Winter Checklist: Etseri, Svaneti

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Bought dried corn for the chickens, as there’s nothing else for them to eat until April aside from kitchen scraps.

Scythed, dried, raked, stacked, loaded, sledded, and barned hay for the cows (not in our case: no cows remain).

Dug, size-sorted, sacked, sold or stored potatoes, usually in the barn where the bovines’ warmth will keep them from freezing (again not for us, as we didn’t plant anything major this year. We’re taking potatoes and sulguni cheese as payment off people’s shop debts, though, a brilliant idea of my wife’s! Storing them in the house).

Checked and winterized all water lines to make sure they won’t freeze; started leaving a tap running on low all night for the same reason, because frozen pipes are a calamity, especially ironic when you’re surrounded by megatons of snow.

Put away summer clothes, dug out winter ones, head to foot; doubling up on long underwear, as layers are the key to warmth; bought new items as necessary to replace the old: my heels go through socks like there’s no tomorrow.

Cut, trimmed, sledded, chain-sawed, split and stacked firewood ages ago to dry for at least six months (we buy the trimmed logs as we don’t have logging rights to a piece of forest, and have them delivered by oxen and sled, just another way of bolstering the local economy).

Checked over the massive Svan stove, pipes, chimney and all; cleaned out creosote.

Bagged all wood chips from log-splitting, a valuable source of kindling.

Laid up a small supply of diesel to start the stove with: this chore should be as easy as possible on cold mornings! Doing it every morning for half the year or so turns it into an art where the starter, usually being me, knows his instrument and materials close to perfectly.

Put a blanket, shovel and tire chains in the car for those snowy or icy roads, along with the usual essential all-season emergency gear. I don’t use winter tires yet, just all-season ones, but am considering this change, expensive and bothersome though it is, for the best winter driving in the long cold season, mild though it is so far this year.

Extricated Christmas decorations, music, ingredients and recipes: we will fight off the winter blues!

Made a few liqueurs with late fall or early winter fruit, including Cointreau from mandarin skins; sea buckthorn (jam from this too); and feijoa. They’ll all be ready for Easter, along with lime and ginger ones!

Looked over other winter preserves: pickles, jams, compotes, cheeses, etc., to make sure they’re adequate. Of course, we do have access to other foods too, but these are for the season.

Practiced a Christmas song in English with schoolchildren for the imminent concert.

Considered and planned a winter school break holiday, usually with the in-laws in Kakheti.

Shoveled sled-loads (or, in my case, wheelbarrow-loads) of cow manure and took it to the potato field to lie there all winter and be spread in the spring, before plowing; this can also be done then instead of now, which we will do with the last of our manure.

Found and checked over toboggans, Svan skis, western skis and any other seasonal sports equipment.

Just a randomly ordered list, but it shows the necessary winter preparations in the mountain villages. Don’t dare be caught short!

Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with nearly 1800 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/

He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri:

www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti

Tony Hanmer