11/9 #4
Thought I might share a couple [dead] tree pix with you folks. I know a few of you have (or had) wood stoves and I wanted to show you some firewood so you can get a grasp of life on the prairie when the winter is full of those "Canadian Blue Tongues" (cold air masses descending from the arctic north). This is my garage:
The pile in front (22-ton hydraulic splitter barely visible) is the rounds I unloaded from the truck from yesterday's cutting. The pile in the back is the split and stacked firewood. The 2x6 that those snow shoes are hanging on (top right corner) is 8 feet above ground, just so you know how high that stack is. Let's look at that stack a little closer...
What you see is 2 1/2 courses and what the "average" winter requires here is 5 courses. If it gets colder than normal, 6+ will be required, which means even if I have the full 5 by the end of this month, I will have to go out in the snow in January or February to cut more. I split about half of the rounds in the first picture today and stacked them in the third course and started the fourth. When I finish splitting all of the rounds you saw in the first pic, I will still have less than 4 full courses. That means, approximately 2-3 more trips to the field to bring back more.
Do you now have a clearer understanding of how cold it gets here in winter? Telling you we have -20*F with a 60 mph wind (wind chill factor would then be -62*F -- exposed flesh will get frostbite within 5 minutes and it takes longer than that to walk to the barn if there is snow on the ground) doesn't sink in to most people because they have never in their lives experienced that, but maybe looking at all that wood and knowing it is not enough will make more of an impression. I know that if you live in Texas, Southern California, Florida (etc.), none of this might make any sense at all. Even those up north who have central heating cannot grasp this. No, not asking for pity... just want y'all to understand when I talk about our winters. Hogs & Quiches...
Thought I might share a couple [dead] tree pix with you folks. I know a few of you have (or had) wood stoves and I wanted to show you some firewood so you can get a grasp of life on the prairie when the winter is full of those "Canadian Blue Tongues" (cold air masses descending from the arctic north). This is my garage:
The pile in front (22-ton hydraulic splitter barely visible) is the rounds I unloaded from the truck from yesterday's cutting. The pile in the back is the split and stacked firewood. The 2x6 that those snow shoes are hanging on (top right corner) is 8 feet above ground, just so you know how high that stack is. Let's look at that stack a little closer...
What you see is 2 1/2 courses and what the "average" winter requires here is 5 courses. If it gets colder than normal, 6+ will be required, which means even if I have the full 5 by the end of this month, I will have to go out in the snow in January or February to cut more. I split about half of the rounds in the first picture today and stacked them in the third course and started the fourth. When I finish splitting all of the rounds you saw in the first pic, I will still have less than 4 full courses. That means, approximately 2-3 more trips to the field to bring back more.
Do you now have a clearer understanding of how cold it gets here in winter? Telling you we have -20*F with a 60 mph wind (wind chill factor would then be -62*F -- exposed flesh will get frostbite within 5 minutes and it takes longer than that to walk to the barn if there is snow on the ground) doesn't sink in to most people because they have never in their lives experienced that, but maybe looking at all that wood and knowing it is not enough will make more of an impression. I know that if you live in Texas, Southern California, Florida (etc.), none of this might make any sense at all. Even those up north who have central heating cannot grasp this. No, not asking for pity... just want y'all to understand when I talk about our winters. Hogs & Quiches...
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