Entente Cordiale

Tuesday 22 November 2011

I was already at my ‘desk’ (plastic garden table) and writing, when Dave was leaving for the yard, but was hailed by the neighbour disputing the corner, who wanted to know why D kept pulling up his markers.  D explained that the short lengths of rebar (reinforcing bars for concrete used extensively for fencing) were dangerous, for the Winnebago kids and for us walking back at night.  D agreed that we had no argument over the land ownership, and hands were shook.   So that’s okay.

Interactions

Sunday 20 November 2011

On the principle that someone you need to see will sooner or later turn up in your life, I was unsurprised to bump into Vasillis of Lefkas Property and Development, the land agent who sold us the land, as I wanted to ask him about our disputed boundaries at the NE corner.

He is naturally curious, likes to know what everyone is up to, and was very happy to suggest coming over.   He turned up Sunday lunchtime, and we showed him the disputed area.  He agreed that our plans showed the area to be ours, but said that the surveyor probably just guessed (prompted by the owner who would want to maximise the square metres), as the previous-previous owner had said to him, Vasillis, that the land ended at the patch of scrubby woodland.  But all agree that the four olive trees are ours.

After this, we met up with Rob and walked to Nydri’s grand football stadium, up near the waterfalls, having decided to show solidarity with the locals and support the team – which is apparently doing very well in its league. 

 

Nice to find a stadium nestled in the olive groves with a background of hills.  The game was good, although the local fans were a bit over-enthusiastic, with a small group drumming and setting off flares – I suppose they don’t have much else to get excited about.  Nydri 1 – 0 Trikala.

Time out

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Dave had a frustrating day at the yard and was feeling lonely and miserable and I was writing late to meet a competition deadline, so we stopped work for a couple of days and got on with some jobs around the homestead.  Finally – the shed got painted, even the tricky bit over the top of the water heater, using a brush on the end of a broom pole.

On the Friday we went for a scramble – the weather was perfect, sunny, not too hot, and we wanted to explore a cave signposted near the village of Syvros.  It was fabulous scenery, and we found a footpath that took us up an empty watercourse, all big round boulders and little white pebbles.  We kept going until the amount of rock climbing outweighed the amount of gentle strolling, feeling our age we walked/scrambled/climbed back down.  Lots of fun.  We scrumped a few rocks that had been dug out as a result of the Greek approach to places of natural beauty: put a quarry there; and we picked sage and fennel seeds to see if they will germinate.

Lovely wiggly root formations in the old stream bed.

Keeping warm

Monday 14 November 2011

It’s been getting very chilly in the writing hut, so that I’m all wrapped up like Bob Cratchit and seriously considering cutting the fingers out of a pair of gloves.  So we tried the little plastic garden table in the shed – and it just fit as a tight squeeze between the hearthstone and the washing machine. 

Once in a while we treat ourselves to a plate of George’s Albanian Builder’s Stew, which doesn’t sound like much but is rather good on a chilly evening:

Heating and other Appliances

Monday 14 November

We are not getting through the night on our daily electric charge from the three panels.  This means that if we want to put the heating on in the camper in the morning (which we do, very much!), we (ie. Dave) have to start the generator to charge the batteries.  The heater works from bottled gas, but needs a small amount of electricity to run the fan. 

We think that if we didn’t have the compost toilet, we would probably have enough electrickery for our daily needs – on a sunny day.  But we are committed to the loo (we don’t want to be digging out a soakaway before we have to for the build), and other usage, including our computers, the sewing machine and, of course, Dave’s guitar amp, all need power at various times.

Our Winnebago neighbours have arranged an electrical feed from friends up the hill, and I thought about running a cable to the washing machine but we’re reluctant to get attached to on-grid power, and decided instead to stick to generating our own. 

We have just organised a new gas cooker – the one in the camper has never worked properly – only three rings and no oven, and after extensive searching, I found an Italian make available in the UK that is the required 50 x 50 cm, but is otherwise a proper full size LPG oven and stove.  Shrimpy is driving back from the UK with it in a couple of weeks.

So we agreed we would double our battery storage capability.  Shrimpy has agreed to bring back another four golf cart batteries too.  We will need another three panels, and Dave intends to make a second circuit with equivalent input and storage capacities.  This investment will be for the house as well, as we would be needing it eventually anyway, so we don’t feel it is throwing money away.

While researching all this, I came across a link to twin tub washing machines, and got rather taken by the idea. 

The four main areas a Twin tub can save on are....

Water

Unlike an automatic washing machine a twin tub has no automatic fill system. Therefore, when you are washing a smaller load you can fill the wash tub up with the amount of water which is needed. Everyone uses their twin tub differently and here are just a few suggestions that our customers have put to us about how to re use the water.

§  When spinning re use the spin water back into the wash tub.

§  Use collected rain water for your washes.

§  Use the spin water on your garden.

§  When filling the wash tub re use the wash water for another wash.

No Heater

All twin tubs now will not be fitted with a heater. You can fill the tub up with the desired hot water temperature direct from your hot water tap. This is saving on electricity not having to heat your cold water and using the hot water you have already heated in your heating system.

Low Wattage Motor

A twin tub motor will give you the same results as an automatic can but unlike the average automatic washing machine motor which is 1400 wattage a twin tub motor is 360 watt, cutting down on energy used.

Time of Cycle

Gone are the days you have to wait an hour or so for the wash cycle to end. With a twin tub you can have your washing ready to hang on your line within 10 minutes putting you in control. Shorter wash time means less energy being used.

(This info is from the http://twintub.co.uk website)

Also, from my point of view – they have a fearsomely fast spin cycle, which means the wash goes on the line almost dry.  At the moment, our automatic can only manage a ‘delicate’ cycle with the power available from the generator: 45 mins of generator noise per wash, and the clothes only spun at 600 rpm, so they take a day on the line and a night or more draped around the shed not too close to the stove, so we can’t get to the loo or the shower at all easily.  Strikes me that the extra effort of washing in a twin tub would repay itself in quiet enjoyment and a lot less diesel.  So we ordered one of those as well – maybe a backward step for mankind, but a big one for Goat Bottom.  And amazingly, you can still get those big wooden tongs our mothers used to use!