Last winter was long and hard. As a consequence, we burned about five cords of wood rather than our usual three-plus. I wrote last spring about some of the fun snow sport antics that required. I usually have two winter’s worth of wood on hand so everything gets about two summers’ worth of drying. With short summers, this ensures dry wood to burn (I usually work with 16-inch pieces and split it as we use it.)
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Snowshoe Express – Wood
We’ve had a long winter, and we have very deep snow. In addition, in working from home for many hours each week we’ve burned more wood than we normally to. So we’ve run out of the best of it. The wood shed is empty, and next year’s stash was buried under mountains of snow. Fortunately, I covered some split stuff that was piled outside the shed with a tarp, and I was able to crawl in under a snow cave and pull some of that out. Our heated garage dries this wood out in a couple weeks, so as long as I plan ahead, we’re good.
Stormageddon
I remember when I first learned about global warming (many years ago, now), that a main prediction was that we would see more frequent weather extremes. Talk about predictions coming true with a bang. These days the news seems to perpetually include unprecedented weather events around the world. The periodic unseasonably warm spell—at these latitudes—is okay from time to time, but I know I’d prefer not to live through the big stuff. As if we had a choice…
Extended Holiday Plumbing
How often have we heard horror stories about something going unexpectedly wrong with the plumbing over the holidays and causing a catastrophic loss of seasonal joy? Ours was self inflicted.
Firewood Isn’t Free
Since fuel prices went way up in 2005, we’ve been burning 3-4 cords of firewood every winter to augment our fuel-oil boiler heat. Along with energy related upgrades and a better wood stove, it’s really lowered our heating costs and carbon footprint. Before 2005 we’d been more lax in our wood burning, using it mostly on really cold days. But we’ve been cutting our own firewood for well over 20 years.