Woodchoppers

The past couple of weeks have been unusually cold for Belgium.  In fact, February 28th was the coldest on record.  We have been concentrating on keeping the house warm by running the wood stove pretty much continuously.  Putting in a couple of nice big logs just before bed and shutting it down all the way means that you wake up to a still-warm stove, so it's easier to get it rolling again when you wake up in the morning.  I like the fact that we can close doors and keep the living and dining areas quite warm, while letting the rest of the house stay cool during the day, and in the evening for sleeping.

This isolation of each floor/room from the others has been a little problematic recently however, as there are some holes in the floors/ceilings.  The places where the plumbers ran the hot water pipes for the radiators and the new drainpipes all will need to be filled with spray foam, and then filled back in with plaster/polyfilla, and then repainted.  I also need to rebuild that bulkhead in the front hallway.  I might also use it for a wiring closet though; I need to think about that before I enclose it, as it does extend the entire height of the house, and it's only a few metres away from the electrical panel, so maybe it makes sense to put a large electrical conduit in there as well, and run the wires through it.  It may also be the case that if the wires are enclosed in the bulkhead they don't need to be in a conduit at all; I have to ask the electrician for his advice.  I have to run four circuits up to the attic, so it's much simpler if I do that when everything is openned up.

Duncan with his new glasses

Duncan is liking his new glasses.  I also am getting used to my new pairs.  The reading ones are not really so important, but I am enjoying the clarity of my long distance lenses.  Neither pair are really mandatory but they're nice to have, and the optician we chose is very close to our house, and was very inexpensive.

close vision glasses

distance vision

We had a big snowfall on Friday that blanketed the streets and sidewalks... I forgot both of my snow shovels in our landlord's basement when we moved, so I went out and borrowed a snow shovel from Maurice, our neighbour, and shovelled off and salted the front walks and sidewalks in front of our house, and two houses to either side.  Consider it a little Canadian cadeau...

Twenty-four hours later it had nearly all melted as the temperature rose to +8 degrees C.

It was still pretty slippery on Saturday morning as I left early to drive up to Ghent to pick up some new flooring tiles for our bathrooms.  I'm really happy with these, and by getting them from a builder directly (I think he had extra stock from a job) I ended up getting them for about 1/3 of what similar ones cost at the shops.  Six square metres should be enough to do both bathroom floors.  I really wish I had my father in law Hugh here to help me, as he is a wizard with tiling, but I guess that I'll have to muddle through on my own.

some new floor tiles for the bathrooms

I stopped off in Brussels to pick up Malcolm, and then we all went out to the Hammers to hang out with them.  They have been piling up brush for weeks, and had a big bonfire to get rid of it.

At the Hammer's for a big bonfire

Kiana feeding the fire

As well, I brought along my splitting maul.  Bryan has purchased a number of very high-quality Stihl garden tools, including a really nice chain saw, and was busy cutting up some three-metre-long logs that I had delivered to the house last summer while we were house-sitting.  Bryan had been speculating about buying or renting a wood splitting machine, which, given my love of wood-splitting, I found frankly horrifying.  So I decided to ask if we could have a little splitting bee and I would give him a little coaching on proper form to make it a little easier.  He turned out to be really great at it, and split some very big pieces very easily... and I'm happy to report that I also am still adept at the application of brute force...

Here's the wind-up...

... and it's a hit!

The apple doesn't fall very fall from the tree either... Malcolm had a great time, and in a short while the three of us filled up the trailer with split wood.  Here's a couple of shots of Malcolm at work, plus a short video in slow-motion...

Be sure to wear a toque to protect yourself from flying wood chips

Slo-mo woodchopper