Week 11 Not so much AI

 Week 11

I wrote some of this early on Saturday morning - It is now early on Sunday morning (0500hrs) and I woke up thinking..."nah, I'll have to re-write all that". I might leave a couple of references this week...because it's too much trouble to cut and paste them out :-)

I've started collecting information but not published yet...might take a few more rainy days.

Mum was an early riser - I'm glad I inherited that...

I have also discovered that I can easily translate this for Janny's Mum...eg.

Ik schreef een deel hiervan vroeg op zaterdagmorgen. Het is nu vroeg op zondagmorgen (5 uur) en ik werd wakker met de gedachte: "Nee, ik moet dat allemaal opnieuw schrijven." Misschien laat ik deze week een paar referenties staan... want het is te veel gedoe om ze te kopiëren en te plakken :-)

Ik ben begonnen met het verzamelen van informatie, maar heb het nog niet gepubliceerd... dat duurt misschien nog een paar regenachtige dagen.

Mijn moeder stond altijd vroeg op - ik ben blij dat ik dat van haar heb geërfd...

Still experimenting with Claude AI. But I'm not going to use it to write this - last week was just a fun thing to try out. Yes, a couple of friends and most of my family said to keep going in my own "style" - but I still wish I could write better...

I think it is quite an unexpected bonus to suddenly have 22Gb of information to draw on but I see now that it doesn't belong here. It's all my own stuff (well, mostly apart from references) so I can go through it at my leisure and maybe pick out the best bits, or simply just "re-live" it on my own. I'll try to make an index page and just add to it...

The cat just knocked on the door to be let in...

Before I got up I was listening to "Friday Night Comedy" from the BBC. I used to be able to get the BBC on the radio in 1990's. It was a real godsend to me back then and I recall that I was very annoyed when they announced that they were shutting it down and switching everything to the internet - a brilliant decision as it turned out...

Anyway, one of the things with listening to the radio was that they would switch now and then to "The Shipping Forecast" - going through all the strangely named places with the weather report... but I was a captive audience so I had to stick with it...

So Friday Night's comedy was The Naked Week - other regulars are The Now Show and The News Quiz - mostly satire...

This week they referred to the "No Shipping Forecast" and played some music from Dire Straits...

Now to this week...

It's 0500hrs on Saturday morning as I start this - Janny had to sleep out the back with the kids - I have Boeke and Tassie for company...and I lit the fire for the  kids  so it will be warm when they get up.

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A Bit More on AI...sorry

Now, to get to the following, I had to learn how to use Netlify, a procees which throws up randomly named URLs. Claude suggested going this way in order to get results that could be shared easily. 

Claude wrote the code required...must be alarm bells for writers and coders (and others).

Like everyone these days, I imagine, one has to be selective in what one listens to or reads...

I subscribe to a (free) email from Nick Cohen - he had this to say about AI just on Friday - far better at voicing concerns than I could ever be...

I'm not sure how else I could share his work so I copied it to a blog link.

Nick Cohen on AI

https://summariestwiw2026.blogspot.com/2026/03/nick-cohen-on-ai-20-march-2026.html

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Both of these links below produce interactive tables of information extracted from my 11 years of  blog writing... (ie. you can click on them to get extra information)

The 10 Most Common Themes

 https://cosmic-florentine-bbdad9.netlify.app/

A Decade of Key Events

https://iridescent-wisp-a8c9b8.netlify.app/

During the week, I ran out of my "free" usage with Claude AI. Bit of a bummer as it is so good! I went back to Google's Gemini and did some of the same prompts - nowhere near as good IMHO. I also went back to ChatGTP which I looked at in 2024 (so my notes tell me)...my first impression is that I don't get the same "feeling" as with Claude but I can live with the notion of "Why Not Do Both?". - or all 3 with Google.

Note: I  also asked  ChatGTP "Analyze all these blog posts and identify the 10 most common themes that appear over the years" This prompt was also suggested by Ben...the result from ChatGTP was disappointing, to say the least (compared with Claude). I tried asking in different ways in order to get a better result - to no avail. Claude wins this one hands down - not even close.

Other things I did before Claude ran out:

I "wrote" a Children's Book - based on the thoughts or things I had written about the Care Farm animals over the years. I asked Google Translate to do it in Dutch and I gave it to Janny's Mum to read... she said "But Ken there were so many more animals" - she's right but they were before my blogging started, so I'll have to go back and add some more information - and the related photos. "Mem" also said "Ken, keep writing!"   :-)

I "wrote" a Letter of Appreciation for Tjeerd, my now indispensible helper. That too was translated into Dutch, but I now have to seek counsel (from Janny) as to whether or not to give it to him. Maybe for his birthday or a "milestone" year of him being with us...but perhaps one shouldn't wait too long.

Higher Prices Already

As the kakistocracy in the US continues...with consequences for all of us. I'd like to think that we are preparing for the shock of higher prices for just about everything...but in reality, all we can do is soldier on as best we can - trying to cut back, but that's about it really.

Friday's diesel price (the cheapest we could find nearby) was €2,29/litre. We saw €2,50 on the freeway last week.

NOS News•Friday, 06:38

Households will only notice peak in price rise due to war in 21 months

If the war in the Middle East continues, households will be hit hard, and not just at the pump. Clothing, tools, and food will also become more expensive in the long run, economists at Rabobank have calculated.

We don't feel those price increases immediately, says Hugo Erken, chief economist at RaboResearch. "After three months, you see the first effects on industrial products like steel. The price rises gradually, because first transport becomes more expensive, then items containing steel such as washing machines and game consoles, and finally wages rise."

According to him, we will only see a peak in the price increase after 21 months, so almost two years.

Electric Car?

