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.