JOURNAL: MONTH #217
"describing a few days in the mountains wrapping up my work with the ark floors and then reporting on our holiday in a quite run down town of abruzzo going both to the beautiful sea there and also going for hikes in the imposing maiella massif with also august coming by for a week and just fully focusing on the family before returning to the alps"
JOURNAL: MONTH #218
"a last bit of summer spent in the mountains taking less care of my museum there only finishing to oil it and wrapping up to spend quite some time with my family hiking also with my german artist friend florian coming over to see us and also later going for several walks and in the end departing from myrthe making it back to holland with me staying alone with the children"
JOURNAL: MONTH #219
"a period of transition spending our last days in the mountains and even visiting my native highland before hosting for some days mathijn and then travel slowly back to holland through some nice small german towns and in holland resuming completely my life taking care of the children and the house but also updating my project and reading a lot of revolutionary texts still working on the ark printing the many thousands of tags to fit within it"
JOURNAL: MONTH #220
"a month taking care of the children and working hard on my project making it my mission also having to take care of the daughter of our poor spanish greek friends who can't afford a babysitter having quite some intense afternoon with three kids to take care of at times playing at times fighting and on top also beginning to work on the new garage in our garden lifting and carrying and mixingS hundreds of concrete bags loosing a bit of a focus both on the children and on my project in the end getting back to both"
JOURNAL: MONTH #221
"a very quiet period with the world raging all around us with fascist governments popping up in sweden and italy and the war fr to the east sort of concentrating in our middle haven with our little family taking care of the children at time sick and keeping up the intense building of the garage finishing the floor after mixing hundreds of concrete bags and carrying by hand hundreds of cement bricks but also having some quiet days spent either at home with silvester due to the rain or outside in the sun going to the open fields and in the mornings and the evenings always trying to be very disciplined with my own project"
JOURNAL: MONTH #222
"a month spent entirely in the netherlands being most diligent and working hard both on my project and on the new garage outside feeling so content about all the progress in the end giving up all the idea of making a foundation in italy and giving also up all the social media staff i started in view of it fully concentrating on life itself and on the kids trying to keep them outdoor in the nice autumn weather and despite this being very homey with all my free time going to the building of the garage"
JOURNAL: MONTH #223
"a month getting increasingly more focused into my own reality removing all sort of social media and overall giving up my attempt to promote my ark now concentrating in the building of my garage managing in the end to even put a roof on it but also trying to look into the children and especially silvester growing a bit nervous and at last bringing him more out in the nature and still however in our small reality also trying to keep up our social relationship with local people like our old friends but also a newly met indian italian couple"
JOURNAL: MONTH #224
"finishing off my work with the garage in the netehralnds just before leaving with the kids on quite an adventure crossing belgium and france and then staying at florian in a white covered south of germany having at times quite a hard time with the children not so comfortable in his house ad having to get used to the cold snow in the end having great fun going on the sled with florian's daughters and crossing the alps to at last arrive in our icy cold and snow covered mountain village and generally relating on how i tried to focus on my children there taking nice walks and enjoy the heat of our fire stove trying to get the children to be nice to each other and often having them playing nicely especially when outside in the nature"
JOURNAL: MONTH #225
"a month spent at first alone with the children in our tiny mountain apartment having quite a poetic time with them trying to be out in the nature as well as visiting at times the ark reading a lot about the chinese cultural revolution being most revolted about where political ideology can lead humanity to and then picking up myrthe from the airport despite her being sick and slowly getting ourselves sick but nonetheless keeping up taking some hikes together in the too warm mountains and also doing a lot of work in the fields also considering resuming my cathedral idea in the lower part of the property in general also trying to avoid my mother and her family attempting to reconnect despite all their meanness"
JOURNAL: MONTH #226
"a period of readjustment coming back to flat and gray holland after the intense month in the sunny mountains and also having to live up to myrthe getting burned out at work and suddenly staying home and letting all go but nonetheless now making plans together to turn an old van into a camper and getting cheered up about the idea beside having really no commitments in holland but the taking care of the children and the improving of our house resuming the fixing up of the garden dismantling the old shed and making a nice space between the house and the new garage and in general getting quite affected by my reading of the anarchist bakunin and of laurie lee taking part of the anarchist revolution in spain yet trying to orient myself in the very bourgeoisie dutch society"
