It was the sound of rattling or possibly open windows, caused by the wind having picked up in the last couple of hours. A storm front and a lot of rain are approaching and in a place like this, in the countryside, we need to prepare for these kind of things.
After getting out of bed and looking out of the bedroom window, I saw that a blue trash bin had made its way into the grass next to my house.
So that was that rolling sound that I had heard.
The vibrating knocking of a woodpecker in a nearby tree and the singing sounds of loads of happy small birds, who were clearly enjoying the 'fresher' and more humid weather, made up my morning concerto.
Who needs music, when we have the sounds of nature to enjoy?
Rain coming up or not, I decided to go for a more humid state and took a morning bath, for a change.
In all honesty, I listened to classical music while in bath, thus switching off the bird sounds for the time being*
The idea was to warm up my bones and body, so I could save on firewood, which is one of the most precious commodities around here in the countryside, this time of year.
I try to only use my salamandra ( wood burner ) a couple of hours per night at times, late afternoon until not too late in the night, as this metal monster devours wood like a humongous beaver and doesn’t give off that much heat in exchange.
I know that those of you with dirty minds are laughing now
For your information: I am living in a stone wall house that hasn’t been insulated and in the Winter months
it’s still Winter here, even though it looks more like Spring
the house hardly gets any sun and it’s often warmer outside, on the veranda, than indoors.
Some people say that houses need to be heated properly, but I prefer to save on firewood and money ( and not burn too many trees ) and use the aforementioned as an excuse to spend even more time outdoors, one of the reasons why I moved out of the city (again), to stay active and fit.
Also, keeping the fire going is such an elaborate process that I can hardly do other things, as it keeps needing my attention ( like a young child or immature adult ).
Yesterday ( and this morning ) I was focused on arranging, organizing, storing and covering firewood.
I first thought I would be able to get some from my neighbor but she discovered most of hers wasn't dry, so I asked the person who always helps me out, my twin sister.
Her boyfriend and her brought me three boxes of it and my sister stacked/ piled it up nicely in my living room, as seen above. They also brought me some pine cones to start the fire with, as well as a different kind of natural fire starter remember that song by The Prodigy?
that I haven't taken a picture of.
After my sister, her boyfriend and I had lunch and tea together and they had left again, I spent another hour or two, collecting more firewood from my garden and putting different stacks, bundles, bags etc. near my wood burner, in my living room and bathroom ( the latter is also used as storage space, as there is no storage outside of the house ) and next to the house, under the roof of the veranda.
I collected a cart full of very humid firewood today and covered it just in time, before the rain started falling, so it wouldn't get soaked even more. The plan is to dry it out, at a later time, once the rainy days are gone.
P.S. If you've read the previous Off-Grid Living- Running on Empty and your mind is sharp, you might have noticed that I have running water again. Yes, I'm happy to say so, the compressor has been re-attached ( a replacement part was needed to attach the machine to the pipe leading inside the house/ bathroom ), the generator was filled with gasoline and the hoses that were going into the water tank were re-arranged a little better and a leak was fixed ( all thanks to the handyman and woman aka my twin sister and her bf, who visited me on Saturday to drop off my niece and nephew for a sleepover ). Once all of this was working, my sister kept an eye on the water tank, her boyfriend on the water pump, near the creek and I on the generator and, later on, I basically ran from side to side, to communicate with the different parties ( I guess we forgot about our mobile phones ), while we filled the water tanks. Once the two of them were gone, when the tanks were still filling, I took care of all three places, while my niece and nephew where doing their thing, being in the now and playing/ fighting with each other. The next day, after the compressor had done its thing, (de)compressing, water slowly started to work more or less normally again, in all 4 places in the house, although I had to call with my sister/ her boyfriend to ask some questions about the pressure. Meanwhile, I learnt some more things about the system. Apparently my sister's bf late father used to be a handy man, who taught him all this stuff. My dad wasn't though and whenever I tried to help him out with things around the house, he acted so stubborn and clumsy that I soon gave up doing chores/ jobs with him. I guess it's never too late to learn though ;<)
