It took about a week to get into the swing of things at Nový Mlýn, but once we were accustomed to the house-share environment and the various tasks around the property, it was clear for each of us where we were needed most and where we could make the greatest difference. Roy was mainly caring for animals and sorting the wood from the collapsed barns into usable material and firewood. The vast majority of the lumber was only suitable for burning, which meant a lot of sawing, splitting, and breaking long planks into shorter lengths suitable for the woodstoves and boiler in the house. On other occasions, Roy built a fence to create an animal paddock for the sheep, goat, geese, and chickens to sleep safely at night, and a long bench for one of the picnic tables near the house.
Catherine's work included lots of bread-making, gardening in the spiral, designing and painting a mural of the garden layout, and redecorating rooms of the house so that Nový Mlýn could begin hosting guests as a bed and breakfast. Other duties for both of us included taking the dog for walks, cooking meals, and cleaning the house.
In our last days at Nový Mlýn we went out to the local pub in Tabor, had some lovely visitors - our friends Zoe and Phoebe, ate loads of the traditional Czech dessert of cream-cheese ice-cream, and tried to explore the forest as much as possible.
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