The wood stove and the firewood is working much better after the clean out of the chimney cap. The weather here is glorious with sunny and about 70 degrees F. so I am only starting a fire at night to keep the house about 65-70 degrees and starting a fire as needed. Rather than keeping a fire burning over night. I start one fire a day either in the morning to take the chill off the house or a fire at night to keep the house warm overnight. I am making fire starters for the next heating season as the set up of paper portion cups and wood bedding chips seems to work very well with the paraffin wax. I no longer struggle to start of keep a fire burning. The wood stove is burning great and the cats love laying around the living room and the wood stove. Cats are a great barometer of comfort.
I started stacking the 3 cords of wood that was delivered. I started a timing thing for myself of working at least an hour on a project. I spent an hour stacking wood and stacked about 1/2 a cord. Not to bad as a start. I’m sure many people will poo-poo my wood stacking but I’m trying to build a wood pile that has easy access to dry/season wood and not just a stack for a small foot print. I have two cords of Red fir in the kennel I got last year and it should be seasoned enough to burn this winter. I am splitting/cutting some of the older wood with the little Ryobi log splitter to use up some of the older dry wood.
I started stack the newly delivered wood. The first bit of wood in the stack seems to be mostly Birch. While I have not burned birch it seems to be a very twisted grain wood. Not a problem for fire wood except it is a bit of challenge to stack. I would say plan your wood stack as first in first out. I made a very long wood stack and it took a lot of time/ work to get to that dry seasoned wood as I stacked green/wet wood in front of the older seasoned wood. My Mom makes a bit of fun of me as I move wood around as that is my exercise program. At this time most of the wood I am stacking is birch and this wood looks as twisted as poplar but it is a hardwood so it should burn longer than poplar…? I’ll spend an hour every day stacking wood. Gosh, stacking wood in the summer months was not fun. I did about an hour of work and I stacked about 1/2 a cord of wood. I’m not angry that people can stack wood in a couple of hours that take me weeks. I’m about making a wood pile that is seasoned and easy to access.
I started seeds indoors and I think I’m making better choices rather than going for a shot gun effect and hope some plants do well. I’m staring a lot of cole crops like Cauliflower,. Broccoli, spinach and other starter plants indoors. I’m going to grow potatoes in rows/mounds and the cage growing method did not work for me. Utah tall celery seems to be the best in my area. So grow that and direct sown seems the best but why not try starting those seeds. If starts fail you can always direct sow.
It always about learning about what works for you. I know people will tell my system is nonsense and some people will give some hints, tricks or some work I need to do. But they never say my work has no value. Even when I screw up.
At the end of the day it does not matter what the government says. You must start grow your own food or find people that grow food locally that you kind buy from. Start ways of making your self -reliant/ independent life new paradigm.
My Adventures in selfreliance 