The village of Ureterp

Yesterday started with a nice cup of coffee along one of the many rivers in Holland a bit north of Soest. Age picked me up there and we drove for two hours to one of our other Delft University friends who lives already more than 30 years in the northern province of Friesland. Wouter has worked for Philips during most of his career based in the city of Drachten. He bought a hobby farm 32 years ago, and Age and I visited him 30 years ago to do a little inspection of the place. So, it was fun to visit there again...

The farmhouse is typical for the style of farms built in that part of the country during the early years of the 20th century (this one was built in 1910). The front part with the roof tiles is the house of the farmer while the larger part with the roof of "riet" was where the animals (mostly milk cows) were kept. Wouter explained that he was trying to get a large flower garden going. He had free roaming chickens but half of them were killed by wild animals, so now they live in a newly built chicken run.

During the years of the Corona pandemic - like so many people around the world - Wouter worked from home, and this is his very nice "corner office" with a view. Wouter - originally trained as a mechanical engineer - started his career with Philips as a production manager, but over time he has become a specialist for one of the newer IT platforms which he installed in Philips plants around the world. He always loved coming back to his hobbyfarm in the quiet small village of Ureterp.

Wouter is the proud father of three daughters, two of whom studied in Delft (one is an architect, and one is an industrial designer). They live and work in Berlin and Rotterdam at the moment. Over the years Wouter extended the house a bit, taking parts of the stalls. But there is still a good part of the original stall structure there; lots of storage room and a workshop.

And yes - in case you wondered -Wouter has several pairs of wooden shoes (in Dutch: "klompen"). It was a nice day with hours of catching up conversation and Wouter cooked a great meal for us. Till next time, our farmer friend!