OliFantje, happy end!?

When they arrived back in the Netherlands after a long journey, life continued as usual. At school, OliFantje told her friends that she was not moving to Belgium but to Portugal. The rest of the class didn't know anything yet. Ultimately, OliFantje posted a photo of the holiday on social media and told that she was going to move. That same day the whole class knew about it and during the French lesson it suddenly came up and OliFantje was able to tell something about it. The French teacher offered OliFantje to teach her Portuguese, because he was actually from Portugal. OliFantje did not think this was necessary for just a few months and also thought French was a much nicer language.The longer they were back in the Netherlands, the less exited OliFantje felt about the move. She enjoyed herself at school and enjoyed her family's farm. There OliFantje learned to ride horses from her cousin and she loved it! She also played football every evening with her brothers, cousin and uncle. All in all, it was getting harder to leave.

About a month before the move it was time to say goodbye. The school year was almost over. OliFantje went to the Slagharen amusement park for a day with her friends from school as a farewell. She had a BBQ and game evening with the class and the youth group. Also some visits here and there to family.Then the big day of the move arrived. The van was packed, the caravan was coupled behind the car and it was time to go. In the evening they made another stop in Belgium. They had a picnic there with friends and the animals out of the car, they were also coming along. They drove on for quite some time at night.

Two days later they arrived at their destination. The View family, now with a small daughter, helped put the caravan in the right place. It was terribly hot and OliFantje and her family were lucky to live near a beautiful lake. They went there straight away in the evening to swim.A lot had to be done. They all helped as best they could. First a path had to be made to the ruin, which would one day become a house. Then the rooms had to be emptied. There was a lot of junk in there. The old roof also had to be removed. There was also a lot that still had to be done buying the land. In between they also had many visits to and from the Tilia family. Then they started clearing the well, which had blackberries growing all over it.Then they started the vegetable garden. Everyone had their own portion to grow vegetables. OliFantje started with beets, carrots and beans, but she didn't like it: always sowing, planting, watering and weeding... She wasn't sure what made the difference for her that she did like the herb garden, but she made the herb garden with pleasure and it looked beautiful too! When several people heard about OliFantje's herb garden, she also received plants from them and that is why she quickly expanded. If she really wanted that one flower, she bought it at the market. She enthusiastically started propagating and drying her herbs. Her mother had given her a large book about herbs, how and what to do with them. Because the climate in Portugal was very different from that in the Netherlands, she had to discover many things herself. She did that with great pleasure. Herbs were moved from sunny to shade, from moist to dry, and so on. She also tried to use it a lot, for the kitchen, but also medicinally. One day a friend asked if she could also get herbs from OliFantje. In exchange, she would sew bags into which OliFantje could put herbs. OliFantje thought that was a good idea, so that's how her business started. During the Feast of Tabernacles, her mother had given her a spice cabinet on which she could place all kinds of jars and hooks where she could dry herbs. Soon all six hooks were full and she started filling her jars.Because now she needed twice as much...