Fire up those chickens
Freezing temperatures are finally upon us, but sub-zero temperatures after a protracted spell of wet weather are giving us a slew of new challenges to overcome.
When I went to let the chickens out this morning, I found the pop-hole doors on all but one of the chickens house had frozen in place.
The long wet spell had left the wooden doors, door frames, and slide rails thoroughly damp.
When the temperature dropped to -7C last night, all that moisture froze and locked all the moving parts of the pop-holes in place.
Carefully hammering failed to break the grip of the ice, as did judicious use of a pry bar.
I decided to use drastic measures…
The blow torch.
I had to be careful not set the houses alight because, even though the external woodwork was frozen, the chickens are bedded on straw and the internal woodwork was dry.
I also had to be careful not to set the chickens alight. They’re always interested in what I’m doing and they were all keen to see what this hissing, blue thing was that was playing around their houses.
As I played the blow torch over the doors, door frames and runners, I found myself “enjoying” a facial sauna of chicken-poop enriched steam. Lovely.
I did eventually get all the pop holes open, without burning down a single house or igniting a single chicken.
After that, I had to negotiate my way around the pig pens, taking extreme care as the sodden ground had ice over, as had all the deep puddles around the croft.
So why am I inside if I have work to do?
Because I’m waiting for the central heating maintenance company to call back.
Yes, the central heating failed this morning leaving us with only back-up heating and hot water. The oil is flowing, the pumps are working and the ignition system is firing, but the oil isn’t igniting at the nozzle.
As a result, the bathroom temperature was a delightful 8C at 6am, making the morning wash even more invigorating than usual.
It seems likely that the situation will continue for some days because. even though we have emergency callout cover for the boiler, the maintenance company says they’re very busy and have no engineers available.
The irony is that we have the annual service booked for two weeks time.
Oh well, looks like I’ll have to keep everyone warm with the blow torch then!
If only I where nearer I could loan you a good oil filled radiator.
If ever you can get you hands on a calour gas heater grab it because they chuck out a load of heat and very useful in times like this or power cuts.
The central heating is working again thanks to advice from Jim, a reader of the blog. I’d already checked the fuel flow and ignition system when Jim emailed to me to suggest I dismantle the burner and check the nozzle. He suggested cleaning it with fuse wire but I had none that was sufficiently fine to fit. Jim’s next suggestion was to blow high-pressure air through the nozzle. I tried that, holding the nozzle in front of a piece of card to see the result and was rewarded with a spattering of gunge.
Just as I started reassembling the boiler, the heating engineer unexpectedly showed up. It turned out he’d been going from one job to another via the A96 and decided to see if our job was likely to be a quick one. It was. All he had to do was was check the fuel flow pressure, change the filters and reassemble the boiler. It then started first time.
Of course, it does mean that while I did the bulk of the work we’ll still have a bill to pay. Oh well, at least the house will be warm when the Other Half gets home!
My (north facing) study/office is currently at about 10 degrees. I try not to put the heating on when I’m home alone, but have been a bit nesh today…
The bathroom gets the benefit of the frost setting on the boiler and the south facing side of the house is usually a couple of degrees warmer.