Another relaxed day... woke after 9 and soon went into town to pay in a cheque and get a cheque out to pay Cozmic Balloons for a recent delivery of 1500 modelling balloons.
Also visited Pauline who had her usual festive gift for me... a bottle of Port, which is a kind of swap for several potato sacks of logs for her Clearview Pioneer smokefree woodstove. We had a good chat about her volunteering with the St Clement's Hall project and various other subjects over a coffee. Always lovely to spend time with her, and put the World to rights!
Then headed for Barnitts which has got to be York's best shop, and got several items which I will give as gifts at Christmas... including 5 litres of chainsaw lubricating oil which I hope someone will give to me! Hahahaha, always good to receive useful stuff!
Home via Country Fresh where Richard was in a jolly mood and was happy to help load me up with lots more compostables... and some stuff to dry including six bags of red seedless grapes... And then to Freshways where Raj was jolly too. Everybody's happy today!
A late lunch. After lunch I took the compostables down to the Compostumbler and then at about 4 came in to make a nutloaf for tea. I made two lots of nutloaf mix... one with grated raw beetroot in, and the resultant loaf was in two layers, one a lovely red colour.
Jonathan arrived at 6.30 and we all ate together, Jonathan very impressed by the nutloaf, and happy with his present of dried bananas too! He had to scoot off fairly quickly as he was meeting his girlfriend to go and see a film.
Gill had spent some of the afternoon learning how to make something on Spore and I was curious to see some of the assorted creatures and buildings the rest of the family had made, although I have no desire to join in... I'd rather play Scrabble or build a carefully constructed logpile! Spore is clever, though, and I can see how much fun it is!
Showing posts with label Clearview Stoves. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clearview Stoves. Show all posts
Quite a relaxed day in many ways... although due to a family visit we did have some tidying up to do. I took our youngest into school and came back to help sort stuff out... I found a large sack of bananas which I was able to salvage and lay out on the cake-racks on the stove, and also helped with vacuuming, ready for Gill's sister Jane and hubby Mike to visit, due at 2.30.
About lunchtime I was rung up by the local free magazine 'Local Link' who are going to do a feature on composting, and they wanted a how and why conversation to form an article, so spent an hour chatting through allsorts of stuff, being careful to differentiate between the York Rotters advice and things which I did, which I'm supposed to try to keep separate from Rotters stuff. For instance, with my Rotters hat on, I'm supposed to not go on about composting roadkill... so I am going to be sent the article before publication so I can check I'm not going to get into trouble, and that the facts are correct!
Jane and Mike had come to visit several folks in York, drop off presents and pick up presents for their family gathering, as they have offspring and grandchildren visiting them over the holidays. They arrived slightly early and we had a good chat before our eldest came home and then I cycled down to school to pick up our youngest. They stayed a bit later than planned, to see the children who were on best behaviour, fortunately!
I left for town as soon as they went, to deliver paperwork for the council, the Planning Panel stuff, and to post parcels to Taunton and Shrewsbury and a small pile of letters/cards to lots of other places. I also picked up two sacks of orange halves and coffee grounds from Millers Yard, and a sack and a box from Country Fresh. Home by 5pm.
I had the leftover macaroni cheese and cauliflower from yesterday plus dolmades (stuffed vine leaves) which are one of my favourite things, quite a treat as they aren't cheap, even buying in bulk from Suma. A good evening with the children, we watched a bit of telly and I got a cuddle... not something I often get from my eldest!
A warm and cosy evening turning logs rapidly back into the carbon dioxide the trees sucked up not so long ago, releasing their stored sunshine into our living room and into the water to enable us to wash our pans and plates, and driving moisture off waste bananas to preserve them for future muesli... I love our Clearview Stoves!!!
About lunchtime I was rung up by the local free magazine 'Local Link' who are going to do a feature on composting, and they wanted a how and why conversation to form an article, so spent an hour chatting through allsorts of stuff, being careful to differentiate between the York Rotters advice and things which I did, which I'm supposed to try to keep separate from Rotters stuff. For instance, with my Rotters hat on, I'm supposed to not go on about composting roadkill... so I am going to be sent the article before publication so I can check I'm not going to get into trouble, and that the facts are correct!
Jane and Mike had come to visit several folks in York, drop off presents and pick up presents for their family gathering, as they have offspring and grandchildren visiting them over the holidays. They arrived slightly early and we had a good chat before our eldest came home and then I cycled down to school to pick up our youngest. They stayed a bit later than planned, to see the children who were on best behaviour, fortunately!
