abfangen alter Deckenbalken aus Eiche im Altbau mit lotrecht aufgestellten Stahl-Baustützen auf lastverteilenden Bohlen.

Supporting Ceiling Beams in an Old Building: How to Safely Prop Up a Wooden Beam Ceiling

Imagine standing in a room that has survived almost unchanged for well over a hundred years. The air smells of fine dust, dry wood, and the history of generations. That is exactly how I felt when I took over my house from 1888 and grasped the full dimensions of the ground floor for the first time. Continue reading “Supporting Ceiling Beams in an Old Building: How to Safely Prop Up a Wooden Beam Ceiling”

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The Dry Stone Wall Made of Fieldstones

Aufbau einer Trockenmauer aus Feldsteinen an einem Hang: Die erste Steinreihe wird auf einem Sandbett mit einer gelben Wasserwaage und einer Richtschnur exakt ausgerichtet. Im Vordergrund liegen zwei Steinhammer im Sand.

The hilly landscapes of Transylvania are characterized by a rugged, natural beauty. If you own or manage a property in this region, you are often faced with the challenge of securing the soil from slipping on slopes. Concrete walls are functional, but rarely blend harmoniously into the rural, historical picture and also seal valuable surfaces. A traditional and ecologically much more sensible alternative is the dry stone wall made of fieldstones. Continue reading “The Dry Stone Wall Made of Fieldstones”

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Destination Țara Moților: Discovering the Fascinating Wooden Culture in the Land of the Moți

Eine weite Berglandschaft im Apuseni-Gebirge. Im Vordergrund treiben zwei Hirten in traditioneller Kleidung eine große Schafherde durch einen Holzpferch. Im Hintergrund stehen alte Holzhäuser mit steilen Strohdächern und Heuschober an einem kleinen Fluss.

West of the lively university city of Cluj-Napoca in Romania, a mountain world rises where the clocks noticeably tick slower. The Apuseni Mountains, also known as the Western Carpathians, harbor a cultural and landscape jewel: Țara Moților, the Land of the Moți. If you are looking for a destination off the beaten path that immerses you deeply in an archaic way of life, this region is one of the most pristine experiences you can still have in Europe.

Who are the Moți and what defines their culture?

The Moți are the inhabitants of the higher-altitude villages in the Apuseni Mountains, especially around the Arieș River valley. For centuries, their lives have been inextricably linked to the forest and wood as a material. This deep connection to nature shapes not only the architecture of the region but their entire daily life.

While many traditional crafts in Europe can only be found in museums, the wooden culture in Țara Moților is alive. The people here are masters of woodworking. From spruce trunks, they carve, turn, and build almost everything they need to live: from delicate wooden shingles to massive wooden barrels and agricultural tools, right up to their typical houses.

A special symbol of this culture is the Tulnic, a wind instrument up to three meters long made of spruce wood, similar to the Swiss alphorn. Originally, it was used by women to communicate across the wide valleys, warn of dangers, or call the flocks of sheep. With a little luck, you might hear the deep, melancholic tones of a tulnic echoing through the forests during your visit.

An archaic way of life amidst rugged nature

A trip to Țara Moților is like a journey to another era. The landscape is characterized by dense coniferous forests, deep karst caves, and wide, rolling alpine meadows where hay is still often mowed by hand and piled into characteristic hayricks. The villages are often widely scattered; some farmsteads can only be reached via unpaved dirt roads or steep paths.

Life here follows the rhythms of the seasons. In summer, the livestock moves to the high pastures, and the hay harvest dictates the daily routine. In the harsh, snowy winter, people huddle together in wood-heated parlors and dedicate themselves to crafts. It is a life of privation, but also one deeply connected to nature. If you embrace it and connect with the locals—even if communication often relies on hand gestures—you will experience incredible hospitality.

My tip: Photographing the Ploștini and the best time to travel

As a photographer, your heart will certainly beat faster in this region. A very special subject are the so-called Ploștini. These are old, traditional summer huts and stables that stand out due to their extremely steep, massive thatched roofs (sometimes also shingled roofs). You can still find them on the more remote plateaus, for example around the village of Gârda de Sus or in the hamlet of Casa de Piatră.

