Friesland

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Wypke (Veepka) de Vries, the proprietor of Friesian Woodworks, was born and raised on a farm in the Netherlands in a province called Fries-land.

The actual logo of Friesian Woodworks is directly related to a particular architectural design trait of the traditional friesian farm house and barn combination.

On top of the barn with steep pitch and mostly thatched roofs you will often find what is called a Dutch hip design.This means there is a small gable end atop a hip roof on both ends. These ends are embellished with swans and a central spire. Painted in traditional green and white they are quite the eye catcher!

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Friesland (known in Frisian, and officially, as Fryslân) is one of the 12 provinces of the Netherlands and has already existed for more than 2000 years. The Romans were the first tourists and were extremely impressed by what they found... as you will be too! Over the centuries, Friesland has developed into a unique area of the Netherlands.
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Though small in size, Friesland has quite the history. Its real influence in the world was short and long ago, there is still a very different feel about this province. This is primarily due to the language which is spoken only in this unique area of the world. Luckily efforts are underway to preserve this piece of living history

Having a Friesian radio station that broadcasts in the Friesian language and deals with regional issues, is an important part of this effort.

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Another purely Friesian custom is the sport Friesian handball which is practiced at town festivals and large play- offs. To not mention speed skating would do a disservice to this province. The eleven cities' race is held here--more than 200 km over natural ice, if conditions allow, all in one day. Speed skating, next to soccer, is the national sport and many towns will flood a field in the winter with lights and music for that evening spin on the ice.

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The largest source of pride though is, in my opinion, the Friesian cow. Everybody has heard of the Holstein- Friesian, a breed that was established here first. Even the romans where jealous of the high quality of the breed. It has since spread across the globe.

Closely behind the Friesian cow is the Friesian horse, another giant when it comes to livestock breeds. These animals are all registered and, interestingly, supposedly all have friesian names. These horses are all black and may not have any white markings on certain parts. They can trot like no other horse! Truly a king among horses.

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Another amazing fact is that a lot of the land is at times below sea level. As a matter of fact, some of the land is original sea bed re- claimed by a process of installing dykes to create what we call polders there levee’s. It creates a very green flat landscape dotted with farms and small towns. The towns were once built on top of artificial mounds created over long periods of time. Once the dykes where in place these mounds became obsolete and people dug them down for the good soil that contained many nutrients from human and animal habitation. This soil was then loaded into barges named skutsjes, a flat bottom boat with sideboards and a large sail area, and brought to places where the soil was poor. Today there are still skutsjes races on the Friesian lakes. The competition is fierce, creating quite a spectacle.

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