Today’s header image should feel familiar. I used one almost like it a couple of days ago — a shot through the windshield of the SilverSilverado, headed toward the south driveway.
Yesterday the glass was decorated not with delicate crystals of frost, but with a crust of ice and the slightest dusting of snow. We got very little of the white stuff.
I’m in a groove without being in a rut. Life’s necessaries demand attention, and with a certain regularity. There are signs. Thresholds. When this, do that.
I’ve found that keeping the woodstove’s flue temp around 400°F is about right to make the cabin comfortable. When it drops under 300°F, I put another log on the fire.
If I don’t catch it ’til it cools to 200°F, I’ll be playing from behind.
Same with my indoor store of firewood. It’s been lasting about two days. After resurrecting Monday night’s burn on Tuesday morning, about a third of a rack remained. That’s my threshold.
I knew that much wood would get me to sundown, so I had no reason to hurry. I fixed myself a bowl of hot oatmeal (extra raisins, heavy on the honey) and downed an entire pot of coffee before making my way to the wood yard.
The temperature was 29°F at 8am, a few degrees “warmer” than had been predicted. Skies were overcast and winds were out of the northwest, 8mph gusting to 15mph. Pleasant enough.
Loading went the way it usually does.
Every time I do that chore, I wonder if the wood I bought will get me through this winter, or if I’ll have to pull from what I’ve brought in off of The Mountain. I suspect I’ll be tapping into a supply I didn’t think I’d touch ’til 2026-27.
That, of course, means I’ll need even more cordwood for next winter. I’d better get busy.
Unloading and stacking was uneventful as well. What you see in that photo will get me through a few days, judging by the weather forecast.
I did take advantage of a near-empty rack to move it about six inches farther from the woodstove. I wasn’t concerned about “pyrolysis” (thermal decomposition that can reduce wood’s ignition point to as low as 200°F), because it never got more than warm where it was. There simply was no reason not to, and I had the room.
The sun came out before noon. Another threshold. I’ve learned that given reasonable outside temps (mid-30s) and light winds (3mph), a warm cabin will stay warm on its own. That is, I can ignore the woodstove for between four and seven hours on a sunny day.
By 3:30pm or so, however, the passive-solar effect is over and the outside temp begins to fall. Time to build a new fire.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable