The Adjusted Normal, 37. Winter Fuel.
Long gone are the days when, with a twist of a thermostat, we could warm the house. Or when, with a phone call, we could order more fuel. Those times remain back in Boston.
Here, we have a wood stove. And that's it. While it doesn't warm the house to Boston winter standards, it's still more pleasant inside than outside in the winter. But to achieve that pleasant tepidness, we need firewood.
The time to make firewood is in summer. During the winter and spring, my husband scouts woods and dales, checking different plots where trees can be cut. Either that, or calling up a provider, who can bring a tractor load of felled trees to be turned into blocks of wood that will later be chopped. When the logs have accumulated, my husband cuts them into rounds.
Then, in high summer, these past years we've rented a wood chopper. It takes three of us most of the day, during two or three days to chop up all the wood, and leave it to lie in the sun to fully dry. This year, however, some very wide trees had had to be cut, and the resulting rounds would be too heavy and unwieldy for that chopper. My husband wanted a faster, stronger one that would take it all.
That was almost his undoing. Finally, someone agreed to come with their tractor, wood chopper attached. But he can only come a few hours in one afternoon, possibly two. And he charges much more than we paid to rent these past years.
So now, my husband is out there with a couple of his brothers, and the tractor owner, chopping the rounds of wood into reasonable lengths to stuff in the stove this coming winter. The heat is not helping, since it's over 30ºC/86ºF. And there is no shade where the wood is. Whatever is left unfinished, my husband has to chop by hand. Before we started hiring the chopper, he would chop some wood after work from the spring onward, and a couple of hours on weekends. It's hard, laborious work.
Some years ago, before the last crisis hit, people were getting rid of their wood stoves, and installing heating systems based on fuel oil. It was cheap (at that time) and clean. All you had to do was order the fuel and turn on the thermostat. My parents installed such a system in their house next door.
But, over the years, heating oil became a commodity on a par with diamonds; just about as expensive. So, many people went back to wood stoves, and even pellets. And now there's a run on wood for fuel.
We never left the wood stove, and my father next door alternated oil heating with the wood stove in his final years. It's not perfect, at all. It mostly heats the kitchen (our all-purpose room) and the hallway. I have an electric space heater in my study for the colder afternoons and evenings, and we have an electric portable radiator upstairs for the bathroom. Other than that, we wear layers. It's a good thing it doesn't go below freezing many winter nights.
Life continues.
Here, we have a wood stove. And that's it. While it doesn't warm the house to Boston winter standards, it's still more pleasant inside than outside in the winter. But to achieve that pleasant tepidness, we need firewood.
The time to make firewood is in summer. During the winter and spring, my husband scouts woods and dales, checking different plots where trees can be cut. Either that, or calling up a provider, who can bring a tractor load of felled trees to be turned into blocks of wood that will later be chopped. When the logs have accumulated, my husband cuts them into rounds.
Then, in high summer, these past years we've rented a wood chopper. It takes three of us most of the day, during two or three days to chop up all the wood, and leave it to lie in the sun to fully dry. This year, however, some very wide trees had had to be cut, and the resulting rounds would be too heavy and unwieldy for that chopper. My husband wanted a faster, stronger one that would take it all.
That was almost his undoing. Finally, someone agreed to come with their tractor, wood chopper attached. But he can only come a few hours in one afternoon, possibly two. And he charges much more than we paid to rent these past years.
So now, my husband is out there with a couple of his brothers, and the tractor owner, chopping the rounds of wood into reasonable lengths to stuff in the stove this coming winter. The heat is not helping, since it's over 30ºC/86ºF. And there is no shade where the wood is. Whatever is left unfinished, my husband has to chop by hand. Before we started hiring the chopper, he would chop some wood after work from the spring onward, and a couple of hours on weekends. It's hard, laborious work.
Some years ago, before the last crisis hit, people were getting rid of their wood stoves, and installing heating systems based on fuel oil. It was cheap (at that time) and clean. All you had to do was order the fuel and turn on the thermostat. My parents installed such a system in their house next door.
But, over the years, heating oil became a commodity on a par with diamonds; just about as expensive. So, many people went back to wood stoves, and even pellets. And now there's a run on wood for fuel.
We never left the wood stove, and my father next door alternated oil heating with the wood stove in his final years. It's not perfect, at all. It mostly heats the kitchen (our all-purpose room) and the hallway. I have an electric space heater in my study for the colder afternoons and evenings, and we have an electric portable radiator upstairs for the bathroom. Other than that, we wear layers. It's a good thing it doesn't go below freezing many winter nights.
Life continues.
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