‘Pruck’, as Dougie assures me, is the local word for things that have been scrounged, recovered, recycled or blagged, and a marvellous word it is too. This week has seen what I can only describe as a pruckathon, and we have many people to thank for their generosity. First up comes Philip from Leisure Batteries Ireland, for the kind donation of a couple of used solar panels, which have doubled our output, and given us enough power to get the house lights and all but the fridge and washing machine off grid once more. Our new panels are already up there on the roof generating electricity.
Next up comes the wonderful John Clementson, so kindly let us have this truly huge solar thermal panel. At nearly 10 foot long, and over 3 foot wide, it nearly didn’t go in the van. It will be providing hot water for the little cottage later in the year. The picture doesn’t do it justice, it really is bloody huge. John was also kind enough to let us have a belfast sink, some quarry tiles, and over a ton of decent firewood, as we had a go at the stump of a huge ash tree that had fallen down in one of his fields.
Some of our firewood bounty being split down into logs. Dougie also rolled up today with a couple of benches and some scaffold planks. Our thanks to him for taking a day with the van to drive around County Down with me, hoovering all this kit up. Thanks also to Danny for the lend of his trailer. We truly couldn’t get by without the kind help of all these folk – you’re all fantastic.