I left for town as soon as they went, to deliver paperwork for the council, the Planning Panel stuff, and to post parcels to Taunton and Shrewsbury and a small pile of letters/cards to lots of other places. I also picked up two sacks of orange halves and coffee grounds from Millers Yard, and a sack and a box from Country Fresh. Home by 5pm.
I had the leftover macaroni cheese and cauliflower from yesterday plus dolmades (stuffed vine leaves) which are one of my favourite things, quite a treat as they aren't cheap, even buying in bulk from Suma. A good evening with the children, we watched a bit of telly and I got a cuddle... not something I often get from my eldest!
A warm and cosy evening turning logs rapidly back into the carbon dioxide the trees sucked up not so long ago, releasing their stored sunshine into our living room and into the water to enable us to wash our pans and plates, and driving moisture off waste bananas to preserve them for future muesli... I love our Clearview Stoves!!!
I took our youngest into school, and then had a quiet day mostly inside doing paperwork and e-paperwork. Wrote to The Maudsley with some forms filled in, and sent that off with a 'signed for' extra cost. Got bread. Did a Facebook 'Event Page' for York Green Festival. Chainsawed and split a few logs, and built the beginning of a logpile outside the front door of dry and ready-to-use fuel. Tidied a pile of paperwork to find out what time tomorrow I can give blood. Found a cheque I received about 2 months ago, and phoned the sender to apologise for not cashing it quickly, and to tell them I'd do it tomorrow... Read my electricity and gas meters for
The Carbon Account and inputted my new data, my graph is pleasingly slim (trying to ignore my adopted massive aircraft spike last month) and I found my old buddy Dave Mansell is also recording his carbon footprint on the site. He's one of the top recycling managers in the country and I really admire him. If I was more organised, I'd like to be doing what he's doing!
Gill did most of the childcare stuff but I spent time with them when they came in from school as Gill had gone to the shops, so I took an interest in their 'Spore' game and cuddled before and after tea.
Later, got a message from Dave 'top recycler' Mansell telling me what he's been up to since leaving York... I'm really pleased to hear he's ok. Currently working for the Somerset Waste Partnership where it looks like he's in top management. Good stuff!
Kept both stoves going, they both make a reassuring clicking sound as they expand and contract over each burn cycle, so they are 'clicking away' which I like.
The Carbon Account and inputted my new data, my graph is pleasingly slim (trying to ignore my adopted massive aircraft spike last month) and I found my old buddy Dave Mansell is also recording his carbon footprint on the site. He's one of the top recycling managers in the country and I really admire him. If I was more organised, I'd like to be doing what he's doing!
Gill did most of the childcare stuff but I spent time with them when they came in from school as Gill had gone to the shops, so I took an interest in their 'Spore' game and cuddled before and after tea.
Later, got a message from Dave 'top recycler' Mansell telling me what he's been up to since leaving York... I'm really pleased to hear he's ok. Currently working for the Somerset Waste Partnership where it looks like he's in top management. Good stuff!
Kept both stoves going, they both make a reassuring clicking sound as they expand and contract over each burn cycle, so they are 'clicking away' which I like.
Woke feeling substantially better than yesterday, got up and got busy, lit the stove and put hot water on the washing up, and got a phone call from my CRAGger buddy Robin... St Nicks had offered me a big sack of sticks last week but I'd been unable to collect them, so they'd offered them to Robin, who also didn't want them (lack of space for storing) so he brought them round to me in his trailer on his way back from B and Q, where he was looking for a way to make his woodstove-fired central heating system 'Building Regs compliant' ie, gravity driven, not pump driven. He said he'd worked out how to do it, using 'only' £200 worth of copper pipe! But having a Dunsley Yorkshire woodstove, which burns smoke free and is therefore allowed in smoke control areas, AND which heats radiators, is such a beneficial thing, that it's worth getting the plumbing right.
Robin stayed for nearly an hour, chatting and drinking tea and admiring our Clearview Vision 500 working well. Just before lunch the SUMA order came, just stuff for us and one other family (sorry, 'member of the Cossham Food Co-op'!) such as laundry liquid, soya milk, muesli base, olive oil and Bulgar wheat.
Enjoyed having lunch with Gill, she then went out to take some grown-out-of shoes to the charity shop and I did emails and blog in front of the hot stove, looking out at the cold and windy weather.
I took a cycle trailer load of flour, Fentimans Cola and assorted nuts down to our friends and came back with our youngest, who'd had a good day.
