Cozy

More than 24 hours of heating with my almost lifetime supply of dead ash.

The only propane burned has been for the water heater and kitchen range. 

Raising a toast to better living thru renewables..... 

The Perfect Saturday

 

Overnight and continued snow have brought countless birds to the feeders this morning. Consequently, my trusty side kick and I made the rounds of replenishing the feeders in the yard around the house.

Followed by a romp in the new-fallen snow. 

 

 

Ruby lit her Rocket Mode and tore-up a pile of yardage in a flagrant expenditure of puppy energy. Doggo sure luvs herself some winter.

 

Refilled the wood box last. 

 

I have a vision of a book by the fire and a sleepy dog.  This is what a winter Saturday should be…

Stovewood

I spent part of my an afternoon stacking freshly-split ash from the seemingly inexhaustible supply left for us following the 2020 logging operation.  There remains an estimated twelve cords of 8-foot bolts stacked up at the north property line and my neighbors and I have been reducing it slowly and surely.

It would appear I have a couple of face cords readily available on the porch and under the granary lean-to.  There's another two full cords in the granary as a reserve.

The gun deer opener is right around the corner so it's wise to have a supply on hand to keep the home fires burning.

Bring-on the dank and cold; it's true that firewood warms you twice.  Cutting, splitting and stacking.  Finally, burning.

Stove Wood

By my estimate I have set-aside roughly three and a half full cords of stove wood.

Bring on the cold weather....

Stove Wood

Over the last couple of weeks one of my pals and I cut a ginormous pile of ash harvested from our forest into stove wood lengths.

Last weekend our wives joined-in on the fun and we split and moved in two trips (by rough estimate) about three full cords of wood.

It's a start for our two families as we both supplement our winter heating needs with wood burning units.

Like I said it's just a start.

Stay-tuned.

Cocooning

Dank and cold tonight. There’s even a chance of slushy white stuff in the forecast. 

That said, this is one of my favorite times of year for a movie or a couple of book chapters. 

Stove wood du jour is a seemingly lifetime supply of ash nowadays. 

If the interweb is to be believed there is purportedly 20,000,000 BTUs of heat (gross) in a full cord of seasoned green ash. 

Raising a toast to renewables….

 

Staying Cozy

 

 

Unless the mercury dips into serious negative territory the wood burner is generally up to the task of maintaining a cozy 70 degrees Fahrenheit on the first floor living quarters here at The Platz.

After replenishing the wood rack on the porch we're nearing the halfway point on wood consumption for the heating season. 

Is Wood Good?

A FB friend of mine shared an article with me that was recently published in The Guardian. Like my family, he supplements his heat with wood during the colder months at our latitude. My sense is that he was more concerned and inquisitive than alarmed. His friends on the email chain appeared more alarmed. The background is as follows:

A recent study conducted in Athens, Greece has resulted in research that supports the notion that wood burning stoves in urban areas are responsible for almost half of people’s exposure to cancer-causing chemicals found in air pollution particles.  I am reminded that only two generations ago my forebears heated their homes with coal.  Yup, bituminous coal for daytime heat and anthracite for banking the fire overnight.  The last house I owned still had the coal chute built into the basement wall for easy delivery.  And the rafters above the footprint of the coal bunker were still covered in coal dust.  The air quality back then was horrific.  Burning all that coal left a pall - a miasma - across the sky when conditions were sub-optimal. PAHs ruled.

The introduction of gas forced-air heat technology made the previous technology obsolete by the time the 1960s rolled-around.  Like coal, natural gas was a non-renewable fossil fuel; but cleaner-burning than its predecessor. But I digress.

The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in tiny pollution particles are produced by burning fuels and have long been known to have carcinogenic effects. This new study examined the sources of the PAHs and suggests that wood burning produced them in larger quantities than the diesel fuel or gasoline used for vehicles.

This is important on several levels. Researchers suggest that smoke from wood burning is much more toxic than other types of particles suggesting that wood burning is a significant driver of long-term carcinogenic risk. Nevertheless, the concentration of the PAHs in the Athens study was below EU limits but double the World Health Organization’s reference level. Based on WHO data, the PAHs in Athens would be expected to cause 5 extra cancer cases for every 100,000 people.  Can the EU and WHO have it both ways?

The questions that come to mind include the following:

• One study, in one city.

• Urban communities are crowded. More dwellings means more wood stoves concentrated in a smaller area. What about rural dwellings?

• The study suggests that the complex topography of the basin favors the appearance of mesoscale flows throughout the year and the frequent stagnation of air masses. There are seasonal non-local contributions from the Black Sea area, Balkans and Eastern Europe. There are similar effects found in Los Angeles and Denver.  Heck, in Ireland peat continues to be burned as biomass for generating electricity.

• Of critical importance to this blogger are the type of stoves used. Are they ordinary fireplaces or something more efficient? Are they regulated and thus engineered as to reduce emissions output? We have a wood stove that is EPA certified. It operates at an exceedingly high temperature, uses only outside air for the combustion of wood and wood gases. At operational temperature there is more heat produced, more complete combustion and less smoke. Most stack emissions are water vapor. There is also less ash produced.

• We burn only dry, aged hardwood. The study suggests that Athenians burn fresh softwood (pine) and hardwood (olive, oak, beech) This practice has been consistent for residential heating over recent years.

