THINKING WINTER; ......................... BUT IT"S ONLY FALL

 When you live off grid you are always aware of the weather and the seasons. Usually we are living in one season but planning for the next. In winter we start planning our gardens, in summer we are cutting wood for winter, in the fall we are getting the summer machines put away and the winter machines tuned and ready for snow plowing and the chainsaws ready for cutting down more trees.  It's a constant stream of new demands and adjustments according to the weather and the seasons. 

There is one demand you can not leave forgotten or neglected even for  one season.......... Firewood

Firewood needs our attention at least two years before we need it, preferably three. Two years gives it time to dry and three is better. Dry firewood burns better with less soot in the chimney and less smoke out of the chimney, all very important for a warm house and a healthy environment. 

These logs were felled last winter and will be bucked, split and stacked over the next 2-3 months.  Then they will sit in the sun, the snow, the rain and the fog and dry until 2023 when we will need them. Some may not get used until 2024 so you can see, they will by then, be perfect firewood.

This is our second stack of logs but they won't be touched until later in January. Like the first stack, they will get their time to dry in the sun before being used which I suspect could be as late as 2025-2026. We will be warm for years to come.

Now that my log-splitter is back, the job of splitting the logs is so much easier. Swinging an axe is fine and doable but the log-splitter allows me to get more done in a day with less pain in the process . At my age, less pain is preferred.

This is the firewood we will burn this winter These seven bins plus other should be sufficient to keep us warm until next April. Our heating season typically runs from October to April with the occasional day in September and May. Then it's time to refill the bins which will allow the wood to dry for another year before their turn comes again.

The firewood you see stacked and drying in the shed will not be used until 2023. By then the bins above will be empty and ready to be refilled as we burn the wood in this shed. This gets repeated until I become too old to do the work. Up here "TOO OLD" is a figure of speech without any definitive number. I know guys in their 80's who still split with an axe and haul the wood in by the armful. They are a hardy bunch. 

I'm glad we have dry firewood as today is damp and cool but we are warm and comfortable by the fire. Mary just threw another log on, so we will be warm throughout the night.

Thanks for stopping by and keeping an eye on us. Stay safe and well.