It's soup for breakfast today!

[7milesup]

60 to 70 Degree Warmup!

So, think about this. In 7 days it is supposed to be 30F outside. That is a 70 degree difference for @Cathead and a 60 degree increase for me.

From today to the hot and humid days of July and August around here, that is 130 degree difference. Amazing every time I think about that.

Yesterday there was a whitetail deer bedded down just a little ways into the woods outside of my home office window. You could see the frost on her fur, especially around her face. I have lived up here my entire life, but to think how our creatures go through these winters....

 

[RJSakowski]

When I used to go up to Lake of the Woods on fall fishing trips, we used to heat the cabin with poplar. As I recall, it was kind of like burning tissue paper. We burn wood for heat here too. We use well seasoned white and red oak which is about as good as you can get here except for hickory. Yesterday, we were constantly feeding the furnace. Easily several hundred lbs. of wood.

One thing that I realized some time ago is that if firewood is well dried, you get the same heat value per lb. of wood. We don't burn much poplar here because we buy our firewood and I specify oak. We do have box alder though and it is similar to poplar in terms of dry density, maybe even worse. If we were relying on it for winter heat, I might as well set up a chair next to the furnace. It works fine for Fall and Spring days when you want to take the chill out but don't need a serious fire. We had to remove a bunch of the stuff because it was threatening our buildingsor it came down in wind storms. I didn't usually cut it up for firewood but this past year I did. It should cut down the use of the LP furnace during mild weather when I don't want a real fire.

 

[SLK001]

You can have your 85 weather, I haven't swatted a bug all week.

I haven't swatted a bug bigger than 1" in over a month!

 

[Nogoingback]

Presently, I work on the shop floor which If I venture out, I may head for the scrap yard in the heat of the day and see is there
is some iron for that project.

"The heat of the day". You guys crack me up.

 

[7milesup]

I just came in from the shop. It is -6F now and there was no wind at the moment. I thought "geeze, it is rather nice out here". Compared to when I went out this morning and the wind was blowing a little and -25 (plus windchill).
I need to find my shorts for next week...

 

[benmychree]

I remember back in the 1960s, temperatures posted for Edmonton, Alberta of 76 below zero F. This was before we ever heard the term "wind chill. There was a guy working in our shop who had just come from there, and my mom lived there as an infant, so there was an association with the place for me.

 

[cathead]

For me, it all boils down to the availability of wood for heat. I really don't have an aversion to any wood
species other than possibly basswood, and even that is useful for warmer times of the year and also for
heating domestic water during the summer. My backup heat is an oil furnace or in a pinch electric resistance
heating. So far I have yet to use any backup heating yet other than to test the oil furnace in the fall to
be sure that it still worked. There is some birch, red oak, ash, various species of pine, and even ironwood
mixed in with the poplar. My favorite wood is something that is both dead and standing, probably oak.
There is some widow maker tendency in these sort of trees but with a bit of careful planning, maybe
using a rope and come along or even better, a skid steer or a cat. There is one big oak that I have been
eyeing for a while back on the trail in that category. It's on my wood procurement list for spring. Parts of
it may be good enough to run through the sawmill and that will provide timbers as well as oak slab wood to
add to the wood pile. The fresh air will be invigorating as well as the smell of newly cut poplar come spring.
That reminds me, my neighbor has a huge standing dead white pine that I can have for removing it. That's
on my spring procurement list too. It's two feet in diameter at the base and probably a hundred feet tall.
I might need some assistance for that job as it is in the woods surrounded by other trees making it an obvious
widow maker as there are a lot of dead branches on it. It's the seasons that make living in the north country
great. I can't wait for spring, chain saw, axe, splitting maul, etc in hand and not having to wear a Covid-19
mask in the hinterland, and yes, I will be careful out there.