Heat

Hottest days of the year so far, 31-33º: time to order some firewood!

Leña! 4m3.

Last winter chopping up the big blocks was a daily chore. Good workout, but.

This time we asked for "leña para estufa", so you get wood in nice smallish chunks, else you may get huge chunks of terribly hard root that is unsplittable, even by Engineer Jansen.

If you order now there’s 6 months drying in the sun and heat. Last winter Engineer Jansen had his certainties about the humidity of the wood, having bought an electronic wood humidity tester, and the orange test light lit up far too often. Too humid wood gets you less heat, more air pollution, and soot up your chimney. Engineer Jansen does not like air pollution, and soot up his chimney.

Piling up is fun. I think we have room for 2 m3 more!

Delivery, 4 m3

Two heaps, one on the P, one in the driveway.

Pile #1:

Pile #1

Piling up #2:

Fire

Yes, that is the fire brigade passing by.

Heating

I

We have a wood stove, in the "snug" room, a meter above kitchen level, and a meter below the living room. Very cozy, but also quite draughty. Especially if you're not experienced in making a wood fire.

A fire like this takes an hour.

A bag of wood lasts you an evening, and costs ca. €3,50.

But what did we find in the cellar? Two of these electric radiators, and a few butane stoves. Apparently also the previous owners thought it chilly here at times. On the Canaries it now is 20º during the day, 17º at night. Here its 16º daytime, but 6-7º at night.

(Who thought an island too small a world? Hm? (Not me.))

Well, the places we looked at in France have frost at night now, so, even worse. But still.

Anyway, this radiator has three settings. Setting 2 (800W) keeps the room next to the kitchen, half a meter down, nicely warm. And for less than a euro for all of New Year's Eve. This room has a decent door, and thus no draughts.

The blanket on the Tango is there for the dog's nails, not to sit under. We're not that old you know.

The tv is here too, now. You can reasonably stream Youtube and Vevo via wifi. The satellite we'll connect later some time.

During the day it's great, and you even need a parasol.