Minimal living is virtually impossible when you need to gather all the wood you possibly can to keep yourself and your house warm.
When I see the pictures of lovely country fireplaces with a teeny tiny log basket, a handful of kindling artistically arranged and no stack of newspaper lying to hand to start the fire off, I always get the impression it's a set up .... or at the very least the central heating is working it's magic in the background. Not of course that there's any harm in that, but it's not the reality of getting your warmth from wood.
The reality of keeping warm with only wood, whether it be foraged wood or wood bought in, is usually something like we have here. It's no pretty picture however carefully we stack it around the wood burner .... but it is the reality.
Our wood comes mainly from our own woodland, we have around 2.5 acres stretching out behind the house and the paddock right up to the top of the hill. It will, once we have worked our way through it coppicing and managing it properly, be enough to keep us warm through out the Winters to come.
This year while we are in the midst of building works and setting things up we are making good use of stacks of wooden window frames that the house's previous owner left behind. They have dried out nicely over the year we have been here and Lovely Hubby set to last week while I was away, sawing them into lengths that will fit into our wood burner.
Setting the fire is something I try to do in the morning, knowing that it is ready to put a match to when the temperature drops to make lighting it necessary or when we get back from somewhere chilled and damp, makes me feel better. My first port of call during the day is always an extra jumper topped with my fleecy body-warmer, and then in the evening the blinds go down and then the curtains are pulled across, giving us an additional couple of barriers after the double glazing to trap the warmth of the house.
It all adds up to cosying the place up for the long evenings we now have.
Ready for action tonight.
And to finish off this post here are the final shots after yesterdays post about sorting out the kitchen. All neatly arranged and fitting in snugly.
Something was bugging me when I looked at the first picture, so the offending items have been removed. (Go on .... play Spot the Difference.)
I'm a minimalist at heart .... although you wouldn't guess it would you!!
And did you spot a little tail in the first picture ... and then a bottom in the second one. Suky refused point blank to move while I took the pictures, although she did get fed up with me asking her to, hence the dropped tail :-)
Sue xx