free heat and recycling

A day like today when it was 30 degrees and the cats stay inside and keep me company (me sitting behind the computer all day, it is a luxurious view I have from my remote work station) it is hard to imagine that only a few weeks ago it was snowing here. Weird weather even here people talking about the changing climate. There are in fact pockets of snow still on the mountains that form our panoramic view. But today our solar panels heated up the water tank to 61 degrees which is very sufficient for a lot of people to take showers, we tested the other day and each shower takes about two degrees from the buffer tank. But of course in the winter when it is freezing cold, the solar panels won’t be enough to heat the hot water and the whole house, so we have looked for an additional system. We have done some research and found a wood stove that is connected to the water, so gives some heat to the room it warms up and the rest to the tank that then serves heating system in the whole house. The plan is to have that installed this summer so we have the place fit to host us even in the winter. More on that later. Niklas has not been lazy and painted the extra bedroom. The original floor tiles from that and a few other rooms that we took up the first year are stored in the little chestnut house. We plan to re-use them in the entrance attic room and the stairs up to the little apartment and the extra bedroom. It will look very very nice, but each tile first has to be sanded and that is a lot of work. Maybe we will find a few volunteers who want to come down and take on that task?