The Coming Winter

 

Fall is officially here. Winter isn’t far behind. I just ordered a couple pallets of pressed sawdust blocks. Normally I’d have a fair bit of firewood laid up. With my current health issue that wasn’t going to happen. Fortunately, my budget is in pretty good shape right now so I’ve been able to buy my way into winter preparation. One nice thing about those fiber blocks is that they burn very hot and clean.

For some reason I feel the need to prep as if we are going to have extended power outages. Short outages are pretty normal but I have a feeling this might be a record winter.

Don’t forget a way to actually light that woodstove. Do I have a bunch of lighters and matches? Sure. In addition I keep some ferro rods handy. They are great as you can pluck them out of a bucket of water and still get them to spark. While that’s nice turning that spark into an actual fire requires some skill. I’ve practiced. Have you?

-Sixbears

Still Alive

Yes, I’m still around. Unfortunately I’m still dealing with my leg issues. The longer this goes on the more mobility I lose. It’s annoying to say the least. I’ve a meeting with a surgeon in Boston so wish me luck with that.

Life is full of lessons. One of the lessons is that I’ve had to work with other people to get things done. One of my projects was to reopen a small water well located next to the house. It was retired decades ago back when my dad owned the place. At the time my dad had his friend and his family camping on our land. The friend had a big family. The little well could not handle 11 people, especially during a drought. We ended up digging another well much further from the house. It works but requires a submersible pump. The long supply line is also more suspect able to freezing.

Rather that reopen the old well by hand I hired a buddy with a mini-excavator. It did the job. Now I have a second source of water that can be pumped with a hand pump located in the house. I also have a cheap shallow well pump that can supply the whole house if necessary.

Live goes on.

-Sixbears