Hello Dear Reader,
It's been a day of preparation. I've cooked for the week ahead of three pots of veggie stew for my lunch, bacon and cheese quiche, flapjacks for lunch boxes, beef casserole and a pork casserole. All very simple or dull as is your opinion but it's cooked and in the fridge or freezer and ready to be eaten.
The laundry is done and as it hasn't stopped raining since October, it's all dried in front of the wood stove. Which brings me to thinking of investing in wood. I was reading Sue's blog over at Our new life in the country where she and her husband have plans to manage their own woodland to be sustainable for the future. More and more people are choosing to heat and cook with wood. If any of you have concerns about smoke and dust emissions most stoves are 'smokeless' with a double burn system where the wood burns and the wood gases burn as well. It means that the glass door doesn't soot up and there's barely any soot in the chimney when it's swept.
We've bought wood in France......a lot of wood. It's much cheaper there so we've bought five cubic metres of split beech and oak. It'll be in our garden when we get there. We found our supplier through leboncoin which is a for sale website similar to freeads. Plenty of people make their entire living from wood and most homes there heat with wood as there's no gas other than bottled gas. Below is one of the wood supplier's sheds. Often, farmers do this as part of their job as they manage their own woodland.
I'm talking wood again as we've had a big heart to heart about France. We had hoped to get loads done this year but we've had a reality check of our capabilities and personal strengths. DB is great at the essentials and I'm great at making a house a home. However, we are determined to work within a tight budget which means we have to be patient. The house is bought and paid for, it's watertight and secure and we've got safe electrics. What we don't have or want is a money pit. We'd had plans to build pathes (which actually means moving ten tonnes of sand and gravel by wheel barrow just to build the patio) build walls indoors and paint the house externally. All those things can wait.
Once we'd decided that, we felt a whole lot better, especially financially. It'll give us time to save up again and do the work next year.
And breathe..........
So, a good vintage? Like our wood that we've bought for the long term, the house is going to be a long term project. We could break into savings but I just don't want us to be in an awkward financial position.
And when we get there, we'll be warm and toasty.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxxx