Entries

Cold and Pre-Dawn Light

Submitted entry: I think after these couple of 20 degree mornings I can safely say to those of you worried about our ability to stay warm this winter that we’re going to do just fine. I’ve got the tiny stove cranked up with a bunch of hickory and it’s getting warm fast. With that big new stove we’re going to be just fine. Once we get it in Crow and I have a chainsaw date to cut up some of the dead trees nearby for firewood. There are so many around that it may be several years, possibly never before we have to worry about getting wood from any source other than dead wood from immediately nearby the yurt. There are about three big trees within 100 yards that are in great shape and need only be cut to stove lengths.

There is definitely something special about wood heat. I don’t think anything heats quite like it. Someone we know who just switched to gas heat from wood told Sage that gas was alright but it doesn’t warm your bones like wood. Further along those lines, Kitey asserts not only that but that wood from where you live heats better. Whatever it is, put me in three 70 degree rooms with gas, electric and wood and the wood will feel more cozy. And again, there’s that full sensory experience that I didn’t have an appreciation for while in the city - it’s not just warming, it crackles and looks pretty and smells wonderful inside the house and out. The preceding paragraph has been brought to you by the American Council for Wood Heat.

Crow loaned me a book recently - Flat Rock Journal by Ken Carey. I plan to write a “real” review later but before I do I want to recommend it here. It was written by a man who lives a ways east of us here who did something like what we’re doing (but with way less help). He moved to 80 acres with his family and did much more homesteading than we’re even dreaming of doing. The book itself is a journal of a single day’s walk around his land - not just hearing about what he’s seeing but flashbacks and such telling about himself and how he got there. He writes how I wish I did in this journal and gave me a feel for how my journal might be inspiring to someone as far away from what we’re doing as I am from what he’s doing.

Well, Paul just woke up - I may post this as-is or add more depending on how the day goes…

We would spend money when we felt down.

Is the chaos created by me?