Yesterday and into today have brought the coldest temperatures I can remember. This morning the thermometer read -20 on my drive into the cafe. We heat our current house with a wood stove, and it's one of the things I will miss most when we move. (In other news, we took the cabin on the sheep farm, pictures to follow.) Throughout the winter, we can be found huddled around the stove, with coffee, or maybe a glass of wine speaking in soft voices as we warm our toes.
There is nothing passive about heating with a wood stove. You must obtain wood (through gathering or local delivery), stack it for storage in a dry space, bring it into whatever room your stove it, and keep the fire burning. When the temperature falls like it has now, the stove requires constant attendance. For two nights, we have slept on the futon in the living room instead of the bedroom. This way, I can roll out of bed to keep the stove burning, and we don't have to try and keep the bedroom at a tolerable temperature. If the stove goes out, the pipes freeze, we freeze and all of the pets are miserable too. It might seem like a lot of work, but I have no illusions about what it takes to heat a home. There is no magic switch here, and I appreciate my heat on an almost primal level.I like the atmosphere the stove provides, and I pay much closer attention to the weather. Though of course, the draw back is that it's hard to leave the house for many days without winterizing, and even then you have to come home to a miserably cold home and spend hours to get it comfortable again. Still, I wouldn't trade the smell, the heat, or the coziness for the convenience of other heating sources.
Today was a cafe work day, and I ended up having to stay late. By the time I made the grocery store trip (we were out of coffee, a near disaster here) and made it back up the mountain- the stove was at a low burning ember point. This would be fine if the temperature had crept up a bit, but it was still -2 here. The pipes in the kitchen are a bit frozen (only the cold water) which is worrisome. I'm hoping with a hot fire and some tender care, a call to the plumber can be avoided. All of the pipes will be left dripping to try and prevent any further issues.
It looks like we are in store for more snow this week, this winter has been generous in cold and precipitation. I'd really like to call a truce with mother nature though, even if it's just for a week. We braved the cold yesterday for about an hour to snow shoe in the state park. The views were incredible, sparkling ice coated trees, mounds of crystal clear snow, and two dogs marching through like we were on an epic journey. Still, with the weather as it was, we kept it a bit short. A short walk still helped wear down our two seemingly tireless dogs -- thank goodness. They have a bit of cabin fever and spend their days scheming ways to get into trouble. They're lucky they are adorable.
Time to tend the wood stove, and perhaps a glass of wine. It certainly could be worse.
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