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Wednesday, September 22
We got the garage cleaned out yesterday so now Gingerbread Fred and I can park in there. I was hopeful that both trucks would fit but after driving the first one in, the possibility of fitting the second was just laughable. I guess garage parking in frigid conditions is another advantage of being a woman and child in the Burns' household. Poor Chuck. Before long, we will have to plug his truck in to keep it warm enough to start in the mornings. But he's tougher than Gingerbread Fred and I are, so he can handle it. There will be days that I do not have to work, so those days he will park in the garage. Dang, it must stink to be a man. OH and also, to be a family without a garage at all. There are plently of folks up here without that luxury.
Snow is predicted to fall as early as next week. Chuck, Gingerbread Fred, and I have been working as often as we can to collect firewood but still have very little by Alaska standards.
You need to have been here 2 summers before you can efficiently start burning the wood you harvest yourself, because the wood in needs to have time to dry out after it is cut or else it is considered "green" and won't burn well. Wood isn't our primary source of heat, but I had hoped we could burn it more often than we use the oil since it is cheaper and lots more cozy.
Donnelly Training Area permits those who ask to cut wood from military property. Only wood that has been burnt in past forrest fires can be harvested. This means most of the wood is spindly at best but because a fire killed it many years ago it will burn this year, so we are happy to get it.
Another disadvantage to harvesting wood from burnt fields is that the trees are sparse which makes for long walks back to the bed of the truck. Also, the land is littered with broken trees and other messy vegetation so when walking through with a heavy log in your arms you get the feeling that you are stepping over booby traps that if triggered could leave a stump size hole in your chest.
Before we get started, I set Gingerbread Fred up with a pallet on the ground with her snacks and a couple of miscellaneous toys that she packs before we go. She uses her toys like a scientist would use his tools and walks around collecting objects and drawing leaves in her notebook. About half of the time, she is content while we work. The rest of the time she impatiently wanders around feeling tired and aggravated.
We cut the trees into long but manageable lengths while out in the field. When we get back to the cabin, I take over the care of Gingerbread Fred while Chuck unloads them all and cuts them down to wood stove size pieces. He has started stacks of what we can get away with burning this year and what has to wait until the next.
Here's what I want to know. Wherever you live, do you have a fireplace or a wood burning stove? Do you use it? Have you ever used it as your only heat source throughout an entire winter?
The pics look really pretty. I am glad to see you guys are getting wood:-)
ReplyDeleteAlthough it was 93 or so in GA today, it is not that bad, maybe since the humidity is not as bad, maybe because we are happy to see 93 instead of 103, who knows...It is actually warm, but windy & kind of nice. I will still be very glad when it gets a little cooler. It will be around 70 tonight also - great night for a football game.
A windy 93 is actually sounding really nice right now. Feeling pretty cold in Delta Junction right now.
ReplyDeleteIT IS 101 WHERE I LIVE RIGHT NOW. SO I CAN'T REALLY THINK ABOUT COZYING UP TO A NICE WARM BLAZE. BUT to answer your question, Ethan and I have had central air and heat in every place we've lived together here in LA and now, in our new place, we don't have the "air" part of it. We have such great weather normally, that a lot of places in here "don't need it". Well, sorry, but there are a few days out of the year where we definitely NEED IT. Our house turned into a box of sweaty pain yesterday. We moved about the house like molasses to get ready to get out to the beach side of town (took all day) which is usually a good 20 degrees cooler, but didn't make it out there until around 6 PM. (We just made it more of an evening trip heheh.) We brought Jessie and her lil dog food dinner to a restaurant that let us have dogs out on the patio. It was a big relief from the heat. Now, I'm sitting here in the heat box again, and Ethan (God bless 'im) is out in San Puente (or something like that) in even HOTTER heat coaching Cogeian's DOUBLE HEADER on about 4 hours of sleep. I know what your saying when you say it must stink to be a man sometimes.. We got ourselves some good ones, don't we?
ReplyDeleteHEY, listen, I see you there with that chainsaw. Have you ever had "kickback" with one of those? It has happened to me with a skill saw before, and I know it can happen with a chain saw, too, when you start sawing into something unexpectedly hard--like if the wood is petrified or something, etc. Also, it can happen if you don't extract the chain saw back out of what your cutting before you let off the gas... I mean if you let off the gas while your still in the tree, the spikes snag and violently kick it back toward you... which is more terrifying than a skill saw to me, cuz a chain saw doesn't have a guard on it. I think the way that I said it is right, but please check with somebody else, cuz I don't want to tell you the wrong thing. I just know for sure it can happen, and that's enough for me to not want to ever touch a chain saw.
BTW, that pic of you reminds me of pics of Nanny doing things like that. Like, here's me with a chain saw. Here's me in the snow in my bathing suit. Here's me with a tiny, tiny fish I just caught. That's good stuff.
Hey, girl, I love my fireplace and use it every Christmas...even if we have to turn the air on! hahahahaaa
ReplyDeleteI love reading your blogs and looking at the pics of the beautiful scenery in Alaska....Stay warm and safe!!!
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ReplyDeleteWow sister I had no idea it was so hot in CA. There are actually a few weeks in Alaska that I wish we had A/C too, surprisingly enough.
ReplyDeleteI shoulda known better than to post the chainsaw pic. MOM even got on me about that. Turns out, chainsawing is the only thing she refused to do back when she was building cabinets, rock walls, and hauling cast iron claw foot bathtubs. I am very aware of the potential kick back and am very careful because the idea of it makes me very nervous. Actually Chuck does most of the chainsawing and I do the hauling. Did you do a little chainsaw internet research before you posted that info?
Thanks Tonia. Glad you are commenting here! I get that about using the fireplace and a/c at the same time. I like to blow the car heat full blast and roll down the windows at the same time. Charley, however, doesn't like it so much. Turns out, the wind is stronger in the backseat.
I hear it's snowing there now. New blog post requested with snow pics.
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