Rescue dog with wild zoomies becomes calmest guardian ever:



Those wild zoomies—my god I thought Socks was over energetic!

Here in Victoria, there's been talk of reducing
and/or abolishing the sales of wood-burning
heaters due to the pollution of the particulates
their smoke carries—such as nitrogen oxides,
carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds
(VOCs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
(PAHs), and formaldehyde, which is carcinogenic.

Living in a small country town with lots of old
houses, we're continually exposed to wood smoke
generated by dozens of wood heaters in our
neighbourhood—particularly of course during winter.

And most older-style wood heaters don't have
any scrubbers built in, and there's no EPA
regulations demanding that.

My partner suffers from allergic rhinitis, and often
during a winter's evening or night she can't go
outside the house.

So... are wood heaters now considered to be
serious atmospheric polluters, and should go
the same way as the now-banned backyard
incinerators?

YAY!

Despite being in Antarctica my Smyrna Quince. . .is in leaf!

Jovial Monk wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2023 at 11:34am:

I just noticed today that our loquat, which grew
from a dropped seed off an old and dying (now
dead) tree is fruiting for the first time in its
10-year life so far.

   Maggie's Loquat Jelly

         

Two people in this house and one is not happy with the big beautiful wood burner.

Socks! When I lit the fire this morning she lay in her bed her back very much to me  She can convey displeasure quite easily. She was also displaying what I call “Dad’s lip” Dad having had a pronounced lower lip—that is Socks pouting 

I know that before she ended up in the RSPCA shelter she was tortured by a toddler. From her touchiness about her tail I guess that brat would pull it as hard as it could as often as it could, probably watched by proud, doting parents—idiots!

Why she is so scared of fire I shudder to think. There don’t seem to be burn marks, bald patches in the fur but a bad scare at an early age could well have built an aversion to fire in her.

Socks will have to get used to the heater tho, gets cold in Tassie and we are still in winter tho spring can’t be far away or the wattle wouldn’t be turning the land yellow.

There is a grill on top of the heater, gets hotter there than the other parts of the outside of the heater—can slow cook a stock or stew etc there.

I love the heater, will reconcile Socks to it eventually—no forcing of course. Next winter nights reaching -6°C, -9°C are possible. I am prepared.