On photography: Forget the harsh midday light. When the sun is really low—whether in the morning or evening—the extreme textures of the old wood and thick thatched roofs truly pop. Definitely pack something wide-angle in your backpack. The landscape is vast, and you’ll often want a hut in the foreground and the wide valley behind it in the frame. As for the local people: keep your camera down at first. An honest hello, a smile, and a quick request, even if it takes hands and feet, work wonders before you press the shutter.

The best time to travel: When is the best time to go? For good pictures, May and June are particularly worthwhile when everything is really lush and green, or September and October. In autumn, you not only have colored foliage but often quite usable light throughout the day. In midsummer, the air frequently shimmers and it gets very hot, and in winter, you simply get stuck in deep snow on the remote dirt tracks.

Planning your trip: Points of contact and information sources

Since Țara Moților has not yet been swept up by mass tourism, a trip there requires a little preparation. Your journey ideally begins in Cluj-Napoca, which has an international airport. From there, you can reach the foothills of the Apuseni Mountains by rental car in about two to three hours.

Good starting points for exploration are the municipalities of Albac, Gârda de Sus, or Arieșeni. Here you will find authentic, often family-run guesthouses (pensiuni) where you can try the regional cuisine—this often includes homemade cheese, polenta (mămăligă), and a strong fruit brandy (pălincă).

Here are some useful links for your further research:

  • Apuseni Nature Park (Parcul Natural Apuseni): On the official website, you will find (mostly in Romanian and English) information about hiking trails, caves, and protected areas. www.parculapuseni.ro
  • Romanian Tourist Board: Offers good, general English overviews of the region and culture. romaniatourism.com

Let yourself be drawn into the Țara Moților adventure. It is a place that will ground you and show you how much strength and beauty lies in a traditional, simple way of life. Take your time, pack your camera, and discover this forgotten valley in the heart of Europe.

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Sandblasting or Sanding Old Wooden Beams?

Aufnahme eines handgehauenen Eichenbalkens mit deutlichem Vorher-Nachher-Kontrast nach der Reinigung.

When exposing old, hand-hewn oak beams in your home, you often face a major challenge: the beams have darkened significantly over the decades or centuries, they have often been painted – at best with easily removable limewash, at worst with stubborn oil paint – or they are simply extremely dusty. To fully bring out the rustic character of the hand-hewn beams indoors, they must be cleaned.

But which method is the right one for hand-hewn oak beams? In this article, I compare the most common approaches: low-pressure sandblasting, dry ice blasting, and mechanical sanding using a brush sander or a wire brush attachment for a drill or angle grinder.

Preparation: Safety and Preliminary Work

Before you choose a method, there are steps and safety precautions that are absolutely essential. Old beams are often full of surprises and carry hidden risks.

Important Health Warning: Oak Wood Dust

Oak wood is beautiful, but its sanding dust is extremely dangerous and is considered carcinogenic. When sanding or blasting oak beams indoors, professional respiratory protection (at least an FFP3 mask) is absolutely mandatory. You must ensure powerful dust extraction (dust class M or H) and completely seal off adjacent living spaces to avoid endangering your health and that of your family.

My practical tip: Meticulously examine the wood for old, hand-forged nails, screws, or staples. A metal detector, more precisely a so-called pinpointer, does a great job here. Personally, I use the Garrett Pro-Pointer 2 for this task. Thanks to its handy shape, you can scan the beams centimeter by centimeter and accurately locate even deeply embedded metal parts that are often invisible from the outside.

Since it is extremely time-consuming to put down the tool after every find to pull the nail, I work in stages: Find the metal piece, make it visible, and simply mark the spot with a dot of spray paint. This way, you can complete the entire search first. In the second step, you take the tool and remove or countersink all marked nails in one go. In the third step, do a quick final check with the pinpointer. The sprayed paint will simply be removed during the subsequent cleaning (sanding or blasting) anyway. Take this preparation seriously: an overlooked nail can not only ruin your brush sander immediately, but it can also cause dangerous sparks or unsightly rust marks during blasting.

The Comparison: Blasting, Brush Sander, and Wire Brush

Hand-hewn wood is characterized by its uneven, wavy surface – the so-called axe marks. This is exactly the structure you want to preserve.

Method 1: The Brush Sander (Burnishing Machine)

A brush sander with a nylon or brass brush is an excellent choice for DIY enthusiasts. The rotating brush adapts well to the unevenness of the hand-hewn wood without changing its basic shape. This gives you very good control over the material removal.

