If there's one thing that's consistent about me, it's that I DREAD the Long Darks of Dakota.
No two ways about it. They're awful.
The jury's still out, but it's leaning toward my losing even that one constant in my life.
For the first time in my memory, I might actually be looking forward to this coming Long Dark.
The storying of Dunnottar might be my saving grace, plus I'm planning on using my wood stove more this winter than I've been able to in past years.
The other day I finally went out to Mary and Brian's farmstead (sister and brother-in-law) and took a chain saw to the dead wood in their shelter belts.
For various reasons I got off to a late start and got only one load hauled to my house, but there's LOTS there, easily accessible right now.
Today was icky and I think Mary and Brian weren't home (although that doesn't really matter, I like seeing them) so I worked on inside stuff at home, including getting that load of wood downstairs and organized.
Truthfully, I had left the big pieces outside when I unloaded (threw the smaller stuff down the basement steps) but tonight I went ahead and brought as much of the bigger stuff in as I could.
While I was at it, I brought in the rest of my precious oak. If my wildwood forest (basement wood pile) would only just grow split oak, I would never be cold again.
It's too expensive for me to buy, but there's plenty of other stuff in the shelter belts around here, believe you me.
At any rate, I'll be able to use my wood stove more this winter because I'll be home more.
Not only that, but my new schedule gives me both time and energy to cut wood and bring it home.
IF I can manage to do this right and can get at least several more loads cut and hauled, using my wood stove might save me a LOT of money on heat this winter.
So the pay cut I took (and the fewer hours to boot) when I went to part time might just not be as big a deal as I was afraid it would be.
I can't say for sure, because it's only just a hypothesis as of yet, but I'm thinking that I can keep my heating bill down to a manageable level by using the wood stove.
For one thing, it heats the house pretty well.
For another thing, I keep big kettles of hot water going on it all the time - the great big old-fashioned canning kettles. So I won't be using my hot water heater as much, and the humidity it puts into the air is a good thing.
For a third thing, I won't have to use any of my electric appliances for cooking at all. With the wood stove hot all the time because I'm using it to heat the house, it's going to be immediately available for cooking any time I want.
So yeah. I'm kicking myself for not having gone wood-cutting in the shelter belts long before NOW.
We'll see how it goes this year.
If it works as well as I'm hoping, I'll go cutting a lot more next year, AND I'll raid the dump on a regular basis. People haul wood out there all the time. I got a really pretty piece of birch out there this year and there was scads more but I just left it - HOW stupid am I?
Anyway, besides Dunnottar and my wood stove, I'm also looking forward to cutting up the bigger pieces so I can use them. I like using my little electric chain saw inside.
AND, come to think of it, IF I can find the NOT electric one I got from Earl, I can ALSO maybe finally get those big trunk chunks that are outside my back fence gate cut up. They're cottonwood and tougher than nails, but they'll burn if I can get them cut up.
Yep, the Long Dakota Dark is looming, but this year I might be having too much fun to worry too much about it!
No comments:
Post a Comment