We had been looking forward to it for a while, but on Tuesday 5 January the time had come: dendrochronologist Paul Borghaerts, who specializes in Frisian farms, came by to examine and date the wooden construction of the beams in the barn. He does this by drilling samples from the wood and further preparing them so that the annual rings become clearly visible. Paul now has a large archive of samples and he can date the wood very precisely and indicate where it comes from. The annual rings together form a kind of barcode that is unique for a region and period. In his research he found a mix of pine, spruce and oak anyway. A lot has clearly been renovated over the centuries, but we already knew that. We are very curious whether his research results will give a better picture of the construction history of the farm. As soon as there is news, we will publish it here. More information about Paul and his research can be found on his website:
RESULTS RESEARCH
For a moment it seemed that we had a 16th-century farmhouse, but Paul is quite sure that the oak beams from that period have been reused. The original and 'first-time-used' truss of Nynke's Pleats dates from around 1667. There has probably been buildings on this site before, but this cannot be found with certainty in the beam constructions. We are very happy with the outcome of the investigation and will use this date in our communications from now on.