It is SO Good

This is me smiling when I get up in the morning.

...well, actually it is a candle flame, but you get the idea.

To look at the weather forecast each morning calmly. Yes, there is always concern when you work out doors. But the almost life or death urgency is gone.


 I don't miss it.


And we discovered to our dismay and astonishment that there was something wrong with the old stove right from the factory. There were issues with the door gasket right from day one, but we didn't know any better so we just used it. The gasket and door latch on the reconditioned stove is infinitely tighter and better. That puppy seals right up tight!


We burn about a fifth or less of the wood we used to and the fire holds for days with barely any attention.


EIGHT YEARS! That's how long we struggled with the old one and didn't even know we were struggling. It is sweet to have the guys (they are determined that the wood must weigh about eighty pounds per block, just a little too much for me unless I have no choice) toss in maybe five chunks a day and not have to whine and beg for wood all the time.


It is so good to be warm.

Warm

We are. Despite the stove guy NOT CALLING US that the stove was back at his shop...he didn't want to come up our driveway because it is muddy and there are some bushes that might scratch his truck....local folks got our stove back home for us.


The boss called stove guy day before yesterday and got the news. We were not exactly happy, but at least we knew that it was in New York State.


The boss then called a really, really, really nice businessman in town who offered to let the stove guy drop it off in his yard on the flat....which was done.


Then that man dropped his own work in his busiest season of the year, in the busiest time of that season now that it has frozen up, to bring the stove up with his logging equipment and very carefully set it in place. He also gave us some wood. He would not take any money.


Alan and the boss plumbed and wired and messed with stuff all day. The water hoses Becky and I carefully sequestered in the milk house against the day froze the minute they took them outdoors. And blew up. Alan had to go buy more hose.


The underground stove hoses I have been keeping thawed by burning a fire in the little stove thingy Alan built froze as soon as the men dismantled it.


 "Hot Hands" hand warmers, hot coffee, hot mac and cheese and all Alan's grout clothes from his job in the city were needed to keep them going. The boss banged his hands up working so stiff from the cold. I don't think either of them needed any rocking last night, but I put hot water bottles in the beds so they were extra warm.


It took them from eight in the morning to evening milking time to get it functional...of course cows had to be milked...the girls and I did that. And fed, which the boss and Liz and I did. And of course the cows broke things and created havoc and got out of the feed yard fence just for fun.


But then, but the start of evening milking, Alan was building a fire. There were still some frozen hoses and some assorted bugs with the plenum to work out, but by the time we went to bed last night we had honest to God and thanks to God HEAT.


We left it on all night, something which we never do, and I got up to a warm house. I am sitting here, comfortable. Genuinely comfy, cozy, and contented. It is like being reborn to joy. I don't think I will ever take being warm enough for granted again.


Thank you to everyone who helped, everyone who thought of us, cared, prayed, worried etc. and especially thank you Hiram for bringing that puppy home for us. We will see you repaid somehow and soon.

Sunday, no Stills...until maybe later

This is my morning....noon, night, in between.... starting fires and filling this thing, which Alan built, which is hooked up to the piping for the outdoor wood stove...which is in Wisconsin. I have to keep the piping from freezing so when it gets back from its tour of duty we can hook it back up and it wil work.


This morning it was really cold, so I started the day at 4:15 to turn on the little electric heaters and get this thing going. There were still a few coals left from last night and the water was running as it should be, but there was also snow on top of the barrel.


It took a long time to start the fire. Certain individuals are very stingy about cutting me kindling....and although I am a sort of harbor chick, I don't run the chain saw.


It is going now, hissing and banging, as the hickory is wet and takes a while to get warm enough to just burn...hopefully in an hour or so I can turn the furnace fan on for a little while and warm the place up a bit.


Sure was pretty out this morning though. It snowed between dog out time and me out time, so I made the very first tracks of the morning. No traffic so I could hear the businesslike chatter of the creek..not frozen yet.


Woke up a bird which chirped irritably at me before going back to sleep. I have an old pine pallet I am chipping up..not much left of it...for kindling. The scent of it was as strong as turpentine, but sweet too, as the newspapers singed its stubborn edges and teased it into ignition. It was kind of nice in an Amish pioneer sort of way.


I will try to get something for Sunday Stills when the sun comes up but no guarantees. Tried to get a pic of a random Santa waving by the road side yesterday, but traffic was just too busy.

Merry Christmas, Have a Hot Shower

Year round!!!!

***I could sing the Hallelujah Chorus myself right now! We were looking at either spending thousands or taking cold ones!

New Outdoor Wood Boiler Regs Tabled

Hallelujah!