JOURNAL: MONTH #227
"a quite tough month with an injured back enduring very well the pain and recovering all my good tai-chi and stretching practice but getting too little sleep in general nonetheless feeling calm and quite engaged with both the family and my project feeling much more clearly my role within the anarchist movement and the more transcendentalist philosophical movement preceding it working as well on a new artistic intervention with an old daoist inscription and rejecting the idea of applying for any other work especially in academia also doing quite a few excursion with myrthe and the kids with their mom now still burn out from the whole messy academic system and doing quite a lot of work in the garden especially for the children mounting a used garden house and making it very cozy but also getting in a fight with my germanic neighbours treating us all the time like shit in their luxury oriented life style"
JOURNAL: MONTH #228
"a nice beginning of the month with my oldest son august visiting from sweden and going with him to many different places in the netherlands taking nice walks despite the rainy weather and after his departure feeling rather sad and also not sleeping well but nonetheless feeling rather energetic solving many bureaucratic things mostly related to our new van and mounting the solar panels outdoor and reading kaczynski's manifesto even making an installation out of it to pace in the mountains and in the evening keeping up my reading of laurie lee and only occasionally watching some documentaries mostly feeling quite focused in my day to day life and the project i derive from it"
JOURNAL: MONTH #229
"a little hard month with myrthe still burn out at home taking much time to recover and myself feeling rather taken by all the many domestic tasks and the looking after of the children and also in addition to it a strong need to write some kind of manifesto for an anarchist movent i called anarcarkism in the prospect also of expanding the sculptural park in italy also not feeling so good about the spring not really coming but trying nonetheless to keep positive and taking quite some initiatives also convincing myrthe to go on holiday with our new van to northern france getting in a whole new and adventorous life mode breaking our day to day habits turned rigid by her work and livia's school"
JOURNAL: MONTH #230
"feeling quite excited in general writing the anarcarkist manifesto and taking the children out to nature at the beginning camping in northern france despite the weather being rather cold still and then back in our dutch house getting quite paranoid about a humming sound in my ears but trying to stay put and generally spending a lot of time outdoor also later preparing for our journey to italy making it there over night with our van and then trying to be most productive with all the ideas of installations i want to do there but also spending time with myrthe and the kids"
JOURNAL: MONTH #231
"still in the mountains giving up for now the building of a sculptural park inspired by my libertarain as well as environmental principles with once again the middle class minded population siding against me but feeling either way most compelled to keep on writing the anarcarkist manifesto and continuing with the task also back to holland recovering the routine there but also trying to spend time with myrthe and silvester in the morning and with livia in the afternoon after school feeling worrying about the impact her overcrowded class has on her but finally managing to take a small and refreshing holiday in the germany nature going with the family to camp at first in limburg and then in the near of dusseldorf"
JOURNAL: MONTH #232
"a nice month with a pretty weather making it often to the lake with myrthe and the children otherwise being still quite engrossed in the writings of my anarcarkist manifesto also later taking few occasional trips camping with our van in the beautiful limburg and also getting a bit more into meeting up with folk my age going with my neighbour bobby and simon for bike rides"
JOURNAL: MONTH #233
"a month spent entirely on the road at first taking august for a small holiday in sardinia traveling there also with my old friend davide and then starting a trip across europe with also silvester getting more and more close to both my two boys while camping together and keeping at florian's house in the beautiful south of germany swimming in the rhine and then finally crossing into switzeralnd staying in a pretty valley south of zurich checking a university for august and then driving through he gorgeous alps in the end having to depart from him and keeping alone with silvester in the rainy mountains"
JOURNAL: MONTH #234
"working very hard in the mountains at first alone with silvester taking good care of him but also managing to weld the metal fence around our new parking lot and then spending some days with him in camping by garda lake walking and swimming along the coast before picking myrthe and livia up from the airport and together trying to spend time in the mountains but also to move on working both to attach more tags in the ark and to plaster our old barn but also taking nice walks with the children especially later with their dutch cousins visiting"
JOURNAL: MONTH #235
"a nice summer month in the mountains managing to balance quite well the work at the ark attaching tags and the keeping with the family despite the weather being not so nice managing some memorable walks with the children getting very strong especially little livia managing the big climb of mount pasubio impressing everyone but also silvester walking all around the baffelan mountain slowly in the end wrapping up all the work we did in our contrada and cutting the last wood before starting to travel back up north with the children having a memorable time up the beautiful fern pass in austria"
