The fireplaces have no chimneys and consist of no more than a little pit containing an oven. There is always a small fire in the oven so that it stays warm. They bake using the embers, never baking in the oven itself. All the smoke goes up under the roof, which is thus completely black, and out through a specially made hole in the middle of it. The door is left open so that the smoke can get out more easily. This is done to prevent all the heat going out through the chimney – though that is a really lame excuse since just as much heat goes out through the door. There is a square cover on top of the hole in the roof and it rests on a pole so that the hole can be opened and closed from the inside. There is no shortage of clay and stones. The walls in the houses are never perpendicular: each log is barked and cut convex both on the inside and on the outside. The barns are small and low and have threshing floors.