Winter Is Here, Fire Is Near

I returned to my truck yesterday evening, just as the temperature dropped. The nights had been fairly mild still, up until last night and me and my girls got a bit of a shock to be honest. As I hadn't been there the last few nights, I wasn't really prepared. The winter blankets were still packed away in my daughters caravan, as well as the curtain, for the door. When we got back home, we ate, a simple yet tasty dinner of mushroom pasta and then I was ready for bed.

Knowing I had to be up early, I wanted to try and have an early night, although it took me a while, as I felt the cold creep in. I was happy to have one of the cats, sleep next to me.

This morning, when I awoke, the air was cold and so was I. Even so, it was hard to get up out of bed. Compared to the day before, when I awoke and got to jump in a hot shower. Not today, there would be no hot water in the outdoor shower, until the sun warmed up the pipes and that can take a while in the winter sun. So no hot shower to ease me into my day.

I didn't feel hunger, I just wanted to get moving, so I grabbed some fruit and away I went. Off to my first job of the day. Feeding my neighbours animals. Then off to another job, to continue to cut up, some old fallen trees, that will make perfect firewood. They have been lying there for over a year, so they are nice and seasoned.

It was pretty cold when I started working, but I warmed up pretty quickly, cutting the wood and moving it to the outdoor wood pile. Physical work, is a wonderful way to raise your body's temperature. Just getting your body moving. It wasn't long, before I was taking off a few layers.

When I got home, I decided to bring in our heater and see if it was working. Well seeing as it get left out in the rain (whilst we were in Ireland.), it unfortunately didn't work. So I put the word out on our community Telegram page that I was looking for a heater. Just a few minutes later, a friend called me to say, i could borrow hers. I just needed to go with her to pick it up. Happy days, that was quick.

So off I went, meeting my friend on the road, jumping in her car and off we went. I also helped her moved some things, whilst we were out. In return, I, along with the heater, got delivered to my door. I was eager to try it out, but when I did, I soon realised, that it was not working so well.

There was no problem lighting it, it's just that, once it was lit, the fire spread above the ceramic panels and started to burn, bright orange. So I turned it off. Switched off the gas and then removed the grid, so that I could take a closer look and clean it. But even after that, noting changed. So much for a cosy evening, I thought.

But I couldn't dwelt on it too much, I had other things to do. So I began to do some washing outside. Whilst I was there, I heard a loud crackling sound. I thought for a minute, it was fire works. But then I saw the smoke. You need permission to burn here, and it's only permitted in the morning. This was around 4 p.m, so I was curious, who was burning. I set off with my youngest daughter to investigate.

We saw quite big bellows of white smoke ahead, we kept walking, until we saw flames in the distance. Down near the Eucalyptus forest, which got me concerned, as those trees can really go up fast. AS we walked, we met other people with the same idea. All the while the smoke was getting more intense, as well as the crackling sound. When we got closer, we saw it was the canar that was on fire. Canar is similar to bamboo, it catches fire easily.

The fire brigade were called, but they would take an hour to get there. The police however, were already there and I could see that as long as the fire stayed burning within the canar and the wind didn't pick up, the risk was not so big. But you never know with fire. You can never be too careful.

Luckily for us, the fire stayed relatively small and was easy to extinguish, once the firemen arrived.

So I went from really wanting some heat, to then being grateful to the cold, for the fact that winter had arrived and what could have been a very dangerous and destructive fire, had in fact been contained within the canar, because of the wonderful damp and cold air, that winter time brings.

All the photos used in this post are mine, taken by me today