Winter Cometh

Ok, now the real test of the softie southerner office worker, winter! Last week was about 2c outside, positively tropical if you happen to be Mongolian, but a tad nippy for an Essex lad. Nevertheless, the yurt did a cracking job of keeping the heat in, the fire was fed a diet of wood lumps and Taybrite coal to keep things going though the day and performed beautifully.
The morning routine is to contemplate leaving the haven of the duvet for about 20 minutes, followed by a graceful commando roll over to the log basket, grab a log, poke the stove, chuck the log on and retreat to the duvet again in one fell swoop. So far the fire hasn't failed to come back to life yet, something I am very pleased with indeed.

All is not entirely perfect though, the spiral ducting that has been used as a chimney is doing well enough, but the little top hat and grille that stops the rain and small mammals getting in is starting to clog with soot and needs clearing every weekend. I intend to fit a longer flue to increase the amount of draw, and also cut away some of the grille in the top hat, it's not really needed. This time the silicon flue held out fine, the knack being to totally ignore the instructions and do what you think is correct, a concept most men will not have any problems with at all.

Nosh, mmmmm, yurt fare so far has been lovely jacket spuds, baguette pizza and an interesting stew consisting of sprouts, swede, potato and carrot. I ate most of it, the chickens had the rest.
The practicialities of washing up plates and the like are still something to be dealt with, at the moment it's a case of using my friend's kitchen sink to do the plates, for which I am grateful. One option would be to use the alsations to clear the bulk of the plate grot, then follow with a quick rinse in the stream. Kidding!


I'm still working out the correct place for everything, what's needed, what's superflous, what's just sitting there and never used and what's become indispensible. One most excellent feature has been the addition of a rain diverter just above the doorframe. Most houses will have one of these, but the yurt didn't have one, which meant that every time it rained, water settled on the top of the door and dribbled onto my head when it was opened. The diverter now makes the water drip clear of the door, thus keeping my wipe clean bonce, dry.

I made a short vid of the Friday ritual of getting some heat into the yurt, a ritual which will no doubt become a little more frantic as the temperature drops below zero, (this weekend is due to drop to -3) in all honesty, I'm quite looking forward to it, not as much as waking up to find it's been snowing though, that will be a special moment :o).