2021 — The First Year
The first year was about basics. Fixing the water pipes. Dealing with an ant nest that tried to colonize a side room — the floor was opened up, ant powder applied, a wooden pallet laid over the exposed sand. Setting up a small kitchen economy with hotplates and a refrigerator left by the previous owner.
Little by little, ways were found to manage under primitive conditions. Getting a washing machine was a big step forward. Work nooks, places to eat, read, sit and talk were carved out of the living quarters. Fortunately, there was telephone and internet service.
The concept for the project began to shift. What had started as property maintenance evolved toward something more ambitious — an ecological seminar center. This meant re-classifying agricultural buildings into residential and commercial mixed-use spaces. The bureaucratic journey began.
Tools were organized on a tall wooden shelf, arranged by function, by type, and by frequency of use. Vocabulary lists in Polish and German were posted on random walls — to work on spontaneously, on rainy days or in the evenings.
In the evenings, gripping passages were read aloud from Polish novels. Huelle’s Weiser Dawidek, a tale of soccer rivalry between groups of boys in postwar Gdańsk. Gombrowicz, interesting for his migration story to Argentina. Reymont, for his vivid description of peasant life. The first cultural life on the farm unfolded around Polish literature.