Animal manure provides heating for the whole village
Like water, manure from livestock is a much valued commodity in the village of Tsaghkashen in southwest Armenia. Families use manure to heat their homes as temperatures plummet for months at a time. Heating is a constant drain on the household income, which often has to meet the basic needs of several family members...The Gevorgyan family, like most families in Tsaghkashen Village in southwest Armenia, heat their house using animal manure, the cheapest means of heating for those who have livestock.
The winter in Tsaghkashen lasts from between five to six months. To heat the two-room house in Tsaghkashen Village the family needs to have some 20 cubic metres of manure for the whole winter.
The water freezes in the house during the night In winter Nina Gevorgyan, 25, typically rises at six o clock in the morning, puts on her thin clothes and summer slippers and heads outdoors with an old grimy saucepan. She enters the small storage house right next to their house, takes some animal manure, brings it out in front of the house where there is more light, and starts cutting the manure into small pieces.
Then she puts these small pieces into the pan and walks back to the house.
In the house she puts a couple of handfuls in the stove; she burns it with a piece of paper and then puts another clean saucepan full of frozen water on the stove to prepare a breakfast for her children, Tamara, 5, Roman, 3 and Hovhannes, 4 months.
“We have very cold winters here in Tsaghkashen Village. The water freezes in the house during the night”, she explains.
Soon when the house is a little warmer, Nina’s mother-in-law Qnarik Gevorgyan, 73, rises. With the water already melted, she prepares dough to make the Armenian bread lavash.
She moulds some thin ovals of dough and puts them on the same stove one after another. Whenever one piece starts to change colour, she takes it off the stove and gives it to the children as their breakfast.
Nina’s husband is already up and away in search of any odd job in the village. “He is eager to do anything; to take care of the co-villagers’ animals, to clear away the snow or to work as a farm-hand. He usually earns very little, often they pay him with food or manure”, says Nina.
“We only have a calf, that’s why we need to buy the manure from the neighbours”, says Nina.
“We start heating the house in mid October and the spring comes to our village only in May”, says Nina.
The portion of the manure Nina brings in the morning will only last until noon. In the afternoon Nina returns to the storage house to gather another portion. This time her two elder children accompany her to lend a hand.
“I carry manure three-four times everyday”, says Nina. “My younger child is only four-months old. At night I have him sleep in my bed, but during the whole day I need to keep the house really warm”.
...every month we need to spend at least 30 000 (US$100) drams just on heating “One cubic metre of manure costs 9 000 drams (US$30). Every month we need about five metres of manure. So every month we need to spend at least 30 000 (US$100) drams just on heating”, says Nina whose family’s only stable income is 42 000 AMD (US$140) a month from her parents-in-law’s pension.
This winter the Gevorgyan family has borrowed some 12 cubic metres of manure from their neighbours. “My husband could not earn much this summer and as our younger son was born, the expenses doubled”, explains Nina.
She says that the manure they have will only be enough until February, “and then, then I do not know, maybe my husband and I will walk up to the mountains and gather some dry bushes until we receive the pension for the coming month”, says Nina.
The winter in Tsaghkashen lasts from between five to six months. To heat the two-room house in Tsaghkashen Village the family needs to have some 20 cubic metres of manure for the whole winter.
The water freezes in the house during the night In winter Nina Gevorgyan, 25, typically rises at six o clock in the morning, puts on her thin clothes and summer slippers and heads outdoors with an old grimy saucepan. She enters the small storage house right next to their house, takes some animal manure, brings it out in front of the house where there is more light, and starts cutting the manure into small pieces.
Then she puts these small pieces into the pan and walks back to the house.
In the house she puts a couple of handfuls in the stove; she burns it with a piece of paper and then puts another clean saucepan full of frozen water on the stove to prepare a breakfast for her children, Tamara, 5, Roman, 3 and Hovhannes, 4 months.
“We have very cold winters here in Tsaghkashen Village. The water freezes in the house during the night”, she explains.
Soon when the house is a little warmer, Nina’s mother-in-law Qnarik Gevorgyan, 73, rises. With the water already melted, she prepares dough to make the Armenian bread lavash.
She moulds some thin ovals of dough and puts them on the same stove one after another. Whenever one piece starts to change colour, she takes it off the stove and gives it to the children as their breakfast.
Nina’s husband is already up and away in search of any odd job in the village. “He is eager to do anything; to take care of the co-villagers’ animals, to clear away the snow or to work as a farm-hand. He usually earns very little, often they pay him with food or manure”, says Nina.
“We only have a calf, that’s why we need to buy the manure from the neighbours”, says Nina.
“We start heating the house in mid October and the spring comes to our village only in May”, says Nina.
The portion of the manure Nina brings in the morning will only last until noon. In the afternoon Nina returns to the storage house to gather another portion. This time her two elder children accompany her to lend a hand.
“I carry manure three-four times everyday”, says Nina. “My younger child is only four-months old. At night I have him sleep in my bed, but during the whole day I need to keep the house really warm”.
...every month we need to spend at least 30 000 (US$100) drams just on heating “One cubic metre of manure costs 9 000 drams (US$30). Every month we need about five metres of manure. So every month we need to spend at least 30 000 (US$100) drams just on heating”, says Nina whose family’s only stable income is 42 000 AMD (US$140) a month from her parents-in-law’s pension.
This winter the Gevorgyan family has borrowed some 12 cubic metres of manure from their neighbours. “My husband could not earn much this summer and as our younger son was born, the expenses doubled”, explains Nina.
She says that the manure they have will only be enough until February, “and then, then I do not know, maybe my husband and I will walk up to the mountains and gather some dry bushes until we receive the pension for the coming month”, says Nina.
Share