Whooooeeeeee! I just set off discourses in goegraphy, climatology, import-export, and the tour business. Such a varied forum this is!
Yep, it can get cold over here - not cold by most standards, but it getting down to below zero tonight (ok, that's C* and not F*, but still) and homes are generally not as well insulated either. I live up in the hills (we like to call them mountains, 'cause they're all we got), my house is at 800 m. of elevation. The first winter I lived here we got a meter of snow in one swell foop, but since then it's just been a few inches if any. If someone lets Al Gore know that, maybe we'll be on his next show. But like clownfish said, deserts are COLD! The coldest nights here are not when there's a front coming in off the Med - which usually moderates it, but when the wind comes from the east off the desert, dry, cold, and blowing hard.
But it is your typical med climate, or southern cal climate, with rain in the winter and none in the summer. I guess my area is semi-arid, but we've been planting the area pretty intensively. In addition to the indigenous olive trees and cedar/pines, we are high and cool enough to be a prime area for fruit orchards and wine grapes. Eucalyptus does ok - that's what I hope to be burning (any thoughts on that?) - although there is a stand of dead almond trees asking to be chopped down. I have pears, pomegranates, apricot, plum, apples, cherries, mulberries and olives in my yard. The only thing that has not done so well are citrus, but I keep trying.
Sidebar - not all Israel is semi-arid, though. Up north there are waterfalls and streams and forests, areas that remind me of my native Kentucky (no bluegrass, though). There are wetlands up there which are on the international migrating routes, and the bird-watching up there is phenomenal (I don't even LIKE birdwatching, and I think so).
I have been looking for used stoves, and I have seen a VC or two in people's homes over the years, but so far none for sale. There is a waterford 103 for sale that by the picture looks likes its been sitting outside for a while - it's a huge ol' thing, but I have a mostly open plan of about 90 sq. m. on my ground floor that is too large for my present kerosene stove - not to mention the price of kerosene here. Is there any way of eyeballing a new or used stove to figure out how good it is?
Thanks for the offer of bringing a stove over in your luggage. Maybe if we could find a bunch of people coming over, we could saw it into little pieces and then solder it back together. Would that work?
On a more serious note....drewmo, thanks for your kind offer, and I would be interested in hearing a quote. The reason I thought about going the way of home despot (as you can tell, i'm no fan of theirs either. But yes, we do have them here, and Ace, office despot - also on my list right now - that whole globalization thing, you know. starbucks failed here, though, which was kind of interesting. There's even a kosher KFC!) is that I figured they might be able to import it at a lower tax rate than personal import. swestall - the tax folk don't care WHERE you buy it, as long as they can get their percentage, like tax folk anywhere.
moondoggy, thanks for that link, i'll check it out. and thank all of you for your help. aside from keeping up with kentucky basketball, this is one of the best things the web does - putting one in touch with good, knowledgeable folk who like to help.
