16.02.2025 Mouth breather!

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  Monday 16th 23F/-5C [7.45] Overcast and very windy. Sunshine forecast but it's still grey. Gusting to 13m/s possibly causing drifting. Serious drifting elsewhere has caused severe traffic problems. 57F/14C in the room. 1C/33F in the greenhouse. I must light the stove!

 Up at 7.30 after a fairly disastrous night. I woke at 1am with awful heartburn and nausea. Caused by my silly omelette I presume. I tried to go back to sleep but it kept getting worse. So I got up and had a glass of water with bicarbonate of soda. That did not help immediately. So I got up again, dressed and sat on the computer for a couple of hours. I was cold when I went back to bed. Eventually I gave up and dragged the heavy duvet over.  

 8.00 Stove lit and going well. I must fetch more chestnut logs. The drive looks unchanged from yesterday's efforts. My right wrist has been hurtig ever since. No doubt caused by the shovel digging repeatedly into a frozen lower layer.  

 8.50 I waded through the deep snow on the western lawn to reach the chestnut log stack. Bringing back a basket full had left me completely breathless again. I have to go right around to the back of the heap. Where there is easier access to mixed logs from 50-120mm diameter. 

 The heap was added to as I cut down other trees and saplings. Never intending to use the chestnut logs as a serious fuel. So I threw long branches on top. To become covered in snow. Just as I needed this vital resource. I haven't been able to get out in the car. Let alone drag a trailer to the road on lying snow. Once the snow has gone I can easily access the heap. To bring it into the greenhouse in bulk. Using the western end door of the greenhouse. 

 Having dismissed the chestnut as an inferior fuel to beech. I had discarded the notion of using it. Yet it turns out to be fine. It catches light and burns as readily as the dried beech. If not better. I even thought it might smell but haven't noticed anything. It has had nearly four years of natural drying. Though without serious covering. Just leaning up against the shed wall in an untidy mound. To make the heap all but invisible. 

 It is now proving to be vital to my survival. Though raising a red flag to long term, continuous heating. Particularly as my fitness can no longer be taken for granted. Every basket full makes me breathless. Though the exercise involved is valuable. It is certainly quite a workout. It doesn't keep the room warm at night. 

 I have been mulling over getting a heat pump for years. An air to air would be affordable to purchase. Even if the electricity bill would probably skyrocket. It wouldn't take advantage of the under floor heating hoses. Which I installed myself years ago. The cost of a wet system is complex and astronomical in installed price. The government would rather hand untold billions to vast, international companies. To erect windmills and fix energy prices. Than to reduce energy consumption at the consumer level. 

 I won't need a walk today. I have just cleared two tire paths to the car. To join up with the two paths I made yesterday as far as the junction. Then I improved the route to the chestnut logs. Absolutely breathless again. 
 

18.30 23F/-5C. I had to bring in another basket of chestnut logs. 64F/17.8C in the room. Dinner will be something on toast. Sardines!

  

 

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