Money isn’t the most important thing in life, but it’s reasonably close to oxygen on the ‘gotta have it’ scale.
Zig Ziglar
I just moved 6 boards from outside in. I had to rest for ten minutes.
Now I just cut two of the shorter boards into smaller pieces. I am so out of breath and fatigued I can’t move.
I am so far into oxygen debt, it will take hours to repay.
I still had at least one more board to cut. In reality 5 more boards some that were 16 feet long.
Even carrying them in I dropped one and left it out there. Too exhausted and out of air to retrieve it. I will dig it out tommorrow.
I still needed to get a fire built, the gen gassed up and started.
Minus 34 with a windchill that was worse for tonight. I needed to charge up the solar bank and my powerbanks. Oh and other devices.
It might be too cold to run the gen tomorrow.
A sad but valiant attempt. I piled the boards I cut into the hoop to get an idea of how much wood I had cut.
It wasn’t enough to fill the firebox even partway. If I cut every board I had brought inside it wouldn’t be enough. That would take more lung air than I could generate, and more energy than I had left.
I would have wait to light the fire till later. With the wind the house was cooling fast. No choice.
It was 4 degrees in the fireroom, no don’t worry no frozen cat water bowls. Yet.
I am back in bed still breathing hard from the small amount of work I did. It is not over. I needed to rest more. Then do more work.
The gen is running, batteries are charging. Needed Coffee. Hot coffee without a fire wasn’t really possible. That would have to wait.
You already knew, I couldn’t leave those 16 foot boards out there after digging them out of the snow almost turned to ice.
So in my bathrobe, thin leather gloves and a dirty old liner made for a hard hat that had been hanging on a hook in the fireroom for years, I went out and brought them inside.
The fire room is 12 x 12 the boards were 16 feet long. I had to do some creative board wrangling to get them indoors.
They had to be hand cut in two 8 foot pieces in midair. That was interesting. I had 16 8 foot boards in there now waiting for hand sawing. Enough to last me couple of days.
The fire was loaded and lit, but the boards were wet from melted snow. The last two days and nights were plus 6. I didn’t really expect them to ligh on first attempt.
Tonight and for the forseeable future we would pay for the warm weather. Now the Polar Vortex had arrived.
Temperatures were forecast to be 20 degrees colder than normal. -24 before windchill tonight. -34 with windchill.
For today I had wood, no fire yet but it was coming. I probably had to dump a cup of old motor oil from the gen. That reminds me I needed to change the oil in the gen to a colder weather oil.
OMG I hear crackling, the fire lit. When I made the fire. I disposed of a litter box full of cat poop and pee, with wood pellets into the firebox. Then stacked wood over some paper garbage until the box was full.
The wood pellet cat litter, now wet with sawdust would eventually bake dry and ignite. My cats were helping with the heating. Sounds gross but better than using clay that had no purpose afterwards.
What could I say, I cut up another 16 feet of boards. The fire did burn then went out. I left the air intake wide open. So I put more wood in. I thought I might as well put the kettle on. Not enough water so I went outside got some snow.
It was a nightmare taking the cap off a new bottle. Getting snow much easier.
It is almost dark now, I had started the gen late in the day, so I would try to run it a little longer. Retrieveing it in the dark was not a fun task.
My day isn’t over. The fire was out almost, so I gave it a blow job. It turns out the cat litter was glowing. A few deep breaths blown into the fire, the cat litter ignited. I moved a piece of wood over the flames, blew into the hotspot and soon wood was flaming.
Hot enough for a kettle? Not yet. I am pretty sure that will take longer cause I am watching it.
I guess that quote is partly true a watched pot and all that.
So why is post so long? Simple, I am waiting for the kettle. The fire isn’t burning hot because of the wet wood. Thats ok with me wet wood burns slower but not as hot. As long as we are above freezing inside I am good.
Generator is in. Kettle slightly warmer. Now I am obsessed with having a hot coffee. The truth is by the time it’s boiled I will be ready for sleep. Maybe the thermos will keep the water warm overnight. Who was I kidding.
What filling the thermos will do is make the water boil faster on the morning fire.
I came upstairs and forgot the kettle after all that. I went back down and it was ready. I filled the thermos and went back upstairs.
I had to make a hot coffee, the first one in four days. It’s really really good.
Admit you watched the video twice. I did. Ok four times😁
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