January 21st, 2020
So, that was Christmas and I made it through, traditions intact, these including aspic (forgot one ingredient), socks under the tree (one grumbly recipient who got plain ones and wanted silly ones) and aforesaid tree spitting needles as it was dragged across the living room floor and out the door. JG only forgot two gifts that he bought a while back and I did not, as far as I know, forget any. That I have found, that is. Not bad. Not at all bad. And today I actually went to town and exchanged a Christmas present.
I think this is the first time I have ever taken back a present. The gift was a sweater chosen by the YD for her father to give me and it was on her advice that I exchanged it. When I tried it on, it was obvious that the style was not for me. I live in hip length cardigans and pullovers and this garment was an asymmetrical open front that hung all wrong at about knee length in front and pulled up at the back. Oh, dear. Anyway, I changed it for a dressing gown, probably the most opulent garment I have ever had … pale pink silky fabric on the outside and white plush on the inside. (The one advertised turned out to be grey – use your imagination). The ratty one that I have been wearing is going into the wash and then into the discard pile. It is not even fit for the rag bag and certainly not to the recycle. Unless someone wants to use it as padding in a quilt.
As for quilts, as the cold weather crept up on us, my husband, for the first time in my memory, complained of not being warm enough at night. I tried various configurations of duvet and blanket on the bed, but nothing seemed to be working. As a last resort we purchased an electric blanket on line. Twenty-four hours later it was delivered to the door. This on-line shopping is not bad, eh, considering that we live at the dead end of three kilometres of bad road. And now we have on the bed a sheet, a quilt, the electric blanket and another light quilt on top. Who needs one of those new, trendy weighted blankets! And JG is warm. Neither of us is tossing or even turning, but we are nice and warm.
Our bedroom is usually cold. We heat, unregenerate Neanderthals that we are, with wood. In really cold weather we run a wood fired, forced air furnace and can heat the whole house (in fact, we can overheat the whole house, depending on what kind of wood we feed into the maw of the furnace). When it is not as cold, or when the electricity might be iffy, we do not gamble on the forced air and turn to wood stoves, of which we have one on each floor. JG’s computer, TV and other toys are downstairs in the same room as the bigger of the two woodstoves. If he stokes it up too much, his room can get very hot. If he doesn’t, the rest of the house doesn’t. Especially our bedroom, at the far end. Four layers of insulation are not too many.
This heating with wood thing consumes a lot of JG’s time and energy. Over time he has taught himself to be able to judge what trees should be encouraged and what trees should be harvested. Since the major ice storm we had in 1998, there are plenty in the later category, and we have 300 acres of land, mostly wooded, from which to chose. The ideal tree, of course, lies close to a trail, will not hit anything good as it is felled, and does not have rot in the wrong spots. It is also nice if it splits well, stacks well and dries well.
After thinking about this last statement for a while, I decided to add a short photo essay on the subject of harvesting wood. Labour-intensive. These photos are all of stove and furnace wood harvesting. We also do improvement cuts in the bush, and that is a story for another day.
After a windstorm, this tree will become firewood.
Here is another candidate. This was one big maple. Splitting it was hard work, but worth it, because it split nicely.
Below is the harvester, chainsaw roaring, clearing small stuff.
He is well equipped. This is an articulated claw used, as you see, to pick up whole logs.
The red item on the back of the tractor is a winch, used to haul logs out of the bush.
Logs cut up and split, ready to stack in an open area to dry.
Drying.
When the split wood is thoroughly dry, it is moved in stages from the long pile to the ready pile by the "wood door" near the furnace inside. Here is the chain gang moving and stacking.
Just for scale, and because she was so cute. And so sure-footed.
So, that was Christmas and I made it through, traditions intact, these including aspic (forgot one ingredient), socks under the tree (one grumbly recipient who got plain ones and wanted silly ones) and aforesaid tree spitting needles as it was dragged across the living room floor and out the door. JG only forgot two gifts that he bought a while back and I did not, as far as I know, forget any. That I have found, that is. Not bad. Not at all bad. And today I actually went to town and exchanged a Christmas present.
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As for quilts, as the cold weather crept up on us, my husband, for the first time in my memory, complained of not being warm enough at night. I tried various configurations of duvet and blanket on the bed, but nothing seemed to be working. As a last resort we purchased an electric blanket on line. Twenty-four hours later it was delivered to the door. This on-line shopping is not bad, eh, considering that we live at the dead end of three kilometres of bad road. And now we have on the bed a sheet, a quilt, the electric blanket and another light quilt on top. Who needs one of those new, trendy weighted blankets! And JG is warm. Neither of us is tossing or even turning, but we are nice and warm.
Our bedroom is usually cold. We heat, unregenerate Neanderthals that we are, with wood. In really cold weather we run a wood fired, forced air furnace and can heat the whole house (in fact, we can overheat the whole house, depending on what kind of wood we feed into the maw of the furnace). When it is not as cold, or when the electricity might be iffy, we do not gamble on the forced air and turn to wood stoves, of which we have one on each floor. JG’s computer, TV and other toys are downstairs in the same room as the bigger of the two woodstoves. If he stokes it up too much, his room can get very hot. If he doesn’t, the rest of the house doesn’t. Especially our bedroom, at the far end. Four layers of insulation are not too many.
This heating with wood thing consumes a lot of JG’s time and energy. Over time he has taught himself to be able to judge what trees should be encouraged and what trees should be harvested. Since the major ice storm we had in 1998, there are plenty in the later category, and we have 300 acres of land, mostly wooded, from which to chose. The ideal tree, of course, lies close to a trail, will not hit anything good as it is felled, and does not have rot in the wrong spots. It is also nice if it splits well, stacks well and dries well.
After thinking about this last statement for a while, I decided to add a short photo essay on the subject of harvesting wood. Labour-intensive. These photos are all of stove and furnace wood harvesting. We also do improvement cuts in the bush, and that is a story for another day.
Below is the harvester, chainsaw roaring, clearing small stuff.
He is well equipped. This is an articulated claw used, as you see, to pick up whole logs.
The red item on the back of the tractor is a winch, used to haul logs out of the bush.
Logs cut up and split, ready to stack in an open area to dry.
Drying.
When the split wood is thoroughly dry, it is moved in stages from the long pile to the ready pile by the "wood door" near the furnace inside. Here is the chain gang moving and stacking.
Just for scale, and because she was so cute. And so sure-footed.
There is something about a wood furnace. We used to like to do that at the cottage. It is a lot of work for older folk, so I commend you folk.
ReplyDeleteI know you've now solved the cold night problem, but every now and then when it is colder than usual, I wear a hoodie to bed, and it works really well, especially for a bald guy.
The dressing gown sounds lovely and I am glad it was all around a good holiday! She is that cute and sure-footed! So that's the firewood process! We have no need ever of firewood here but if needed, it would be a small cord from, huh, I am not sure where!
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