Ploofle

Crawl into bed and sit under your covers (if you’re not already there due to poor insulation) for 15-20 min before actually laying down to go to bed.  That way you don’t shiver until you warm up a little and fall asleep.

Also, capilene long underwear and wool socks are worth their weight in gold.

Tags: cold, mongolia

The overnight temperatures are starting to hover around freezing - I’ve heard from unreliable sources that “heating” will come on on October 1st.  I can’t wait…for lukewarm water

Swiped from WeatherUnderground, here’s Khovd’s seasonal weather:

Hmm.  Would’ve thought more sunlight.  I’ve always thought of that as the upshot to the cold.  Bah, that’s what I get for looking.

Otherwise, tomatoes have mostly disappeared, but bell peppers have made an appearance.  So far the most exciting buy has been the gouda block that has just come back to the local (regional) department store, Nomin’s.

A few days ago people came over and we had bread omelets and chocolate-chocolate-covered-raisins-oatmeal-blueberry Andycakes.  And a bottle of red wine and some beers as we watched the McCain-Obama debate after the fact on youtube (in 11 irritating parts).

People are converging on Khovd soon to go to Eagle Festival in Bayan-Ulgii this weekend.  I’m thinking I may need to wear my midweight long underwear just in case…

Work-wise, I’m getting (a year late) into English lessons.  It at least guarantees uninterrupted face-time with my various coworkers.  I also really really need to email Clarence and get cracking on my thesis.  I swear I’ll write an email to him tomorrow…

Random thoughts:
I would like someday to have concrete counters like this and a similar (yet less schizoid and big) house like this. You know, cool southern house, but with some full-wall windows and lots of light.
Listening to classical music again (heh, can we say bored? all sorts of old habits), I think I may like to pick up an instrument again, if only to play for myself.  Have become a fan of Saint-Saëns.
Or those musical endeavors may be chalked up to a lack of large productive group activities here.

I guess I’m feeling like nesting - despite the lack of offspring

Tags: cold, Music, nesting

so, the sealing of windows with putty went really well - and while I was checking things out I noticed one pane had a big chunk missing.  Duct taped that closed and all is well.

Using the weatherizing strips so far is mixed.  The doors/windows in general are so poorly hung/sized it’s hard to tighten em up.  The hinges are nailed in, too, so you can’t really tighten those.  I’m convinced my inner balcony door is actually too large for the frame.

For the not as bad ones, though, shaving the frame a bit worked like a charm - and engulfed me in (I would like to hope) lead-free paint chips.  The weatherizing strips were too thick so I had to cut down the middle to halve their thickness.  Even so, sometimes it was too much for the frames and I could only put stripping on one edge - after doing both edges my inner balcony door wouldn’t close at all, so I had to rip one side off. Booo…

For the windows though - it’s working well I think.  Rather than the obvious draft I used to have, I now feel a bit cooler there but that’s it.  I’ll get more stripping to finish the other windows and then do the final sealing for winter in a month or two.

I also vaguely wonder if my landlord would not appreciate the door edge shaving despite it improving the door’s ability to close.  But I bet if I paint over it the way it looked before it won’t be noticed.

Tags: cold, more free time apparently, preoccupations

Before the non-Mongolia-experience people stop reading, as a tidbit of life here, virtually all doors and windows are doubled - an outer and inner one with about 1-2″ of gap in between them.  And virtually all of em don’t fit well unless they’re the new vacuum double-paned window installations, which seem to only exist in buildings built in the past few years to me.  AND often times your window glass will be cracked and taped back together along the crack.

***

While I was gone for training, some people broke my large (4′x2′) glass windows by throwing rocks. I just got the glass replaced and I’m already thinking about wintertime and sealing them so I may possibly be warmer this winter.  Since the windows here are virtually glass doors, I’ve pretty much looked up how to weatherstrip and seal doors as my guide for sealing these up.  Plus, I found some foam adhesive weatherstripping in the market today and I’m excited to start using it…how I dream for vacuum double-paned windows…

As I know other present and future volunteers may find themselves in this situation, I thought I’d share what I’m doing.

But first off, even if I seal the points between the frame and the moving doorlike part, it’s a moot point if the glass isn’t sealed into the frame. Most windows here are set into a groove then held in place with a few nails around the edges, much like how glass is held in picture frames.  So you need to caulk or seal somehow the windows on the exterior side.  First off, check to see if the glass actually contacts the wood frame on all the edges.  Oftentimes the glass is a bit off, so you’ll need to scoot it to one side or another or even scoot it up.  You can do this by carefully pressing on the glass (pref. from both sides) and pushing in the direction needed.  If it needs to scoot up, I grab a couple pennies or something else kind of thin and flat and jam it in the bottom edge where the glass meets the wood to keep it at that height.  Then you can start caulking.

At the market they sell tan or brownish blocks that look like clay but are essentially putty - most people use that here for sealing - called замазка in the direct Russian translation.  This stuff is shitty, but may be the best you can find if you can’t get silicone caulking (which comes in a tube that may fit into a caulking gun).  The way I use the putty is to pull off a piece, roll it between your hands to make a long skinny piece, then gently press into the window where the glass and wood (in theory) meet.  After you do this around the entire window, take some kind of small flat piece of metal (I use the “head” of the key or the edge of a coin) and kind of scrape the putty so that it’s smooth and squashed against the glass and wood.  This also gives you back that excess putty to use on other windows if needed.  After a while the putty will dry and hopefully seal itself against the window.

