Ctrl + Alt + Skåne – Pressing Restart for Real

It all started with a simple idea: we wanted a summer cottage.

A place where we could escape for the weekends, grow a few vegetables, and let the dogs run free.

We found a tiny, run-down cabin in Kälen, northern Sweden – a place with more projects than square metres. Perfect for us. The plan was to spend our summers there while keeping our apartment in town as our home base.

Things didn’t quite turn out that way.

Then the chickens arrived

By our second year, chickens had become part of our lives.

Before we knew it, we had stopped going back to the apartment altogether. It has been practically empty for the past three years. Life has been a little rustic at times, but we’ve been incredibly happy. There has always been another project waiting, another idea to explore, and another dream to chase.

The longer we stayed, the more obvious it became that we needed a place with room to grow.

From growing zone 5 (6) to zone 1

Eventually, we started talking about buying a real farm.

Somewhere we could truly spread our wings without worrying about three metres of frozen ground, late springs, and painfully short growing seasons. Every year we found ourselves wondering:

“Will this even have time to ripen before the first frost?”

The list of crops we could reliably grow was surprisingly short.

So one day we said it out loud:

Why not move to Sweden’s warmest growing zone?

Why not Skåne?

Then we found the farm

At the beginning of June, it appeared.

A small farm in southern Sweden that seemed to have everything we were looking for.

Had we ever been to Skåne?

No.

Had we seen the property in person?

Not at all.

We booked a virtual viewing, took a deep breath, and bought it.

We can only hope the building inspector knew what he was doing, because there’s no turning back now.

And honestly?

We’re simply excited about the next adventure.

From 70 to 275 square metres

We traded our 70-square-metre home for a farmhouse with 275 square metres of living space.

Our plot grew from 2,000 to 17,000 square metres.

It’s still a little hard to believe.

Sure, we’ll have to get used to ticks and Spanish slugs. And we’re fairly certain that having too many possibilities will occasionally feel overwhelming.

But we won’t miss the frozen ground.

And for the first time, we’ll have enough outbuildings for more chickens than we ever dared to dream of.

Ctrl + Alt + Skåne

So here we are, pressing restart for real.

Welcome to Ctrl + Alt + Skåne.

A blog about starting over, changing growing zones, and daring to leave the familiar behind in search of something new.

You’ll find gardening, chickens, home renovation, DIY projects, preserving the harvest, recipes—and probably the occasional philosophical thought inspired by the vegetable garden.

We’d love to have you along for the journey.

We have no idea exactly where it will lead.

And that’s exactly what makes it so exciting.