JOURNAL: MONTH #236
"fully back in the netherlands starting a whole new life there leaving the extreme physical work of the moutains behind and having more time to really work hard on my project doing a lot of editing with now also little silvester starting school but nonetheless trying to bring him and his sister livia still in nature and doing so at the beginning with quite some heat despite the season and with my old friend davide coming over to spend time with me"
JOURNAL: MONTH #237
"a period getting very much into my project now with also silvester beginning to attend school full time and doing my best to perfect the website with which i communicate to the public taking occasional walks and still trying to be in nature with my children giving them a counter-education to the school close environment but nonetheless falling in its routine with also myrthe falling back in the routine of her job and just adapting to them but trying to give the best out of me also baking bread every day and doing all the laundries and the cooking"
JOURNAL: MONTH #238
"beginning a month with a nice little holiday looking after the dog of myrthe's older brother in the near of maastricht taking nice walks in the hills there and then also enjoying a bit of nice weather back to our village with the children however now attending school full time and also the weather getting quite bad and getting myself more and more into writing and also editing feeling trying to take walks and do m tai-chi daily and beside taking care of my children bringing them and fetching them from school and baking bread for them every day also trying to cultivate myself more reading every evening of kropotkin's life beside watching occasionally some good foreign and independent movies"
JOURNAL: MONTH #239
"a month spent very much at home with a quite ugly weather out doing much editing and writing as part of my project and taking good care of my children but also of their little friends often coming over to us and beside that beginning to build shelves inside the garage to get a bit of a workshop ready in the evening at times watching some good finnish old movies and finishing to read kropotkin's inspiring memoir"
JOURNAL: MONTH #240
"still a very bad weather in the netherlands constantly raining and showing the effects of climate change still holding on to my role as father to my children taking them to school but also to do some hiking whenever possible and also holding on to my project doing much writing getting increasingly critical of any form of centralized governance especially in very artificial contexts like the netherlands in the end driving with the whole family away from it and overnight crossing the alps to be in the sunny and too warm italian side of our village taking many walks there with the family but then falling sick altogether and recovering only after a few days"
JOURNAL: MONTH #242
"a month started in the mountains enjoying the solar weather there taking walks with the children high up and also hosting my old friend davide and even meeting my mother after several years a part later driving back to a flooded holland with at last the rainy weather turning crisp and cold making it fun to explore the frozen landscape and bring the children to the snow and beside that beginning some intense renovation work making a bedroom for each of them by moving in the attic with myrthe working less intensively on my own project but still keeping up quite some discipline also beginning to use my phone almost only for my project focusing far more on our own little life"
JOURNAL: MONTH #242
"getting in quite a routine baking bread and taking the children to school and working on my project and doing some renovation work but also trying to take the children as much as possible for walks in the nature especially in view of a job i took helping out a baker friend and learning the job on a few occasions while also in the end spending the carnival with my children and later also a holiday with them and august making it everyday out to new places for many hikes both in the nature but also in dutch cities taking a break from my otherwise quite disciplined life and generally feeling quite touched after a cousin from my native highland shot himself but renewing my faith in a different and more primitive society"
JOURNAL: MONTH #243
"a month feeling quite energetic with my work at the bakery but also my old brazilian friend mario coming to visit me with his family and in general feeling i did not put as much energy into my project especially later starting to reorganize the garage so as to make space to weld the the pieces i will need to build the inner part of my ark reusing the wood i had stored inside it to rebuild the veranda holding our grapevine and also a garden shed generally also having silvester often at home because he was sick or simply because he stopped wanting to go to school and trying to be very light about it seconding his wishes ultimately with a nice spring weather managing to progress despite some unfortunate events such as getting ripped off buying a paint costing me half of my hard earned salary and breaking the windscreen of my van transporting wood"
JOURNAL: MONTH #244
