January Thaw?

Here we are in the middle of January, and about half way through the wood pile. Every year it's the same thing. Mid January and half of my wood supply gone, a controlled panic starts to gnaw at me. But upon reflection, we always have enough wood to last until Spring. Figure... we start the basement stove in late September, and it runs steadily through March and sometimes a lot of April as well. So it makes sense that half of our seven and a half cords are gone. By the time the snow is gone and the stove cools down I'll be firing up the chain saws and wood splitter, just to start the whole cycle over again.

Heating with oil would be easier, but I can't grow my own... so this is the next best thing. Besides, have you ever tried cooking dinner on top of an oil burner?

Now I know what you're thinking... 'what a lucky guy, cooking potato pancakes on the wood cook stove, I sure wish I could be doing that!', but I've got to tell you all, It really isn't as easy as you might think. There are a lot of obstacles to cooking on a stove like this... things you might not think of at first glance. Let me explain,

For starters, you've really got to watch your step. A hot stove tends to attract the attention of various loiterers that you have to learn to work around. The good news is, if you drop any food on the floor... don't worry about having to bend over to pick it up!








The temperature is starting to moderated here on the side of Mt. Monadnock. It's up to +12F.


Thursday morning we had a reading of -15F and it got up to a whopping +5F for a high. Needless to say the chickens have been spending all of their time in the coop lately. The heat lamp in the ceiling points down on their waterer, keeping it thawed out, and with the additional light I'm still getting excellent egg production from my ladies. I've read various opinions about artificial light in the chicken coop... but the girls wouldn't appreciate life without the heat lamp... Winters are too long around here for that. I'd rather have happy chickens that lay well for a couple of years than miserable frozen birds that produce seasonally for 4+ years. I add 8 or 10 new birds to the flock every year to make up for the occasional fatality or untimely demise. That helps keep the egg supply steady too, as my neighbors have come to expect.








Even with all of these frigid nights, Mr. Tweedle, the tom turkey has yet to change his evening ritual. At sundown he flies onto the coop roof, and come morning he's still up there... only coming down when I show up with food... crazy bird.

Well, I guess that's just about it from our little farm for today... time to stoke the stove and pull out the guitar.
Next time I write, we'll have a new President! Something tells me we're all going to still be in the same freaking mess, though. Mary says that I should give Obama a chance, but as far as I can see... he's hired all of the same clowns that created our financial crisis... to try and get us out of it!? It doesn't make any sense to me... but then again... neither do 'securitized debt obligations' or 'credit default swaps'!

Oh well, see you at the waterin' hole....