Minus 14 degrees.

9th Jan 2009 Friday

Well it snowed on Monday and quess what? Yes it’s still here. We have had temperatures down to –14* for 3 days and today it is beautiful outside. The sun is out and there is still snow everywhere.

Eldest child hasn’t been to school since Monday which was his first day back after the Xmas holidays. Tuesday and every day since there hasn’t been a school bus. Hopefully it will be back to normal for Monday, but it is still –3* outside and it is 4pm. So if it doesn’t melt, we’re stuck here.

The goats have escaped from their pen, the snow is deeper than the electric fence so it is switched off. The goats won’t go far though, they just wanted a munch of ivy. The baby boys will be going to their new home on Sunday, leaving us with two goats who will need milking hopefully.

I have been sewing door snakes today and filling them with wheat. I just hope we don’t get a mouse in the house. Despite it being below freezing outside someone still can't shut the door properly and it was open AGAIN.

Our wood fired cooker is doing well now and we have been cooking on it since the start of December. It takes a bit of getting used to – it’s not like gas – you can’t just turn it up or down in a hurry.

We start it heating up about half an hour before we want to start cooking and have water heating on it frequently so that when we want a hot drink it only takes a few minutes or if we are going to cook potatoes etc. it is pre-warmed. The oven needs planning too if you are going to bake bread. It does get up to the right temperature, but it often overheats too and you need to turn the bread every 15 minutes because the oven heats more at the firebox side.

I can hear all you town people asking ‘why bother? Why not just cook on the gas cooker?’ Well the cooker heats the room too and we don’t have central heating of any form. Plus it is fun cooking on wood. Definitely ‘slow food’ and it lets you simmer stew or soup gently for hours.

Tonight we had pizza, made from scratch, with dodgy yeast that threatened not to work, but in the end it produced two wonderful pizzas. Chorizo fort is a brilliant addition to a pizza topping. If all goes well with the goat milking then we might be able to produce our own goats cheese for pizza.