My conclusion is that this study is incomplete and raises more questions than it answers. I would like more background and further study of rural v. urban air quality, results with various wood fuels and stove technology and regulation. If I had to hazard a guess, US and Canadian air quality standards are stronger with added emphasis paid on cleaner-burning technologies in North America. That our diesel regulations are stricter than those of Europe comes to mind. 

Wood is also a sustainable fuel resource.  Non-renewable fossil fuels used for direct burning or power generation is unsustainable.

With modern stove technology my take-away is that choosing to heat with wood continues to be good. 

Link to the study is here.

 

Hibernation

Not quite - but close.

So far this autumn we have not had to run the furnace.  We've been heating our living space with stove wood.  

And generally keeping our living area a comfy 72 F.

Keeping the furnace turned-off overnight the temps drop gradually as the fire dies out and sleeping temps of 69 F or less return.

And the next day we begin the process all over again.....

Stovewood and Beers

 

This amber lager has a dark reddish-colored body with good clarity and a decent white head. 

Born of Two-Row Pale, Caramel, Caramel, Roasted Barley malts and Zeus, Willamette and Cascade hops. 

Moderately malty and a bit more hoppy than average.   Crisp lager finish. 

6% ABV

Quitting time.

 

Getting ready for Old Man Winter. 

 

 

Changing of the Seasons

 

 

 

 Say what you will about my OCD - it makes for a tidy stack of stove wood. 

 

Impossible to get an accurate measure of dry volume unless it is stacked and well-stowed.  That would be one and a half cords.

 

Two-thirds of the way by my reckoning..

 

Raising a toast to heating with renewables.....

Cold Winter Night

Cold today and colder tonight - with a fire in the wood burner continuously today.  As I tap-out this post it is presently 69 degrees indoors and 6 degrees outdoors. Among other things I did some terrific cooking this afternoon.  
 

 

Seán's Bar is a pub adjacent to the Shannon River on the County Roscommon side of the town of Athlone, Ireland (between Dublin and Galway).      

 

Continuously-operated since AD 900 It is the oldest watering hole in the world.         

 

Anyway, the best meal Jill had on our visit a couple of months ago was Fish Pie at Seán's.       

 

The name is uninspired - but this resulting baked deliciousness of salmon, scallops, whitefish, shrimp and sauce topped with a buttery mash was outstanding.

 

Behold the fish pie...      

 

 

First time I’ve made it.

 

Won’t be the last.         

 
Pretty good chow on a brisk winter evening.

Just brought the girls in from a potty break.  The constellation Orion is prominent in the southern sky with Sirius the brightest of stars in the south-southeast. 

There is an Eastern screech owl calling to the west. 

Nice finish to the day. 

Slàinte!

 

Heating Season is Nigh

I want to give a big shout-out to a couple of my pals who helped to chuck and stack two cords of firewood today. 

Best Beard and Six Deuce.

The closed circuit, EPA-approved, low emission, word-burning unit is cleaned, inspected and ready to roll.  Overnight lows this weekend were down to the mid-thirties.  No frost yet and the mosquitoes were a pain in the patoot while hunting yesterday afternoon. 

Thanks guys!

Raising a toast to heating with renewables.....

Fish Fry!

It is a perfectly tropical zero degrees on our patch of the peninsula this evening.  All the reason to not venture outdoors - rather to stay home and luxuriate within the warming glow of the wood stove and enjoy a traditional Wisconsin perch fry.

Instructions:

Soak your Lake Michigan yellow perch fillets in an egg wash (beaten egg and milk).

Dredge in seasoned flour - a couple of dashes of garlic salt, white pepper and paprika.  Set aside.

Return each fish fillet to the egg wash and toss with panko bread crumbs.

Return to the platter to set in the fridge for a spell.

Start a half bag of tater tots in the oven.  When close to finished begin heating a skillet of canola oil on the stovetop. 

When the oil is screaming hot add your fish fillets.  Fry to golden - turning once.  Set aside on paper towels to drain.

Serve with the tots, coleslaw and fresh lemon.



Recommended beverage is a Labatt Blue Canadian Pilsner.

Cheers!

Cozy

When it is cold outside it's cozy warm inside with the wood stove stoked. 

Raising a toast to sustainable living and sustainable energy...

Fire Good

It has occurred to me that the wood burning stove has been in almost continuous use since Thursday of last week.  As a matter of fact - from Friday night thru Sunday night - we never allowed the fire to extinguish itself.

Raising a toast to better living with renewable resources.

 

Work

Dank, damp and cold makes for a good day to work from home.  

Raising a toast to a remote worksite, and basking in the warming glow of both the woodstove and a laptop...

Stove Wood

Two full cords of mixed hardwood - split and delivered.  $420. Just call Dave at Sunnypoint Landscape, LLC, Egg Harbor.  Purveyor of fine firewood for as long as I've lived here.  One of the reasons our propane purchases from the Door County Co-op have reached the annual prepaid contract minimum.

Raising a toast to heating with a renewable resource.

Schlafender Hund

The blonde Lab is a contortionist when she's on the rotisserie in front of the wood stove...

 

Keeper of the Fire

click to enlarge

First one up on Sunday morning has to start the coffee, stoke the fire in the wood stove, sip coffee and feed the dogs.

In that order.

Seriously