I sorted out the big sack of sticks delivered by Robin, and our eldest came home. He'd forgotten to go to a meeting of invitees to a University-based computer game try-out, based on identifying plants I think, and when he realised, he was absolutely mortified, and spent at least an hour beating himself up about it. We really need to get him a mobile phone, so he can let us know when he's going to be late, and so we can remind him to attend things he needs to go to which are outside of his routine, which is how he forgot this event. We were really sad for him, he was looking forward to it SO much. I'm going to try to see if it can be re-arranged in some way for him, not through the school, but direct with the University.
I had an early tea (Bulgar wheat etc) and got ready for work. My gig this evening was with the Dunnington Brownies, a lovely group of 20 or so 7 to 10 year old girls (and one boy!) plus 5 adults... I did a shortened version of my show, then a throwing/catching/memory game, and then a one hour free-play workshop. A second one next week, when some of them will earn their 'Circus Performer Badge'.
Home soon after 8.30, quite exhausted, so had a pint of perry and sank into the sofa and watched an interesting Horizon programme on mental illness. A quiet evening.
Robin stayed for nearly an hour, chatting and drinking tea and admiring our Clearview Vision 500 working well. Just before lunch the SUMA order came, just stuff for us and one other family (sorry, 'member of the Cossham Food Co-op'!) such as laundry liquid, soya milk, muesli base, olive oil and Bulgar wheat.
Enjoyed having lunch with Gill, she then went out to take some grown-out-of shoes to the charity shop and I did emails and blog in front of the hot stove, looking out at the cold and windy weather.
I took a cycle trailer load of flour, Fentimans Cola and assorted nuts down to our friends and came back with our youngest, who'd had a good day.
I sorted out the big sack of sticks delivered by Robin, and our eldest came home. He'd forgotten to go to a meeting of invitees to a University-based computer game try-out, based on identifying plants I think, and when he realised, he was absolutely mortified, and spent at least an hour beating himself up about it. We really need to get him a mobile phone, so he can let us know when he's going to be late, and so we can remind him to attend things he needs to go to which are outside of his routine, which is how he forgot this event. We were really sad for him, he was looking forward to it SO much. I'm going to try to see if it can be re-arranged in some way for him, not through the school, but direct with the University.
I had an early tea (Bulgar wheat etc) and got ready for work. My gig this evening was with the Dunnington Brownies, a lovely group of 20 or so 7 to 10 year old girls (and one boy!) plus 5 adults... I did a shortened version of my show, then a throwing/catching/memory game, and then a one hour free-play workshop. A second one next week, when some of them will earn their 'Circus Performer Badge'.
Home soon after 8.30, quite exhausted, so had a pint of perry and sank into the sofa and watched an interesting Horizon programme on mental illness. A quiet evening.
Quite a serene start to the day, I took the boys in as Gill wasn't feeling up to it and then went on to visit Anna's pile of vegetation... I cut a load of sticks out of it and came home with them, and will do a load of shreddable materials next... possibly taking them to the James St depot for the green waste skip...
Home in time to fill in our feedback form about the 'Strengthening Families' programme, which is being assessed by Warwick University. Then off to the Heworth Family Centre for the final meeting of the parenting course, where we gave feedback to Richard from Icarus, who will do a report about the various families and parenting courses which have been trialled in York over the past year and a bit, and then City of York Council will know which approaches work and which give value for money...
Then at midday we all headed over to Meltons Too on Walmgate for a meal. I went via the Council offices on St Leonards Place to give in the planning application responses from last night, and still got to the restaurant before any of the car-borne people...
Lovely meal, I had leek and potato soup, a little on the salty side, with bread, which was also salty (perhaps it's because we don't add salt to anything?) and then a baked mushrooms with cheese sauce and breadcrumbs dish, and tiramasu... what a treat, very filling and delicious!
We had certificates presented and a card given, it was good to chat away and exchange stories.
Raced home well after 2 to go to the veg shop and get back so I could pick up the kids!
I got soaked on the way to school and came home with three little chaps, two of them eager to go to Martial Arts.... Gill took them there but it had been cancelled, at least no-one else had turned up so they came back and I phoned our friend Maria to say not to pick up her son and ours from there but to come straight here.... and when she came, we had a good chat whilst I peeled pears to dry them... school had thrown away about 15 small pears (no idea why!) so I am making use of them and doing a pile of pear halves.
