Saturday, January 21, 2012

A good day to cut wood!


A nice reasonably cold Saturday!  Cold enough to cut wood, warm enough that it is not unpleasant.  I had cut a number of loads over the past few weeks, but it has been so warm and the ground still wet enough that I could not get it out of the land near the creek.  With temperatures in the 20’s for a high the ground is stiff enough I could go in with the tractor and dump trailer.  Each load is equivalent to a pickup load.  I don’t know how a pickup load relates to a cord, but I assume it is close.     One year I did 22 loads with the dump trailer, most years I am closer to 10.  I actually have enough wood to last for a couple of years, even when I am supplying Earl and my daughter.  

I can’t say that I actually heat with wood.  I burn wood to raise the temperature in the house.  I depend on the central heating system to ensure the house stays at least in the sixties. I am too lazy to get up in the middle of the night to feed the stove which means the heater comes on after midnight until I get a fire built the next morning.  The heater also comes on when I am at work.  In years like this when the temperatures are very mild it does not take much wood to heat the house.  Most days the heater comes on only a couple of times during a 24 hour period.  The rest of the time the wood stove keeps the house in the low 70's.

My house is set up to heat with wood.  I have a Wonderwood stove in the basement.  There is a hole in the ceiling above the stove that allows the heat to go to the main level of the house.  I spend a lot of time in the basement.  My computer is in the basement, as well as the bedroom where my wife and I sleep.  The dogs and cats love it when the stove is going and I let them in.   I have thought about getting an outside wood stove, but I do so love the direct heat of the stove.

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