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This morning we got up to a beautiful white surprise! SNOW!!!! Finally enough snow to cover the ground! That’s what I’m talkin’ about – we moved north and it’s nearly December – PAST time for snow!
The dog was ecstatic. All she wanted to do was run – this pic was taken seconds before she flattened me in her enthusiasm.
I spent the morning shovelling snow. getting some oranges into the dehydrator, and doing laundry. I picked up a second drying rack this weekend and got to try it out today. I’ve placed the drying racks beside the woodstove – it isn’t exactly stellar decor, but in a situation where we are trying to conserve electricity, you have to go with practicality over beauty sometimes.
In the afternoon, I took the dog out for another romp in the snow (yes, this is devolving to me showing off cute doggie pictures – last one I promise – her excitement was just so much fun!)
This, however, is when I noticed the Minor Wood Catastrophe. The melting snow was dripping off the roof RIGHT ON TOP OF MY DRY AND SEASONED WOOD.
Nooooooooooo!!!!!!
The thing about living the way we live is that really, truly, sometimes things just can’t wait. Despite the lovely dinner I had planned and halfway prepared, I had to drop everything and get the wood into the house.
To add to the general air of celebration, the wood was frozen together so I had to whack the daylights out of it with the back of a hatchet to get the pieces apart. Then, the logs were unceremoniously dumped in my kitchen. I figured that I might as well let it thaw there, instead of having wet, snowy wood all over the house instead of just inside the door. Tomorrow, after it has had time to dry, I’ll relocate it from the kitchen into it’s proper home in the living room.
For now, my kitchen looks like THIS:
I have lots of dry wood stacked inside, so by the time I work my way down to this half cord, it should be thoroughly dry and ready to burn.
My scratch challenge dinner ended up having a non-scratch component. The wood had to take precedence over the challenge. In a real scenario with no prepared foods available, the part of the meal I already had completed could have sufficed, but dang it, I wanted spaghetti under the spaghetti sauce!
I feel your pain. If I might suggest, throwing a tarp over the woodpile outside can help prevent the wood getting wet and icy. Once you have a tarp, you can move the wood back out of your kitchen. I’d also suggest having something to lift the wood up off direct contact with the ground (we used a pallet). Having the bottom layer of wood stuck in a layer of ice to the ground is even harder to deal with.
Of course, it is also a pain lifting the tarp off to get at the wood, and you will need to have something to secure the edges so the wind doesn’t take off with your tarp, or tear it…
Hang in there. Eventually, you will have everything down to a science (or may an art), and it will get easier. One step at a time.
Hi Anna!!!! Definitely! I’m always open to suggestions!
Thing is, we did have a tarp on it. With the storm we had some high winds and it had pulled up in the back, which, unfortunately, is where the melting snow poured in.
Ah well, it’s all in the house now and dry again! I have a piece of it burning right now!
Have a wonderful day!
~ D