Practical matters

After all the celebrating and holiday lounging, today we were back to practical matters. In a word—or two words—dry wood.

There were a couple of logs left from the last time I brought wood in the house, probably a week ago. The weather has been relatively warm so I haven’t used much. In fact, I let the wood stove die out on Sunday evening and I haven’t needed to start a fire until this afternoon. The house maintained heat pretty well. It wasn’t until around noon-ish that the house temperature started to fall into the low 60s.

The lad and I trooped out to the woodpile to bring a load in and we discovered that the tarp had sprung several rather massive leaks what with the rain water pooling and freezing. Lots of sharp edges on the ice, which sliced several sections of the tarp. Layers of wet, soggy wood underneath. That made my heart sink to my toes.

Fortunately, I’ve learned, over time, to keep a two day supply of bone dry wood in the rack by the stove. It’s my emergency wood and it serves double duty. First to heat the house and, second, heat to dry wet wood.

We’ve had an assembly line going this afternoon. Wet logs go on top of the stove to dry out. When they’re mostly dry, they go into the rack by the stove to dry out some more from the ambient heat. More wet wood goes on top of the stove. And so it has gone all afternoon. There is still plenty of wet wood to dry, but I think we’re on top of it now.

Next year, I have to come up with a better plan than tarps over the woodpile. What I need is a wood shed.

Otherwise, there’s not much else going on here today. Just a little cooking. Since the lad announced that he was hibernating this week and doesn’t plan on going anywhere, he was hoping I’d make all his favorite dishes. Pretty easy request to fulfill. There’s a pot of chili simmering now. Last night I made Shepherd’s Pie. His other requests include Grandma’s Macaroni and Cheese, stroganoff, and beef stew. Good winter comfort foods. There has also been some fresh homemade bread and more still to come. It smells wonderful in here!