Monday, February 16, 2009

This Is It

This is all that's left of the wood that I cut for this season. It's not much, unless it gets warm pretty quickly. It's just about one-third of a row. I started with nearly four rows.

What's left of this season's wood pile.

I have a ton more wood, but it needs to be cut with a chainsaw into stove-sized pieces. I'm not wanting to do that until later this summer, in preparation for next winter. So we'll see how it goes.

We're at that point in the season where I'm feeling tired of building the daily fire. Even though the wood is cut, I still need to go out every day, regardless of wet and cold, and split a few of the pieces with an axe to make them small enough to burn. In the fall, it's fun and exciting and new. But come February, ugh, what a chore (and that includes cleaning the ashes out of the stove every morning-after). As the days get longer and warmer, the fires get shorter and smaller. I skip the odd day, then more days, and before I know it, it's the spring of the year and I'm not making fires any more.

Are we there yet?

5 comments:

  1. so about when do u get to stop building fires....sometimes we have the heat on at nite well into April, sometimes even early may in VA

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  2. Everything is a chore in February.

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  3. In Los Angeles, burning wood in fireplaces will not be allowed because they pollute too much.
    I have a gaz fireplace downstairs that I use only when it get cold (not too often in SoCal). It is raining today and it feels so good to be inside for President's day, next to the fireplace. My cat loves it.

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  4. melinda, last year I stopped sometime in March, although there is the occasional fire on chilly spring nights. We'll see this year, it feels colder than past years.

    chris, no kidding!

    nadege, yes, I know. They were having the same debate in the Bay Area before we left.

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  5. i'm still mulling the info from graham robb and others that historically people in the countryside in france more or less hibernated in the winter, to save food. they'd just sit around together in the main room, with the cows ruminating in their stalls, open to the main room, which also added to the heat. and sleep. caramba.

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