Wood Pile

When you heat your home and your hot water with wood you occasionally have to cut wood or buy some. The woods that surround our house are mainly Burr Oak. We only cut  the dead, down or hazard trees. Far Guy will probably order a semi-load of wood that will be a mixture of oak and pine..it gets stacked next to the road and Far Guy cuts it into lengths and hauls it into the wood shed.

 This week a load of slabs was delivered, they are pine slabs from a sawmill that saws lumber. They will eventually be stacked in the woodshed.

 In the meantime, a squirrel or a chipmunk will move in. Chance will guard this stack of slabs valiantly, it will occupy him for many afternoons. He is all about the watch and wait, although occasionally he will be victorious and chase something up a tree. The really dumb chipmunks will be dealt with but we won't talk about that. It is his territory after all, the truck delivers the slabs, he is sent to the house because he prefers to be inside when the earth shakes..but after that..the slab pile is his.

 We used to use the wood-stove to heat the largest greenhouse. You could practically stand outside and shove wood in the stove all night long.

 My sore shoulder has gotten me out of heaving heavy pieces of wood in the wood-stove this winter. Far Guy adds wood to the wood-stove once a day, the house is kept a very comfortable 74 degrees. I can wear shorts in the winter..and I do!

Having an outdoor stove has advantages. The wood mess is kept out of doors. The fire hazard is out doors also..although an occasional chimney fire sometimes just happens.

This one was real pretty. it wasn't dramatic enough to be a problem.  Far Guy just watched it..this was last November.  It is just the creosote burning off the walls of the chimney.  In the spring if it is dry we will shut down the wood stove, although there is a certain amount of safety living in the oaks..a small fire in the oaks doesn't travel like a small fire in the pines.  I sometimes worry about a bug or disease coming through and wiping out all the deep shade that the oaks give us in the summer..this spring we will plant a few pines. Not a forest full, not in rows that can be a fire trail ..just here and there throughout the woods:) 

A Warm Friend

This morning Far Guy announced "It's Time." Time for what? A fire in the outdoor wood stove. We don't have a furnace in the house, we have a gas fireplace for a back up and to take the early morning chill out of the house. We use the outdoor wood stove for our main heat, it also heats our hot water in the hot water heater ( by conduction) ..so the electricity bill will go down. This stove heats water and the water is carried by two special hoses in the ground (I dug and buried the hoses..they are encased in insulation) anyway one carries warm water to the house and one carries cold water from the house. It comes into the house way underground and heats the area in front of my kitchen sink to a delightfully warm temperature where you can wash dishes barefoot when it is way below zero. Chance also lays there in the winter and melts all the snow balls he has collected on his feet and belly from running wildly through the snow banks.

Far Guy has most of the wood cut for the winter, since we closed the greenhouse business..he will have more than enough wood cut for this winter...possibly several winters. He loads up the stove once a day, sometimes every other day. I can enjoy 72 degree warmth all winter without quilt. I am spoiled, and bundle up like a polar bear when going visiting..cause I get cold...in turn everyone who visits here may get too warm:)