camping in our family room

Last  weekend, we celebrated Pentecost  and the Queens birthday.. This means a long weekend....

I declared on Friday. Oh great, a long weekend for Pentecost. It was raining and miserable, so I thought lets camp in our family room.
Actually, I mentioned this to Brid on the Thursday evening and it was met with great delight. So Friday evening I pulled out the lounge and made it into a sofa bed. Put lots of blankets and pillows on it and we were set.
Dermot looked at me surprised, this was unlike me.
We stoked up the fire and it heated us all weekend. Our cat, Bailey, was quite happy on his mat by the fire.
We had made our Pentecost craft, earlier that week. Our tables and our family alter were draped in the Liturgical colour of red. Actually we keep these colours draped for June.
I woke unwell with a headache, on Saturday morning, meaning Dermot’s plans to spoilt us with bacon n eggs for breakfast was somewhat dampened.  I felt terrible as I had spoilt his plan. We made the most of it and as soon as my headache cleared  I was able to rejoin the  camping trip.
That evening our parish was having a Pentecost party and welcoming our new parish Priest.  The parish hall had been decorated. Red balloons, doves and flames of fire were decorating the walls. Red was the theme; serviettes, table sprinkles, candles. It was gorgeous.  It was a real fun night. Had I mentioned we were asked to bring a meal  to share. Brid made our contribution, as I was still not up to it. Brid had chopped, cut and diced veges and chicken for the slow cooker. Dermot poured in red wine. It was delicious.
It was also 8 years to the day from when we had attended a retreat called Cursillo. So there was a mini celebration in that as well, because quite a few people who had attended that weekend were present at this parish event.
The following day, we woke to a mini flood. It had rained so much that the storm water drains could not handle the amount of water.  My mum and Dad were coming for a baked late lunch. Apple pie for dessert. I had second thoughts as this water was building up. With a little bit of thought we had it cleared and we started to get organised for our visitors. It  was in the end a very relaxing afternoon, After lunch, the men watched the football us women and children chatted.
Sunday saw us go fishing between rain showers. Brid really enjoyed that, and so did we.
Our weekend, although it was wet was lots of fun, just being together camped in our family room.

After having our slow Combustion fire in and working now for a while now, I have come to the conclusion that I will never look at a stick or twinge again in the same way.

These pieces of tree will always now be looked at as kindling. We have a few trees on our property and at various times throughout the year, they drop their branches.
In the past, we have picked them up and placed them on the gardens. Not anymore. !!!!

We- Brid & I  take our wheelbarrow and collect our branches and twinges. Brid and I sort them into smallest to largest. We break them into approx. 12 inch long pieces, if we can. A selection of each size can be taken to the fire and use to build our fire.  

So yes, I am Miss Organisation. Comes with the nursing back. The organisation that was in ground in me by my senior nurses, educators, Nuns and the busyness of intensive areas I loved to work in.
That means each size has its own bucket and it makes it easier to pick the days selection of firewood.

As soon as the fire was installed, Dermot organised  a delivery of wood that he and Brid stacked in the shed. She being the apprectice to Miss organisation, picked up all the small pieces and we now have a lovely selection of very small pieces of wood. Thank you Brid.
I suppose you are wondering why I have called this post Channel F? HMmm. Well it’s because looking at the fire burning is the best TV channel. No violence or disturbing viewing on this channel. No sadness or bad news. Only warmth and a crackle. Great to read a book by.....

So we invite you to come and warm yourself by our fire.

Channel F cont....

Dermot cut the whole in the ceiling, had everything positioned for the minimum of tiles to be cut, minimum wood beams to be disturbed. He really thought about it. So with a little bit of effort, and a helpful little Brid, and some grunting they got the flue in. I was out weeding a much needed garden, and I saw Brid was half out of the roof, she was thoroughly enjoying her unschooling day, up in the roof with Daddy.

Next was the flashing. Nearly done...he was excited. He thought he was doing well, until he looked down....and there was a huge hole where the flashing should have been. It had come out of the ring seal that was made to fit the chimney flue. Oh dear!!! I heard no further noise and as I had been praying prayers of protection for him while up on the roof, I thought I had better look. The look said it all. He was despondent. 

I encouraged him to cover it all, and come down from the roof.. He looked exhausted and had nothing more to give physically or mentally. He cleaned up his tools, I drew him a bath and gave him a cold drink.  He sat there going over what had gone wrong. He called my Dad and they worked out a day to fix it. BUT .....an hour later it rained and we had a hole in our roof. Oh well, it wasn’t a good hour. But Dermot managed to cover the hole. Next morning we put our heads together and tried to reassemble the flashing- it just wasn’t working. I saw sense pretty quickly, and rang the company. “No Sir,” I heard  a voice say to Dermot, “It is faulty, we will send you a new one”.

Dermot got the part from the supplier, bringing Dad with him, and they happily finished off the job. We lit our fire as it needs to cure slowly. So we were to light 3 cool fires for 20 / 20 and 40 mins. Then we were set. So a Fireplace we have, and we have been waiting and dreaming since 1993.

It has been a delight, and after all the effort Dermot can see how much he learnt about his own strengths and weaknesses.  Thank you, Dermot for spoiling me. I love you.

Now onto wood collecting. ........only joking, until next time.