Brother Leigh bought an EV - a Geely, which I had never heard of...I was surprised and/or a little disappointed to learn that Geely own both Volvo and Polestar - Polestar would have been our preferred option (if we can ever prioritise the expense over other things we have to do). Leigh has also installed a house battery for their electrical needs, saying basically that "it seems to be the right thing to do".

We did look at some second hand electric cars- one of Janny's primary school friends owns a very big car business - with sites in Oosterwolde, Gorredijk and Groningen - must be millions of € worth of used cars on the lots...anyway we looked at a few different models - I think they were all Chinese as it turns out - one of the Volvo's was probably our pick - Janny went back to have another look - without telling me! (I think she was actually going to buy it) - but it was already sold. 

Better to wait for this year's tax bill, I reckon :-)

Around the Farm

Rather lucky that Claude stopped working - I still have my daily routines to do and the weather is slowly improving so there will be outside work to do before too long.

Sunday Evening

We went to Janny's brother's place for his 68th Birthday - now officially a pensioner, but like me doesn't want to stop yet...enjoying it too much.

I met a nephew's wife-to-be - she seemed very nice...but she did say "after more than 30 years, how come your accent is so bad?"  I mumbled something about being tone-deaf and changed my mind...

OK, it might be pretty bad but I can't think of anyone that I know who can hold down a conversation in another language (except Terry maybe? and just about all of my Dutch friends - oh, and one or two of my grandkids) - so I prefer to think of it as one of my better achievements rather than something to be scorned...oh well :-)

Monday

Lucas' Birthday...

We buy the cake so that there is no cost for the clients themselves - and we have a piggy bank that we all chip into, say maybe €1,00 a month - just small change now and then, but it builds up so we can provide a small gift "from everybody".

My job to put the flags up in the morning...(yep 20 to 7)

Janny has taught herself how to make light boxes - on the 3D Printer. In the last bout of wet weather she was fully engrossed in that exercise and I was likewise learning how to use Claude to look at my 11+ years (since 2004 for some) of writings. We were sharing the same space but in totally different worlds...

LED lights can be placed inside the removable back. One is from the soccer club Heerenveen - Janny is now working on one for the local footy club - I'm a bit worried that she might run into copyright stuff.

Heerenveen is the gift for Wessel next week... Lucas got one for his team PSV. The local Wijnjewoude team is ODV.

Tuesday

Tjeerd put some supports on the new trees - so they won't get blown over.

Wednesday

I got up to date with my bookkeeping :-)

We had local government elections... I voted for a local woman...

Our own Local Government is Opsterland. The largest % of the vote went to Opsterland Belang (Translated by me to be "of Concern or Interest to Opsterland").

This "vote local" feeling went across the board in the Netherlands (I think around 340 local government areas).

https://nos.nl/artikel/2606889-lokale-partijen-zetten-opmars-door-opkomst-hoger-dan-in-2022

Local parties continue their rise, turnout higher than in 2022

By far the majority of seats in the municipal elections went to local parties. As a result, local parties are once again on the rise, according to the forecast by the ANP election desk. Turnout was over 54 percent.

In the national government there is a new Prime Minister...

https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/10/rob-jetten-d66-election-exclusive-interview/

Thursday

Janny has also been doing screen printing on takeaway food bags for a couple of nearby snack bars - so on Thursday we got our "payment" from one of them - a free lunch at De Twa Buken!

"Thumbs Up" from everyone, including Janny's Mum.

And Tjeerd planted a couple of extra (smaller) trees along the driveway...

We enjoy Fridays

We have the kids every 2nd weekend so we have to go shopping for them and make a point of having lunch somewhere - so we now do it on the other weeks as well...

...it will get a little bit different when we can get on the boat again...

Shopping and lunch done - time to start the mowing - first for the year (the ground is still soft but at least it is a sign of better weather). 

Saturday

I have to find some work for one of the boys - we have some more fencing to do when the weather gets better. A lot of the poles we took out last year were rotted through at ground level. I thought we would have to chuck them but then I realised that I could make a "knee-high fence" with a single rail somewhere - So I cut the rotten bits off (I did the saw bit),. C did the tidying up and the tractor work...

Also on Saturday - one of the most moving things I have experienced in all our time with the kids.

H used to be one of "our" kids but he grew out of it "officially" when he turned 21. He still wanted to keep coming but the youth in contact with adults rules wouldn't allow it - at least for the sleeping over bit. So, he comes just during the day on Saturdays that we're open.

Our worker, Nynke, is going to be a Doctor - she spends so much time studying but at least she can earn a bit of money by being with us. She has Friday nights off, so Janny has to work then.

I remembered that I now have a Children's Book of the animals at De Twa Buken - also translated to Dutch - so I asked H if he wanted to read it - tentatively, because I'm not sure how well he can read... Nynke stepped in and offered to read it out loud for him - he thoroughly enjoyed it and one time when I looked he was sitting next to Nynke with his head on her shoulder...I wanted so much to take a photo...but it would have spoilt the moment, I think.

From the BBC (another of my trusted sources)

A story about an old Dutch custom - sitting quietly watching day turn into night...apparently making a comeback.

(such big links)

Dusking: The Dutch twilight ritual helping people slow down

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260317-dusking-the-dutch-twilight-ritual-helping-people-slow-down?at_campaign_type=owned&at_medium=emails&at_objective=awareness&at_ptr_type=email&at_ptr_name=salesforce&at_campaign=essentiallist&at_email_send_date=20260320&at_send_id=4567619&at_link_title=https%3a%2f%2fwww.bbc.com%2ftravel%2farticle%2f20260317-dusking-the-dutch-twilight-ritual-helping-people-slow-down&at_bbc_team=crm&at_audience_id=8399221