Thursday, May 16, 2019
Never ending heating season
I’m still keeping the woodstove going all day long. Normally by now I’d only light a fire in the morning to take the chill off. Within a week or so the last of my pressed sawdust fuel blocks should be used up.
That’s not too big of a deal as there’s plenty of natural wood available. Over the winter a lot of maple branches came down. They are dry, easy to cut up, provide plenty of heat, and are within easy walking distance. If that’s not enough there’s some standing dead wood that could be cut up. If I don’t want to bother with any of that, there’s enough heating oil left to use the furnace. However, I’d rather save the oil for next fall.
If all goes well I hope to not buy any fuel this coming winter. I’ve a pile of cut up wood that should be seasoned by the end of summer. Frankly, I’m hoping to shut the place down during the month of October and head south for the winter. It might even be more economical to camp or sail than to heat the place next winter.
With unease in the Middle East, it’s entirely possible that heating oil will take a big spike. The world may see a shooting war in the next few months. Already pipelines and oil tankers have been under attack. If you do burn heating oil and have the money, now might be the time to top off your tank.
-Sixbears
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It also might be time to hunker down and get the mother of all wood piles stored up.
ReplyDeleteI've a friend who took down a bunch of hardwood trees early this spring. All I need to do is to figure out how to get the wood to my place.
DeleteI might ease up to the propane supplier and fill up my 100 gallon tank on my old 1993 GMC dual fuel pickup truck. Last time it was $2.15 per gallon. I don't drive much, so it lasts me a long time.
ReplyDeleteNot a bad idea. I like the long term stability of propane.
DeleteMy son and my grandson both work the oilfields. My son is in North Alaska now. They both say that there is still a lot of oil available although a lot of it is may be harder to get.
ReplyDeleteMuch as I'm not a fan of fracking, it's added a lot of energy to our National mix. North Alaska is a long way off.
DeleteYour keeping the 'wood stove' going. Is that your cooking stove?
ReplyDeleteIndeed it is. I grill and use electric stoves when it actually gets too hot to run the cookstove.
DeleteFor a short while I tried Bio-Bricks in my fireplace but found it took 8-9 bricks to get a decent fire and had to keep feeding it more bricks for decent heat. (yea I know, I live in Florida but 50f for me is like 10 degrees for you.) Ha!
DeleteIn the cook stove could you keep a low but good/comfortable fire going using split wood?
It's an air tight cookstove of modern construction so I have good control over the burn rate.
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