After tea... not a huge lot as I was still full from lunch... I did a load of emailing and got two messages on this blog in my inbox on 27th and 28th Feb 07 asking me about where Clearview Stoves can be purchased/installed from... So, a message to Alan the Lumberjack and Lindsay, who know Pauline, you should contact 'The Stove Gallery' (also known as Pete the Sweep) which is at:
41-43 High Street,
Starbeck near Harrogate,
tel 01423 887799
e: http://www.thestovegallery.com/
They have quite a few stoves on show, including the wonderful Clearview range, and provide friendly and professional installation, servicing and advice. They recommended getting our chimneys lined with insulated concrete, and we used 'Chimneycrete': http://www.chimneycrete.com/frontpage.htm and are very happy with the performance of both flues.
Despite recommending Clearview Stoves and The Stove Gallery to literally dozens of people, I have never been offered a discount and I could never say that they are cheap.... but I trust their knowledge and ability so continue to use them. And Clearview Stoves are widely recognised as being the best smokefree stoves available: http://www.clearviewstoves.com/index.htm
We have two Clearviews, a Vision 500 flat-top which gives up to 8kw of heat, and a Pioneer 400 flat-top which gives up to 5kw. These give us enough heating and cooking to make our other fuel bills tiny... an annual gas bill of about £50 and our annual electricity bill is about £230, paid to Good Energy Ltd http://www.good-energy.co.uk/ who supply 100% renewable electricity.
Home in time to fill in our feedback form about the 'Strengthening Families' programme, which is being assessed by Warwick University. Then off to the Heworth Family Centre for the final meeting of the parenting course, where we gave feedback to Richard from Icarus, who will do a report about the various families and parenting courses which have been trialled in York over the past year and a bit, and then City of York Council will know which approaches work and which give value for money...
Then at midday we all headed over to Meltons Too on Walmgate for a meal. I went via the Council offices on St Leonards Place to give in the planning application responses from last night, and still got to the restaurant before any of the car-borne people...
Lovely meal, I had leek and potato soup, a little on the salty side, with bread, which was also salty (perhaps it's because we don't add salt to anything?) and then a baked mushrooms with cheese sauce and breadcrumbs dish, and tiramasu... what a treat, very filling and delicious!
We had certificates presented and a card given, it was good to chat away and exchange stories.
Raced home well after 2 to go to the veg shop and get back so I could pick up the kids!
I got soaked on the way to school and came home with three little chaps, two of them eager to go to Martial Arts.... Gill took them there but it had been cancelled, at least no-one else had turned up so they came back and I phoned our friend Maria to say not to pick up her son and ours from there but to come straight here.... and when she came, we had a good chat whilst I peeled pears to dry them... school had thrown away about 15 small pears (no idea why!) so I am making use of them and doing a pile of pear halves.
After tea... not a huge lot as I was still full from lunch... I did a load of emailing and got two messages on this blog in my inbox on 27th and 28th Feb 07 asking me about where Clearview Stoves can be purchased/installed from... So, a message to Alan the Lumberjack and Lindsay, who know Pauline, you should contact 'The Stove Gallery' (also known as Pete the Sweep) which is at:
41-43 High Street,
Starbeck near Harrogate,
tel 01423 887799
e: http://www.thestovegallery.com/
They have quite a few stoves on show, including the wonderful Clearview range, and provide friendly and professional installation, servicing and advice. They recommended getting our chimneys lined with insulated concrete, and we used 'Chimneycrete': http://www.chimneycrete.com/frontpage.htm and are very happy with the performance of both flues.
Despite recommending Clearview Stoves and The Stove Gallery to literally dozens of people, I have never been offered a discount and I could never say that they are cheap.... but I trust their knowledge and ability so continue to use them. And Clearview Stoves are widely recognised as being the best smokefree stoves available: http://www.clearviewstoves.com/index.htm
We have two Clearviews, a Vision 500 flat-top which gives up to 8kw of heat, and a Pioneer 400 flat-top which gives up to 5kw. These give us enough heating and cooking to make our other fuel bills tiny... an annual gas bill of about £50 and our annual electricity bill is about £230, paid to Good Energy Ltd http://www.good-energy.co.uk/ who supply 100% renewable electricity.
A reasonable day... A slow start but at 10ish I got up as at 10.30 was expecting a visit from someone from The Stove Gallery/Pete The Sweep to fit a replacement 'Turbobaffle' which is the part of the stove which makes it smokefree. It sits in the top of the firebox and takes air from an inlet beneath the stove and the air is channeled through a long labyrinth within the baffle which heats the air up. The air then enters the firebox through lots of tiny holes, giving jets of fresh hot air, causing much turbulence and complete combustion, high thermal efficiency and 'smokefree' status. But an expensive bit of kit. The old one had somehow become overheated and had become mis-shapen and wasn't functioning at full whack. Will have to treat it with more respect. I will have to tell Gill NOT to leave the bottom-air open as this makes the stove too hot and can damage the turbobaffle. She often forgets to close it down after opening it up to ignite fresh fuel, and I come in to find it open and her getting on with whatever, having forgotten to close the spinner at the bottom....