Method 2: The Wire Brush (for Drill or Angle Grinder)

A very popular and inexpensive variant is the use of wire brush attachments (cup or wheel brushes) for the drill or angle grinder. This method is significantly more abrasive than the standard brush sander. This is particularly advantageous if you need to remove stubborn oil paint. In addition, narrow wire brushes are excellent for reaching into large cracks and deep joints in the wood. But beware: the rotating wire bristles can be extremely aggressive and leave deep grooves in the wood if too much pressure is applied.

Method 3: Low-Pressure Blasting

In low-pressure blasting, a fine abrasive (such as glass beads, walnut shells, or special sand) is blown onto the wood with relatively low pressure. This method cleans deep into the tightest crevices and wormholes that you would never reach with a brush. The result is often very uniform.

Method 4: Dry Ice Blasting

A particularly gentle premium alternative is dry ice blasting. Here, frozen CO2 pellets are shot at the wood, blasting away dirt or stubborn oil paint upon impact, and then immediately dissolving into gas. No abrasive is left behind, only the removed dirt. This method is extremely gentle on the historical wood structure, but usually more expensive as it is almost always carried out by professionals.

Cost-Benefit Comparison & Important Warning Regarding Patina

Mechanical Sanding (Brush Sander & Wire Brush): Lower initial costs (approx. 100 to 300 euros, wire brush attachments are even cheaper), ideal for smaller areas and individual rooms. Good for limewash, but soft brushes smear quickly with tough oil paint, which is where the wire brush shows its strengths. However, the time required is enormous, and the work is very physically demanding.

Low-Pressure & Dry Ice Blasting: High costs for renting a compressor and blasting equipment or hiring a specialist company. However, these methods save an extreme amount of time for large areas and thick layers of paint.

Warning: Proceed carefully with all methods! Too aggressive removal (especially with coarse wire brushes) destroys the historical patina and the unique axe marks of the oak beams. Once sanded away, this historical character is irretrievably lost.

Step-by-Step to the Perfect Beam Look

To ensure your project is a success, you should proceed systematically:

  1. Remove nails from the beams: Pull all metal parts with pincers or a crowbar. If they are stuck too tightly, drive them deep into the wood with a punch.
  2. Choose a method: Weigh up whether to use a brush sander, a wire brush, or a blasting method based on the room size, your budget, and the coating (limewash vs. oil paint).
  3. Install dust extraction and protection: All methods generate immense amounts of dust. When sanding, a strong industrial vacuum cleaner connected directly to the machine is mandatory. When blasting, you must completely cover the room with plastic sheeting and create negative pressure. Due to the carcinogenic oak wood dust, wearing an FFP3 respirator mask is absolutely essential!
  4. Surface treatment with boiled linseed oil: Once the wood is cleaned and free of dust, the finish is applied. Paint the oak beams with high-quality boiled linseed oil (Leinöl-Firnis). The oil enhances the grain, protects the wood, and gives it a warm tone. Especially as a photographer, I appreciate how the linseed oil makes the natural contrasts of the wood shine – this later creates wonderful, three-dimensional motifs in the room.

Further Information Sources

If you want to read more deeply into the subject, here are some valuable resources:

  • Safe handling of wood dust: The information from the BG Bau (German construction industry employers’ liability insurance association) will help you protect your health while sanding.
  • Expert knowledge on woodworking: On platforms like Holzwerken.net, you will find many tips on dealing with historical woods and natural surface treatments.

Take your time with this project. The effort is worth it when the old oak beams finally shape your living space as an impressive testament to the past.

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Reactivating the Traditional Summer Kitchen: From Ruin to Culinary Centerpiece

Freigelegte Grundmauer und Ruine meiner alten Sommerküche aus Stein und Ziegeln neben meinem Bauernhaus in Siebenbürgen, bereit für die Renovierung.

The thought of standing in a cool, shady outdoor kitchen on a hot July day, while the scent of fresh herbs and roasted food wafts through the garden, is deeply soothing. In the past, the summer kitchen was standard in the countryside – it kept the heat of the stove away from the main house and was the center for preserving the harvest. Today, this place is experiencing a renaissance.

In this post, I will show you how to renovate an old summer kitchen, what practical benefits it offers you today, and what you should consider during the planning phase.

A Look at Transylvania: From Wooden House to Stone Courtyard

To truly understand the origin and necessity of the summer kitchen, it is worth taking a look at the historical construction methods, for example in Transylvania. In the past, pure wooden houses dominated the villages there. Wood was abundantly available in the adjacent Carpathian Mountains and was the logical building material of choice.

