A Rockin and a rollin

 

With the real cold winter weather now well and truly with us we are running the stove a lot hotter and that means more fuel is required. That's ok when there is plenty of free fire wood , but at the moment we are really struggling to find any. So we stocked up with coal when we had a visit from Jules on her coal boat. If we just burn coal we are using 2 bags a week with the stove running 24/7. That's keeping the inside of the boat with an average temperature of 23 deg C in the front and dropping to about 19 deg C at the back of the boat in the bedroom. We now have 16 bags of Homefire oval coals on the roof. There are a couple of issues with it being on the roof, the first is how easy it is to steal and at over £12 a bag you can see how burglar bill would be tempted and there is no real way of making it more secure. The other thing that happens with all that weight on the roof is that once the boat starts to rock from side to side the weight of the coal acts like a pendulum and we just keep A rockin and a rollin.

This is one for my ex work colleagues at SWW…I hope your pump stations are being kept in better condition than this one. The picture actually makes it look better than it really is. I can still vaguely remember operating similar stations in the distant past…

With all that heat coming from the stove it makes sense to cook on it. With a casserole on the top and Potatoes wrapped in silver foil in the ash pan its a great and cheap way to cook dinner on a cold winters day.

                                                                            Happy Days.