It might not seem like a big deal, but having smoke coming out of your chimney is important. In rural Spain there is a type of association that affects those living in the area. The Comunidad del Monte is the association that regulates the use of the communal property of the town or village. Those living near these lands typically have rights and privileges to that land. For example, you could be allowed to harvest fire wood, graze your livestock, or go hunting on land that is public. But it has to be YOUR public land, not others. Not just anyone can come and harvest wood or wild game from this area, you have to be part of the “comunidad”.

Which leads us back to why chimney smoke is important. In previous eras, the determining factor of whether you could be part of the comunidad was whether you had smoke coming from your chimney for at least three months of the year.

Don’t ask me how they measured it, or how reliable that is, but when I asked how to become a member of the comunidad del monte, that was one of the answers I was told.

Either way, we have a fireplace installed and pumping out smoke so everyone knows that we live here! (And the extra warmth is nice as well…)