However, due to intensive mining, agricultural clearing, and the generally high demand for wood, the forests shrank visibly. In the 18th century, the rulers of the Habsburg Empire – especially Maria Theresa – intervened rigorously. In order to conserve the valuable wood resources and above all to contain the devastating village fires that regularly destroyed wooden houses, the construction of stone houses was heavily promoted and partly made compulsory.

In the course of this, the architecture of the farmsteads changed massively. To minimize the risk of fire and the enormous heat development in the new, massive main house, fire-intensive activities were relocated. Baking, laundry care, and, of course, cooking in the hot months now took place in a separate building. The summer kitchen became a fixed, indispensable component, not only of the Transylvanian Saxon farmstead.

Why Reactivation is Worth It for You

Before you reach for the hammer, it is good to visualize the added value today. A summer kitchen is much more than just a covered barbecue area.

  • Thermal relief: Your residential house stays significantly cooler in the summer, as the oven and stove are operated outside.
  • Odor control: Strong odors from roasting, deep-frying, or preserving dissipate immediately in the fresh air and do not settle in your living spaces.
  • Social center: Cooking transforms from an isolated process in the house kitchen into a communal experience outdoors.
  • Harvest processing: If you grow your own fruit or vegetables, you can wash, clean, and preserve them directly in the garden without carrying the dirt into the house.
My tip: Check the existing connections in your outbuilding beforehand. Often, under old floors or in the walls, there are still water pipes or power connections that can be reactivated by a professional with manageable effort. This saves you high development costs for your project.

Step by Step: Renovating Old Substance

Many old summer kitchens are located in former washhouses or sheds. The building fabric is usually solid but requires attention after years of vacancy.

1. Inventory and Drainage

Often, rising damp is the biggest problem. Check the roof and the floor slab. If you are renewing the floor, ensure a slight slope towards the door – this way, you can easily hose down and clean the room later.

2. The Choice of Surfaces

In a summer kitchen, which is usually not heated in winter, there is fluctuating humidity.

  • Walls: Pure lime plaster or silicate paints are ideal, as they are breathable, regulate moisture, and naturally prevent mold growth.
  • Worktops: Natural stone, polished concrete, or hard-wearing tiles are robust, weatherproof, and easy to clean.

3. Stove and Oven: The Heart

An old, wood-fired kitchen stove exudes pure nostalgia, but is often impractical for a quick coffee. A clever combination of a modern induction hob (for everyday use) and a restored wood-fired oven or barbecue fireplace offers you maximum flexibility.

Equipment and Functionality

To make working in your new old summer kitchen a joy, the ergonomics must be right. Think about short distances between the sink, workspace, and cooking area.

  • Lighting plan: Since you will often sit outside and cook late into mild summer evenings, good, glare-free lighting of the workspaces is essential. Indirect, warm white light also creates the necessary atmosphere when the food is on the table.
  • Storage space: Use open shelving systems made of metal or oiled wood. Closed cupboards in unheated, damp rooms tend to develop musty odors over the winter months.

Further Information and Sources

If you want to delve deeper into the matter, these contact points will help you with your planning:

  • The Renovation Bible: An absolute must for your project is the book „Das sächsische Bauernhaus in Siebenbürgen. Was wie machen an alten Häusern“ by Jan Hülsemann. It is rightfully considered the bible for renovators of Transylvanian farmsteads and provides you with invaluable, practical tips on preserving the historical substance.
  • Building culture and history: You can find more about the historical development of farms and construction methods in Transylvania at the Fortified Churches Foundation (Stiftung Kirchenburgen), which deals intensively with the architectural heritage of the region.
  • Traditional crafts and building materials: A local network is crucial for an authentic renovation in Transylvania. The Mihai Eminescu Trust is strongly committed to preserving the village building culture and often provides contacts to traditional craftsmen (such as clay builders) or sources for historical materials (e.g., hand-molded bricks). Another way is to ask directly in neighboring villages for unused demolition material.
  • Local building law (Romania): The first step for a building permit (Autorizație de construire) leads to the local town hall (Primărie). If your farm is located in a protected zone, the County Directorate for Culture (Direcția Județeană pentru Cultură) must be involved. To reactivate old chimneys, you should also consult a local chimney sweep (Coșar) to meet the current fire protection regulations of the fire brigade (ISU).