I don’t have it, but if you actually have silicone caulking, the same glass adjustment technique above applies then check out this link for how to use the silicone.

Then, check out if you have cracks (inevitably) in the panes themselves.  Seal these up as best you can with tape, silicone caulking, or whatever.

This is where it gets more theoretical for me - I’m still in the process of doing the stuff below for actual weatherstripping and sealing.  Your counterparts will help winterize your first year, but the essence is try to block all the drafts in the outer windows as much as possible, then focus on inner windows/doors.  If the cold doesn’t get in in the first place you’re good.

To this end, I’m going to use the advice here for weatherstripping doors for my windows and doors - trying to adjust the fit of frames, tightening screws, “planing” the wood with my knife, etc., then putting the foam strips in the jambs as illustrated in the door diagram from that article.  Note that you have to make sure the door/window actually closes easily before you can do this stuff, otherwise after applying the weatherstripping you may not be able to close it at all.

Also, I believe that felt is an excellent insulator (check out the ger - it can get toasty!) so this may be a good substitute for weatherstripping or other plugging materials you would use below.

Now, back to what’s done here around October - for the doors/windows you’re certain you’re not going to open again until the spring, close the outer door/window and thoroughly seal up the gaps from the inside and outside if you see any.  I’ve seen this done here with wadded up newspaper, cloth, felt, horsehair (I hope it was horsehair), sand, dirt etc.  Some even tack up clearish plastic tarp around the interior/exterior side to…do something.  Prevent drafts, I suppose.  Then, if you’re super fancy, in the space between the outer and inner window, dump woodshavings (preferred from a lack of mess standpoint), sand, or dirt along the bottom edge - this will at least seal up the bottom edge draft if you missed something.  I don’t know how to deal with the other edges other than possibly applying more putty or caulking on those edges - last year my outer windows were sealed without doing this so I don’t know if it’s effective yet.

Close the inner window and repeat the plugging of gaps with newspaper, cloth, etc. and putty if you want it.  For those gaps between the frame and the inner window, I *think* it’s better to use the putty here, rather than silicone if you have it, as the putty will pop right off when you want to open it again while the silicone needs to be scraped off.  So, for those temporary seals for winter, putty.

Finally, if it’s still super drafty, try hanging blankets or curtains around the windows that at least limit that coldness to the area closest to the window/door.  I also stuff a towel along the bottom edge of my balcony door and windows as it has some super big gaps.

For doors that have to be usable during the winter, seal the windows/frame and at least put in that door edge weatherstripping mentioned above. Try some sort of jury-rigged door sweep like this from the article mentioned above.

Check your house for other drafts, too - like a air ventilation shaft in the bathroom.  Most Mongolians tape this closed with paper or something to prevent that -30F air from shooting in.  Try putting weatherstripping on your actual apartment door or tacking in some carpeting on the inner side of the outer door.

Blah. Done writing.  This is prolly boring for those not living in Mongolia, but you’ll find that a major portion of your brain will be thinking of ways to keep warm when the winter comes.

Tags: cold, mongolia, preoccupations, random, too much free time hence this long post

Just got back from my Peace Corps training. I left it slightly saddened, as it’s the last time my group will be all together in one coordinated body before our close of service conference…in about a year or so. It was an extremely helpful event, and while it focused on a lot of things I knew about already (primarily project management and development), it was a good refresher and extremely important in that it made me work closely with my supervisor for 3 days. It’s pretty much the longest I’ve ever worked with her, and I think we both left feeling more comfortable working with one another despite the language barriers and with increased respect for each others’ abilities. Or so I like to think

At the same time, I was pretty out of it the entire time I was in the capital. My bad cold from last month evolved into a sinus infection that made me super unsocial and generally available to only do things that had to be done. Thus I didn’t get to hang out with many people, or drink, or play games, or anything. It still comes and goes, the pressure and all, but I’m on day 5 of my antibiotics…

I also got to watch Michael Moore’s “Sicko” which was quite good - made me angry and want to change things, so I should prolly watch it every few months or so to keep myself agitated to do good work. Or some such.

During PDM, I managed to somehow pack two sets of long underwear and no changes of clothes, so the tshirt I wore into town almost two weeks ago is pretty disgusting. I’m not sure how I managed that…but coming back to Khovd has been very nice from a rest and time-alone standpoint; staying in a guesthouse where you sleep six to a room in bunkbeds is super not fun when you’re not feeling well, and especially so after being in town for about two weeks. And it’s “warm” here - as in, a bit above freezing during the daytime. And I’m down to one layer - no long underwear! - and my medium weight wool socks. It’s strange…but you know, it wasn’t all that bad, really. For a couple months you really have to bundle and then it’s back to reasonable temperatures…

Also it seems that whenever I leave town that’s when all my packages appear. Nicole’s and Melissa’s came in - amazingly, it took about 2 months, and I have no clue why - but hey you all, it’s here, no worries. And Bonnie’s came in too. Super sadly, the banana nut bread she made for me did not survive the trip - I almost cried as I threw it away, as I could see the wonderful pecans beneath the mint green mold… But she sent me wonderful notes and t-shirts which you will soon see on here.

Oh, finally, I think there may need to be an “Angry Non-Vegetarian Club” based on conversations at PDM. The slogan, which will make us immediately angry? “Ovo-lacto-pescatarian”

Tags: angry angry angry, cold, packages, peace corps, sick, vegetarians