I guess winter must be coming to an end soon. The weather is still
on minus celciuses, and there is a half a meter of snow. Living
at the farm through the winter has been a success, I would say.
There is a lot of shoveling to keep the snow off the property.
At the moment I am not even trying to keep the yard clear. I just
have paths between the buildings. There has to be some space on
the yard so that we can get our next wood load in before the
ground thaws. After the snow melts, the ground will be too moist
for a truck to pull in. Did that mistake once and the tire
tracks are still on the lawn next to the wood shed.
The wood has been another chore. The last load was a bit too wet
and hasn't burned that good. It would burn better if I cut it
to smaller pieces, but when the temp is lower than -10C the
log splitter doesn't work, and I am not about to do it by hand.
Hygiene is a bit of a process here. I need to warm the shower
room with wood. The pipe for water is outside, so it is always
frozen. I start by pouring hot water over it. Thaw the hose, pull
it inside. There are some electric heaters that can be used to
heat the water, but they are not exactly meant for wet conditions.
After the water is hot I scoop it to a big bucket and remove the
heaters so that we don't kill ourselves by accident. Then run a
battery powered shower. Voila.
Washing clothes is similar but lengthier process. We got this
very manual washing machine with basically a water tank that has
a rotating bottom with some little fins that roll the water and
clothes around. It's been a pain in the ass. There is a way to
get socks sucked into the drainage pipe. There is a way to leave
water in so it freezes. Luckily that thing is completely
mechanical so it's not that hard to see how it works. There are
actually miniature levers and pulleys that control the machine.
The cycle timing is powered by a spring.
What else? Well, then there is the sort of toilet that you need
to empty to a compost every now and then. Then there's the
compost we use for bio. It was running super well like until two
weeks ago, but now it is frozen I guess and I don't know how
I would restart it. It was pretty cool to have -20C outside and
+40C inside the compost, all due to the microbial activity.
Well it's dead now. I was thinking of heating up some bricks or
rocks and dumping them in there. Where to find them under the
snow, though?
The main house has fared well. We heat it with wood pellets and
when it's colder we have some electric heaters as well. The
water pipe froze once so far, but was resolved with pouring
hot water into the drain which is close to the incoming pipe.
The mice have been dealt with. Now every corner of the house
has steel wool to give them pause. They don't like to chew on it.
We have a little salad garden in there. Keep them going with
UV led light. This was a solution to the salad wilting between
shopping trips.
We've been trying to insulate my "office" that is in one of the
extra buildings. It's not perfect, but it does it's job when the
weather allows. I can always go to the main house but there's not
really enough room for two people to work comfortably.
At the moment sitting in the office wearing a thermal jumpsuit
and heating the stove. Another work day ahead.
