Friday, October 10, 2008

Wood, Woodstoves, Waiting and Wants

Sweat cleanses from the inside. It comes from places a shower will never reach. ~George Sheehan

So... I had a nice stack o' wood in my driveway -- DD and I worked like dogs (not my dog, but...) and got one done. It was also a matter of avoiding all the yellow-jackets which, for some unknown reason, are behaving in a strange manner this year. Even my neighbor has commented on it. They are VERY active, and oddly friendly... even going as far as to land on you -- but NOT stinging! And they are everywhere. The wasps, too. I've lived her almost ten years now, and don't remember this happening EVER. They are particularly fascinated by the wood.

Anyway... back to our stack...

DH came home and was suitably impressed by all of our hard work and, jokingly grabbed a huge log and said, "Here, I'll help." and slammed it down against the end. And, yep you guessed it, the end toppled over and the pile fell.

***sigh***

Now, to answer some of your questions:

Melissa asked: ...how do you keep it burning all night long. Won't it get cold at night?

Melissa, we pack it full to the brim and then "bank it" but shutting down all the dampers until they are nearly closed. The fire will burn almost all night that way. DH goes to bed late, and I get up early so we almost never let the fire die at all through the entire winter. It gets a little cooler at night, but to be honest that's almost a relief -- there are days it gets to be in the mid-80s inside with the stove cranking!

Jen asked: What kind of stove do you have?

We have a Vermont Castings brand... I can't remember the model. It's a little bitty thing, though. When we got it, DH's dad said there was no way it would have the power to heat our house. BOY, was he ever wrong. Once it gets going, it heats the WHOLE house, including the upstairs.

Amy said: I...smelled someone's wood burning fire and nearly wept.

It's funny you mentioned that. I bumped into my across the street neighbor today and she said she was so excited to see the wood in our driveway, because she LOVES the smell of our stove. During the winter, she'll stand outside and just... sniff. LOL.

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I now have two things out on submission: "Return to Stiller Creek" with Samhain, and "Perilous Love" with Womans World.

I hate waiting.

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DD just finished reading the first book in a new series by Warrior's author, Erin Hunter. The series is called "Seekers" and the first book is "The Quest Begins". She LOVED the book (as she loves the Warriors series -- she's so wrapped up in that set of books, you'd think they were real. She even has a notebook full of herbal remedies that are mentioned through the stories).

Yesterday at the library she asked me to find the second book. I said, "It's not out yet."

She was quite disgruntled. "Don't they know I read fast?"

Now, DD knows about being an author, as she's watched me. She knows how hard I work at writing, and how long it takes. So, I brought that up. "An author can't write 60,000 words overnight. I'm sure she's doing the best she can."

But, in the famous words of Veruca Salt, she said, "I want it NOW."



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So, I'll be stacking wood this weekend. What plans do YOU have?

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9 comments:

Jen said...

I couldn't be more excited about my weekend! My beloved German daughter, Sarah, arrives tomorrow. YAY!!!!

Sarita Leone said...

I can so relate to the wood stacking! One of the photos I posted this morning at the Lark Journals is our "wall of wood" which is huge. I look at it and see warmth!

Congrats on your submissions. Sending good thoughts your way on them!

This weekend we're going to do some yardwork. And since I've got almost all of the tomatoes canned I'm going to go pick carrots and parsnips and deal with them.

Hopefully get some writing done, too. :)

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Keri Mikulski said...

Hopefully, we'll get to a pumpkin patch this weekend. It's supposed to be really nice here..

I hate bees this time of year. They're out for blood. :)

Dru said...

Good luck on your submissions.

I have no immediate plans for the weekend.

Melissa McClone said...

Thanks for the explanation!

My 10 yo dd pretty much breathed the entire Warriors series. She read it so fast I was amazed. And yes, she's looking forward to the next book!

Ceri Hebert said...

I love the smell of a woodstove. I wish we had one, though I can't say I'd want the stacking that goes with it. When we moved to NH from Mpls. my father bought a chain saw and went crazy in our 12 acres of woods. We'd spend hours hauling logs out of the woods during the summer. What a drag!

Brandy said...

Has your Daughter read the Christopher Peloni books? Mine raves about them and is impatiently waiting for the last book. *G*
I miss having a fireplace and we have thought of installing one here, but it would have to be gas and that's such a pain to install in an existing home. *sigh* And like your neighbor, I like the smell of wood burning. *G*

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. No plans here except to enjoy it. *G*

groovyoldlady said...

Good Heavens, the yellow jackets are AWFUL this year!

Amy said...

I do not miss the creaky floors or the drafty windows or the lack of insulation in our old 1928 cottage, but I really, really, REALLY miss our wood-burning fireplace. Our gas fireplace does a good job of heating the house. We run it for an hour in the morning and the house stays warm all day. But it doesn't smell like a real fire, you know?

So I will live virtually through you.

But my next house, though, WILL have a wood-burning fireplace, or there will be WORDS. And not any good ones.