"still dedicating myself very much to the kids and especially silvester no longer liking to go to school keeping him often home or just bringing him half days shortening my possibility to do work both in the garden but also int he garage where i setting up the welding and plasma cutting workshop but despite that being very prolific writing and also feeling quite good about my work at the bakery getting me often energized and also learning a lot from my reading of indigenous tribes and stateless societies refining my political ideas while also keeping up the reading of zobel semi-autobiographical book based in mauritania"
JOURNAL: MONTH #245
"quite an intense month now getting very much in the working routine at the bakery with the children also very much in their school routine and the dutch weather making us even more drowning in it waiting much time in my spare time to prepare for our departure to italy failing to set up my welding and plasma cutting workshop troubling with a fume aspirator but beside all the issues managing to do quite some writings and feeling very prolific giving much energy to the children and their mother taking little walks together in the end also making it to italy and spending time with them despite the bad weather but also doing much work at the ark getting quite satisfied about the many visitors feeling at times a bit too overworked and in the end with the weather getting nicer taking it also easier"
JOURNAL: MONTH #246
"getting to readjust to life in the netherlands after the intense period in italy working on my ark and feeling a bit dizzy and not so energetic slowly accomplishing a few things in the household and in the garage in preparation of welding the pieces for the inside of the ark but mostly doing a lot of writings and also reading and listening to american anarchists espousing their ideas and finding them very similar to mine also taking much care of the children bringing and picking them from school and trying to take them for long walks at the beginning visiting wuppertal and then walking from the very south all the way to the center of dusseldorf and later going in the forest near osterwijk but also walking along the river"
JOURNAL: MONTH #247
"a last period spent in the netherlands working at the bakery and taking much care of the children bringing them and picking them from school with also the summer not really starting yet in the end just very much focusing in getting ready for italy and work on my ark there but also on possible other installations eventually making it there and giving all of myself but then perceiving the voraciousness of the local far right representative wanting to squeeze my balls and just focusing in the end on the family going to the seaside with them also to think on what to do next"
JOURNAL: MONTH #248
"finding it wierd for the first time to have to spend the beginning of the summer in the netherlands now having to wait for the children to finish school and try to also have a bit of an holday going to the river with them but generally having to just be home with the weather being quite bad and finally traveling to our mountain village in the alps and there working very hard building the staircases inside the ark as well as the structure for the time capsule feeling however the pressure of the local politicians trying to undermine my work"
JOURNAL: MONTH #249
"taking it easy in the moutnains after much work on my ark and focusing more on my family especially with the coming of august as well as the visit of florian with his daughters hiking together and being very active also managing to plaster some more of the barn and oil the ark in the end also spending much time with august working on the software to interact with it and getting our first results showing it to people"
JOURNAL: MONTH #250
"a last period in the mountains wrapping up our time there spending also the last time with august before bringing him to the airport and making it back through switzerland meeting my uncle there and having a very nice time together and then also spending some nice days with florian and his daughters taking a last big hike up the mountains before returning to holland and feeling rather depressed but getting over it with a sudden nice weather spending almost every afternoon swimming with the kids at the lake and generally getting a bit rewarded with the making of my ark getting a bit of press interested but soon recovering my focus not on getting successful but on really carrying on my project and save up money working at the bakery to eventually renovate our barn in the alps"
JOURNAL: MONTH #251
"a rather calm month spent in the netherlands with the autumn setting in and going back to the routines of bringing the children to school and picking them up and cook for them and spending a few days a week working at the bakery but also making some progress in preparing my presentation about hunter-gatherers and embracing quite much their lifestyle trying to break with routines of modern life bringing the children frequently out for long walks in the wild but also at times in cities having to follow her mother's agenda in the end beginning to feel rather renewed accepting to be an outcast with no reputation but with my stronger faith in primitivism and humans' old way of living"
JOURNAL: MONTH #252
"a month with some illusions to maybe get back to teaching after conducting my first lecture in years but soon getting back to my feet and trying focusing on walking extensively also with my children while immersing myself more and more in the life of hunter-gatherers as a model to pursue while at the same time cultivating nothing but my consciousness and in this respect beginning to revise my old cathedral idea on which my project is based and beside that falling into the routines imposed by the system such as taking the children to and from school and seconding myrthe with her work but also having a nice autumn holiday together mostly spent going to nature beside the time spent working in the bakery"