Wood woes

Wednesday, 9:09 am

By Kate

Dec

14

2005

Winter is getting off to a fabulous start with early snow storms and frigid temperatures. There’s another storm on the way, although I don’t think we’ll get the snow part. Just the sleet and freezing rain part. But that could change. The weatherman makes no promises. Meantime, we’re also freezing our knickers off. The temperatures never climbed out of the low 20s yesterday and, currently, we’re sitting at 8.8°! In December! Which, for the coast of Massachusetts, is simply obscene.

I’ve been watching my woodpile dwindle at an alarming rate as these cold temperatures dig in and stay. I didn’t anticipate three winter months of deep freeze. Usually it’s a couple of months of mid to upper 30s, two months of deep freeze, and another couple of months of upper 30s to low 40s, before spring finally sets in.

I can string a couple of logs out for a long time on a basic mid-30s sort of winter’s day. But with these frigid temperatures, I’m burning wood full out all day long. I’ve used about a third of my wood already and there are still three and a half months of winter left. I knew I should have ordered another cord of wood!

So now, instead of counting sheep when I go to bed at night, I count logs as I try to figure out the best way to combine furnace use with wood stove use so that I can make the wood last longer, without facing enormous gas bills. I’m thinking if I let the stove burn down before bed time, I can let the temperature drift down until the thermostat kicks on somewhere around 60 degrees. It shouldn’t have to go on more than a couple of times before morning on really cold nights and probably not at all on milder nights. That should save me very close to a month’s worth of wood for daytime use.

It is lovely to wake up to a cozy house in the morning, but I think we can get over being spoiled if it means an extra month of real heat as opposed to just enough heat to prevent us from turning into blocks of ice.

Winter is such a pain. And so is lousy planning.

I hope the Old Farmer’s Almanac is right when it says that February is going to be super-mild this year. I really hope it’s right.