We had those 50[sup]o[/sup]+ temperatures over the weekend. The sun came out in full force on Sunday while we were watchin’ Minnesota, Chicago and Green Bay lose there butts. House was full of friends helpin’ drink my beer and make sure the 55-inch TV didn’t go on the fritz. Damn, it got down-right hot in this house… couldn’t open any windows ‘cause they’re covered in plastic, so we kicked the doors wide-open. The wife told me to go shut-down the fire… What? The fire had been out for over 24 hours… since Saturday morning!
Still not keepin’ the wood furnace going 24/7… Usually start a small fire a couple hours after dark and another one at 5:00 AM when I get up. This morning is about as close to winter as we’ve had… a dusting of snow over night and a 15 MPH wind out’a the northwest. But it’s still only 29[sup]o[/sup] at 6:00 AM, which is considered balmy ‘round here this time of year… the house only cooled to 69[sup]o[/sup] over night, so just a tiny fire this morning. The ground was froze-up pretty good (at least the top couple inches), but the weekend drove most of that out and temps have been above freezing, with sun during the day this week.
The forecasters are sayin’ mostly sunshine and temps in the high 30’s and even lower 40’s through the middle of next week, a little bit of wind on-and-off but no howlers… It’s entirely possible I could be playin’ around outside in shirtsleeves on New Years Day. If I wasn’t still fightin’ this flu/cold crap in my chest I’d be out enjoying it (going on a month now)… feelin’ better though, maybe I’ll kick it by Christmas. If the winter stays this mild I’m gonna’ haf’ta get out and cut some more standing-dead in January (for use in February-March)… ‘cause I sure ain’t wastin’ my oak when the temps are above zero, I’ll hang on to all of it ‘till next year. I ain’t burned even near what I had by this time last year… maybe 1 cord of American Elm and a ½ cord of Red Elm is all… probably three times that much last year. Even if the winter does decide to kick-in full force, I’m bettin’ my wood consumption would only be half of last year.
I’m not complain though… just sayin’.