Our membership in NY Farm Bureau is worth every penny it costs us because of their efforts on this issue alone. Add in the convenience of E-Lobby, their hard work on trucking regs, farm labor, and many other issues facing farms today and it is a real winner for us.

Sunday Stills....Smoke and Fire

I pride myself on one-match fires. This wasn't one.



For more Sunday Stills....

And They Want us to Stop Using Our Outdoor Furnace

BP to burn 42000 gallons of oil per day. If it is the best answer for keeping as much oil as possible out of sensitive areas I am fine with what they are doing...it just seems ironic that the state is chasing after a few wood stoves in light of the pollution BP will cause.

Let Your Voice Be Heard on Outdoor Wood Stoves

You can file your testimony on the topic here. For background the DEC here in NY is planning regulations that would force most existing stoves to be taken out of service whether they are bothering anybody or not. No other state has put in place such restrictive rules, although several have regulated stack height and siting.

A few bad apples shouldn't cause people like us who sited our stove with great care and maintain it well to have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to heat our home. At this point should OWFs be banned not only would we be forced to abandon a ten-thousand dollar stove, but we would also have to purchase a new indoor furnace as ours is defunct.
Below is the testimony I submitted via the form linked to above.

Thousands of rural New Yorkers rely on outdoor wood stoves for safe, economical heat from a renewable resource, which does not depend on fossil fuels. Our own family turned to an outdoor device when we could no longer afford to heat our home with heating oil. One year alone we spent over three thousand dollars on heating fuel and that was before the price ongoing price spike. I estimate that it would now cost us at least five thousand dollars as we have an old Victorian farm house that is nearly impossible to heat. At this point our only cost to stay warm in the winter is a little electricity and some chain saw chains and gas, as we have our own wood source. It is our only source of hot water in our home as well...year round.

I am afraid we would suffer greatly without it. We run a dairy farm and our income has been horribly curtailed by low milk prices. Perhaps we would even have to sell our farm and move to a warmer climate if we could no longer heat with wood. I will not use an indoor wood device because of the danger of a house fire.

Strong consideration should also be given to the Deep Water Horizon oil spill when comparing the environmental impact of OWFs.
I can't imagine how many wood stoves would have to burn for centuries to have such an immense negative impact on the environment.

Please allow us to continue to use our own resources to heat our homes and to heat our water even in the summer.
Thanks

Wow

Had the morning off yesterday. Although Saturday isn't Sunday, it sure was nice. The guys went off for cow hay and to hit a machinery auction and to try to buy my Christmas present from the boss***, so we women had the day to ourselves. Liz kept the cows fed and I worked on the wood stove. There are times when that is a miserable and thankless task, but on a day like yesterday it beat housework all hollow.

Alan takes care of the stove for the most part, but he tends not to shovel out the ashes. Not something you need to do every day with an outdoor stove, but sooner or later it must be done. They were at least a foot deep.

These outdoor wood-burning critters are supposed to be inefficient, but if you burn them right when it is time to clean them out there is nothing left but incredibly heavy, dense, mealy powder. I swear every shovel full weighs twenty pounds. Yesterday there was a sluggish fire of gigantic maple blocks burning so I had to clean around that, and I was pretty pooped when I got done. However, the sun was hammering down hard enough that I soon shed my fleece vest. (You know you are a farmer when your vest says "Today" on it and rather than being a Zen statement it is an advertisement for mastitis medicine). It was actually warm enough for just a turtleneck and jeans, which is a mighty fine thing. After the shoveling I scavenged some apple up in the orchard and got that sullen fire fired up so to speak. (I didn't use any of my precious fat wood, as I didn't need to but last week I build a fire from scratch with it -just three little pieces that I broke off-and it was fantastic. I had a fire that was woofing and snarking up the logs in about five minutes! Thanks FC, again.)

It was a fantastic day to be out. Our resident mocking bird was hard at work teaching the cardinal how to sing his song. Clouds of blackbirds were nattering around in the box elders up by the old hop house. There were geese and killdeers and robins. Chickadees, titmice, and goldfinches. It was just warm enough to work hard, but cool enough to be comfy. The grass is actually turning GREEN! For the past two years spring has been so late that there has been no grass well into May. As we are buying feed seeing the land green up lifts my heart plumb up. No bugs yet either, although I slathered on plenty of OFF! to dissuade ticks from visiting my vulnerable ankles. I hope today is half as nice.




***The boss promised me one of those waffle deck plastic wagons for Christmas, but couldn't find one during the winter months. He is still looking, but they are just not in the stores yet. I love something like that for hauling wood and garden dirt and hay and all. Can't wait until he finds one!