I just read last nights post and thought it looked a little bleak, so I thought I’d quickly post this picture from last week.
It was the start of a wonderful sunny day with the sun taking temperatures just above freezing. The house heated up to 23c\73f without having to light the fire, the water warmed up to 45c\113f from the solar water panels and I ventured outside to chop up a bit more wood to make sure we can deal with another cold month.
Roll on spring!
Winkos: a straw bale building adventure in Poland 
Lovely photographs! Warm welcome from Montreal, Canada…Those pictures are truly magnificent…
Thank you very much and Hello from Poland 🙂
Beautiful photos! Warm greetings from Montreal, Canada. 🙂
Thank you for popping by and commenting, I must do the same 🙂
Goes a long way? 🙂 It has to sometimes!
Lasted over a week, but now we have rain and then more snow and -10c on the way next week, should be fun :)…..I should be in the Algarve, that would be the sensible thing to do at this time of the year!
I’ll come with you! 🙂 And the little one would love to play on the beach.
Those pictures are really wonderful.
Cheers V!
The early morning is a good time for taking photos. Especially as the sun rises.
Thanks again V, we are very much in tune with the sun, so our days are starting earlier and finishing later every day at the moment 🙂 Good to see you back by the way, I do pop in and read some of your reviews, I just never have time to watch anything!
I apologise for my absence, I sometimes find it hard keeping up with so many blogs. And I highly value your support and comments on my blog. Can’t ask for anything more than that.
haha, I was talking about you coming back to your blog after a little break…any time you pop by is great, but I would never hold you to visiting….keeping up with blogs can be a full time job sometimes 🙂
I understand Eddy. I really like what you do man. Keep it up.
Does you house hold that great temp because of the straw bale build?? That is awesome!!
The bales have a lot to do with it, also lots of south facing glass to capture the sun in the winter 🙂
Your solar water heater gets up to 113F? That’s great, especially for winter! How many evacuated tubes do you have? We have 30 tubes, but we get so much cloudy weather in winter, and the sun is so low, we rarely get more than about 95F (35C).
I’m envious of your strawbale house temperature too. Our wood cookstove can heat up the house very well, but the house cools down fairly quickly when the fire dies out. Not sure if I want to stack hay bales around the perimeter though. 🙂
30 tubes here also feeding into a 300 litre (80 US gallons) tank. The tubes themselves registered 125f! Just not enough time to heat it all the way through 🙂 -10c\14f this morning outside, 22c\71f in the house and I stopped adding wood to the fire at about 9pm last night. Even better the sun is shining today so I won’t be lighting it again until the sun goes down.
Retro fitting straw bales? Maybe not:)
Beautiful and pristine!
Thank you, the same again this morning despite -10c we should be in for a lovely clear day 🙂
Do you use snowshoes to get around outside? I would suspect so!
Wellington boots, although they often contain quite a but of snow by the end of the journey! Once you have made your path you stick to your route and try now to venture somewhere where you don’t have to 🙂
You’re welcome, you’re welcome! 🙂
Beautiful winter photo! What a gorgeous view you have! I also didn’t find the previous post bleak. It was really fun to read about an authentic Polish wedding…and a joyous one at that!
I left a comment on Cecilia’s cottage industries page and gave Gosia a good word on her soap! 🙂
Think Spring!
Thank you, and thank you! 🙂
lovely sunrise photo Eddy, I like to hear about your self sufficiency, not overly possible where I live
Mr Western has inspired me to look out of the window more often 🙂
We have just had a lunch of pork loin in breadcrumbs, mashed potatoes and pickled beetroot salad, everything from our land I’m pleased and proud to say 🙂
Sounds yum!
Great to hear it’s all working Eddie.
PS. I didn’t find the previous post at all bleak. Reminded me of some wedding I went to in esrly days in Romania, but it was home-brewed hooch not vodka.
Ah yes, bimber, as it’s called in Poland:)
beautiful! and so was last night’s, too —
Our winter is warm and soggy right now, the cows are cutting up the pasture just a little and i have to move fences around so they don’t trail too much in any one place. The woodshed is looking a bit thin, and the curing shed doesn’t look so full either, so I hope we’re not going to find that winter was just holding back so it could slam us hard in February or March —
Pax from Ohio!
It has caught us by surprise this year, it by far the hardest winter we have experienced here in our 3 years living in the house so our wood supply went quicker than expected, luckily I have a cord nice and dry that just needs chopping, but as you say who knows what February and March will bring. Take care and stay warm 🙂
Hi Eddy, very interested to know about your solar panels…we are looking for some way to heat our water apart from cranking up the piec in the kitchen. Any clues, links or advice? Thanks!
Our plumbing is the one thing that we handed over to the professionals and the panels were supplied and fitted by a guy from the village. Thankfully he spoke good English having spent some time in Ireland and we wre able to strike a reasonable deal. I would recommend evacuated tubes over flat panels as they are better at capturing ambient heat, but other than that jusy shop around. Some half decent DIY solutions on OLX and Allegro. Or if you are really brave and you have a hot composting pile then you could get inventive…..I’m saving that thought for when I build the straw bale cottage in a few years time:)