Tuesday 26 March 2013

#35 and #37 - photos


#35 and #37 - centre right, taken from #2,
straight line distance 1.5 km, walking time c 35 min
#35 and #37 - taken from #2, maximum zoom
#35
#37 and #35
#37 and #35 - foreground could become vegetable garden,
well is just out of photo to the right
#35 - balcony
#35 and #37 - outside toilet
#35 - fireplace (before cleaning house)
#35 - anyone for tea...
#35 - ...on the balcony?

#2 is across the valley, at the upper end of the second snow field
from the top, hidden behind the bare tree to the right of the big
green spruce on extreme left - get it?

3 comments:

  1. I am intrigued by the design of the chimney/fireplace area! Wish there was a diagram of its design. Very interesting. I haven't seen anything similar to that in American fireplace designs.

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    Replies
    1. Salaams Sr Anisah!
      The fireplace you mention here is in the house that I call #35 - in fact, 3 of my 4 houses have these plus the Annexe to the main house #2 also has one, so I have a total of 4. Would you like one of them? They are very romantic but terribly wasteful, and as someone once said: open fireplaces cheer the heart, freeze the back and heat the sky... Well said! Well over half the total heat goes straight up the chimney and when the fire is not going there is a gaping cold hole in the roof... Not ideal! Over time, I shall "retire" them all, by placing a wood burning stove or cooker sort-of halfway into the fireplace, and block the chimney but lead the pipe from the woodburner through the blocking material, so that it looks tidy. That way much more of the heat of the good wood will be used either for cooking or space heating.
      The one in the photo has an extension into the neighbouring room, you see the half-moon shaped iron plate, and you see an opening in the photo of the kettle, that is a very short passage into a roughly 1 cubic metre brick oven where you could slow-cook/roast or simply let the heated-up bricks heat up the room. Last winter that room was piping hot most of the time and one benefit of the hot bricks is that even should the fire go out the room will stay warm for say 6 hours or so. Naturally it also takes about 6 hours to heat up that brick structure, which incidentally is called a Jamal here in Bulgaria, Jamal is Arabic for camel! I live in a region with many ethnic Turks, so many Turkish and/or Arabic expressions are used. Hope this was useful.
      Should you know anyone who would like to become a fellow pioneer here in the wild woods and rolling hills of the Elena Balkan, do let me know!
      Salaams

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  2. Is this the typical snow fall level? Or was this early winter/fall snow fall?

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