Wednesday 18 January 2023
We are still kind of iced-in. We knew that there would be times when we wouldn’t be able to go out (which equates to ‘go out in the car’), we expected that, but once it happens to you, it’s a strange feeling. I appreciate that we have so far had no emergencies, but it’s actually been okay. Well, it’s only been Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and today we are hoping to go out late morning as we have some errands that would ideally be done this week before Kyla arrives on Friday. We had anticipated this freeze and also made sure we had supplies just in case Carla had been able to visit last weekend so the fridge has been well-stocked with vegetables and fresh food.
I have been doing twice daily ‘patrols’, my circuit taking in the wildlife webcams (taking out and putting in the SD cards), crossing over a boggy area, down a logging path and back around the road. Yesterday afternoon’s patrol was the first time I could walk along the entirety of the road, up until one patch outside our gate. The ice on Sunday was untouched, smooth, sheet ice. Since then it’s built up, so has been sharp, icy chunks, that you can kind of walk on, but also thick, unbroken ice, that I couldn’t crack or walk on. Yesterday, as more vehicles use the road (not at all many), unfrozen water is kind of slushing the areas that were compacted snow. This morning, I can see that my car is less thickly covered in ice and snow.
Again, this is stuff we expected, but it’s one of those things you can’t really fully believe until it happens to you. It helps that outside looks beautiful, snow still frozen onto the trees and largely white all around. The gritter has just gone past for the first time since this freeze, I’m amazed how excited we both were to see it.
Yesterday, we figured out that the house should be hotter, even when the heating is on, but that the thermostat is most definitely not clicking/working. My theory is that the thermostat has defaulted to somewhere between ten and twelve degrees. Apparently, that’s not the kind of fault that’s likely, but that’s what seems to be happening. We are again embracing the layers and now that I’ve started wearing a scarf indoors, it’s much better. I am so rarely cold (rather, I am constantly abnormally hot) that these past two months (except when we were in London and a few days between having the electric boiler connected, the thermostat malfunctioning and receiving a £2,200 electricity bill) have been a shock to me. I suppose I’m kind of getting used to it, but my hands being cold is getting to me. I will be Googling fingerless gloves after I finish writing this morning.
We are still trying to fend off mice (or whatever they are) in the ceiling (between ground and first floor) and still finding one dropping most days under the kitchen extractor fan, though not finding so much of the white plastic from the fan that mouse seemed to be eating away at every night for a while. The water ingress around the kitchen window has got a lot worse (we had horrendous rain and wind for days before this snow and ice) but we hopefully have someone who can at least fix the area it’s probably coming in from (a small area of roof tiles out of place and a questionable area of guttering).
Wildlife cameras have gone off but so far seen no sign of what set them off, other than paw and hoof (do deer have hooves?) prints and even some droppings right next to the wooden post one camera is attached to. There was one photo of a deer’s bum, which we’re hoping is not the best we’ll ever get; it’s not clear and only identifiable because their bums are white.
Even when we’re sitting in the kitchen hugging bowls of soup and opening the oven door longer than necessary to check dinner is cooking in the oven, wrapped up in scarves and thermals, we both feel good about living here. I find this mildly surprising in the circumstances, but it’s a lovely house and out of every window is a beautiful view. The coldness, the spoiling of a kitchen wall and the ceiling (the water marks and peeling paint and the cardboard-covered hole from the previous shower leak), the occasional mouse-running sound and the almost-daily dropping through the fan are all stresses/expenses/concerns, but, fortunately, there are so many positives that they far outweigh these current issues. It doesn’t mean we aren’t being challenged though.