Winter

In winter we lead a more inward life. Our hearts are warm and cheery, like cottages under drifts, whose windows and doors are half concealed, but from whose chimneys the smoke cheerfully ascends.... We enjoy now, not an Oriental, but a Boreal leisure, around warm stoves and fireplaces,and watch the shadow of motes in the sunbeams.

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862),“A Winter Walk”


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The forecast calls for a blizzard. Schools close early. I wait for our students to board the bus and find their parents' cars, all ready for an early Thanksgiving break. We drive home, the last few miles in tango whirls of snow.

Home is warm. The blizzard is mild, a few hours of blowing snow. With temperatures dipping down to zero we are maintaining our 55 degrees unheated. With the fire or propane heater we can warm up to 70. Only once, even with cloud filled snow falling days, have we needed to turn on the generator for power and that was to watch a movie. My anxiety level is dropping. My worries are easing. We are passing these tests I feared we were unprepared for.

Let your guard down and the unexpected sneaks in. Our water heater freezes. The room is plenty warm... I am constantly monitoring. We have insulated everything; the pipes in triplicate in my worry. It is a back draft from the venting pipe. We never imagined that one,and between the two of us we are pretty good at imagining all the possibilities. Water heater broken. Warranty doesn't cover freezing no matter the cause. Thought we did this one right but it has just been difficult, this Bosch on demand water heater. Ordered the special venting pipe for higher elevations like the instructions demand, had a plumper hook it up and adjust it, Greg spent hours with the technical help when it only heated to a lukewarm temperature. Then the waiting, the wasting of water, while it heats. This make rinsing dishes a challenging feat. Do you waste the water or the propane? That is the question. The painful payment of a new one. There are so many other things I would rather do with this thousand dollars. Greg has not had work the past few weeks. So early in the winter and I am on the edge of annoyed anger and financial panic. Thoreau didn't have this hostility in a wife, I wonder if he ever got it from his mother. So much easier to live your dream when it is only your dream, not a shared one with the best interest of many individuals. Yet, it is Thanksgiving and I have much to be thankful for.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was perfect. How glad I am to have a daughter who likes to cook. She could prepare this feast on her own and gives everything a festive touch that I do not. She add so much wit and insight to daily observations and conversations. How thankful I am to have a healthy happy thriving son, the ideal teen. How thankful I am to have food and shelter, health and nature, love and family, education and a job that I enjoy, and peace. We live in a peaceful time and for this I am most thankful.

Warmth

“Every man looks at his wood-pile with a kind of affection. I loved to have mine before my window … they warmed me twice, once while I was splitting them, and again when they were on the fire, so that no fuel could give out more heat. ~ Henry David Thoreau






Staying warm is one of my major concerns. As the nights grow colder we stack and split firewood we have collected from dead trees and Greg's landscaping jobs. Watching Greg split fire wood is amazing... a display of grace and strength. With one drop of the ax the log splits in two (lets just say it takes many more swings for me to split a log). I have no idea how much wood is required to heat a house through a winter, and I suppose it depends on the severity of the winter. We have 6 cords of wood and a cast iron stove recycled from my parents rental house. A remnant of the 70's when many heated their homes with wood.

The plan is to use a wall mounted propane heater to warm things up before we leave to school in the mornings and use the wood burning stove in the evenings. Right now the coldest the house has been in the morning is 58 degrees (the coldest outside has been 32 degrees). I have yet to finish making insulated curtains for all the windows, so we will see if that helps hold in heat as the nights and days grow colder. The propane heater can heat the house up to my comfort level of 68 degrees in a half hour, the wood burning stove takes a few hours. I am disappointed at this. I thought it would really heat things up. It does seems to heat efficiently, burning slowly and leaving few ashes.

I am pleased that we have used less propane than anticipated. In four months we have used 100 gallons for heating water, cooking, and the fridge. This is a constant usage. Add the propane heater and we will see how much we go through, but we should be able to make the goal of only filling our 1000 gallon tank once a year. Also, as of yet we have not needed to use the generator for electricity. The solar panels and batteries have been providing all we need, even through a rainy weekend when we were all home. It is all an experiment and an adventure.