So I waited for the stove person and got a phone call saying he'd be late. I split logs and cut sticks. Then the chap came, he was really nice and wrestled with the stove for a long time, eventually putting the turbobaffle in, replaced the rope-seal on the door and was interested to read my latest column, published today in Community Care, on 'Healthy Hobbies'.
Lunch and all too soon it was time to go to school. Gill got the boys, I attended the first AGM of the Green Thumb Gang and we agreed a constitution, all over in half an hour. I whizzed along to St Nicks to attend a sustainability surgery and give composting advice. This was followed by the Hull Road Ward Committee Meeting which was very quick.
Home for tea.
So I waited for the stove person and got a phone call saying he'd be late. I split logs and cut sticks. Then the chap came, he was really nice and wrestled with the stove for a long time, eventually putting the turbobaffle in, replaced the rope-seal on the door and was interested to read my latest column, published today in Community Care, on 'Healthy Hobbies'.
Lunch and all too soon it was time to go to school. Gill got the boys, I attended the first AGM of the Green Thumb Gang and we agreed a constitution, all over in half an hour. I whizzed along to St Nicks to attend a sustainability surgery and give composting advice. This was followed by the Hull Road Ward Committee Meeting which was very quick.
Home for tea.
Up at a civilised time and got dressed pretty sharpish as we had booked Pete The Sweep who's based near Harrogate. We use them as they fitted our Clearview stoves and they do replacement parts... which it turned out we needed. The back firebrick had almost completely worn through in our biggest stove, the one we use every day. When it was taken out it fell apart. The 'turbobaffle' is also shot after more than 10 years almost continuous use and will also need replacing, but the shop doesn't have them in stock so that will be installed within a couple of weeks. And when they swept the chimneys, one of the wire 'anti-bird' cowl thingies came off so they offered to replace them with ones which are tied firmly on and can cope with a sweep's brush coming up.
The good news is that there was hardly any soot in the chimneys, as the stoves do burn really cleanly, and this small volume of deposit is evidence of that. So they went back to Starbeck to get replacement firebricks as they don't have them in the van, so it has turned out to be an expensive morning, both financially and in terms of van-miles, but as there's a cold-weather warning for the coming weekend, we really have to be able to use the back room stove, and it's not usable without the firebricks.... so they used their lunchhour to go and get what was needed.
So they returned and finished servicing our heating system, and will bill us through the post. An expensive day... but not expensive compared to the cost of most peoples' fuel bills. I still keep on thinking of our winter gas bill of £12!!! And this because we don't use any central heating and cook mainly on the woodstove.
A quiet afternoon, boys occupied and happy enough, I did some work outside and also made a nutloaf.
At 5.30 I went into town to attend the monthly Critical Mass Cycle Celebration, which was good, several new faces and friendly chats. Not a lot of aggro from other road users this time which was good.
Had nutloaf when I came in, and when the kids were in bed, had a game of Scrabble with Gilly and beat her soundly... a difficult board and she did get lousy letters. I got most of the high scorers and it showed in the final tally. A good evening.
The good news is that there was hardly any soot in the chimneys, as the stoves do burn really cleanly, and this small volume of deposit is evidence of that. So they went back to Starbeck to get replacement firebricks as they don't have them in the van, so it has turned out to be an expensive morning, both financially and in terms of van-miles, but as there's a cold-weather warning for the coming weekend, we really have to be able to use the back room stove, and it's not usable without the firebricks.... so they used their lunchhour to go and get what was needed.
So they returned and finished servicing our heating system, and will bill us through the post. An expensive day... but not expensive compared to the cost of most peoples' fuel bills. I still keep on thinking of our winter gas bill of £12!!! And this because we don't use any central heating and cook mainly on the woodstove.
A quiet afternoon, boys occupied and happy enough, I did some work outside and also made a nutloaf.
At 5.30 I went into town to attend the monthly Critical Mass Cycle Celebration, which was good, several new faces and friendly chats. Not a lot of aggro from other road users this time which was good.
Had nutloaf when I came in, and when the kids were in bed, had a game of Scrabble with Gilly and beat her soundly... a difficult board and she did get lousy letters. I got most of the high scorers and it showed in the final tally. A good evening.
