A Year of Firsts: Furnace Preparations

mercoledì, 27 settembre

With the arrival of fall comes cooler temperatures. The mornings and evenings are cool and crisp while the mid day can still be on the warm side - but no humidity. I know going forward the temperatures will continue to drop but I know it won't come close to the cold and snow of Minnesota. Hallelujah!! In December and January it can be colder with a lot of rain. I know I have told most of you my house does not have a furnace so how will I keep warm in the winter????? I will have to build a fire in my fireplace. Thank goodness I was a girl scout!!

Again, this house is older and no one has lived in it for any length or time and never in the winter. Angela was unsure about the flue and chimney. Her concern was there could be construction debris still in the chimney. So we called on my cousin Antonio (who can fix anything) to come over and help get it ready for winter.

Sure enough on opening the flue all sorts of junk came pouring out and it took a bit of work to get the chimney cleared. Once cleared he wanted to make sure it was drawing air correctly so he and Angela built a small fire - check out the pictures below. It was wonderful and now my "furnace" is all ready for winter. I still need to buy a grate for the wood and a screen for the front of the fireplace. Another item I will buy is a "treppiedi per camino" - a tripod for the fireplace. This is put over the fire and then you can cook in your fireplace!!! I will make sure to post pictures when I take on that adventure.

I also learned that after the fire is out and you need to clean the ash from the fireplace you don't throw it away. They told me to take it outside and mix it into the dirt around trees - fig, olive, whatever. The trees love it. Plus a lot easier than filling garbage bags.

Fireplace all ready for a fire!!

Team work by my cousins Angela and Antonio

The man can fix anything!!

That should keep Oscar and I toasty warm this winter!

Another benefit to cooler temperatures is I can take Oscar on longer walks in the evening. He did not do well this summer with the heat and I had to be very careful. Just short walks in the morning and at night so I missed my walks through the village that we were doing when I first moved here. But Oscar was a pretty sick little dog there for awhile. Walking through the village is just so cool. Everyone is out at night, usually after 5 p.m. and before 8 p.m., no matter the temperature. They are visiting with neighbors and getting a walk in before dinner.

On a recent walk I took some pics I thought you might enjoy along with a video of the young boys playing soccer after school and before dinner. There are three young boys who have befriended me - due to Oscar. They now always greet me by name and ask how I am doing. They are just the cutest. They are part of this video playing soccer. As I was walking home (up the 132 steps) I stops and watched for a bit.