Preparing for winter (in 30 degree heat!)

We are organized this year, and have four cords of wood arriving in August. The first two have already been delivered, and Iain and I started stacking this morning. Kev and I looked at the measly pile of wood after it arrived, and Kev commented "That sure doesn't look like two cords of wood!". But let me tell you, this morning it is "loaves-and-fishes" wood out there; no matter how much we stack, the pile seems to remain the same! Here is Iain on the pile after stacking part of it. Our neighbours run an annual flower business; you can see their greenhouses out behind him.


Our organization was not self-motivated; our regular wood guy Jamie gave me the same price per cord of wood as I paid last year, as long as I ordered it before peak season. Last year we were stacking in January ... not fun! This is good, since we'll be all stacked before the kids get busy with school.

This year I learned how to pillar the wood at the ends of each stack. This will make the wood more stable. Here's a photo of Iain stacking, showing the pillars we put up first.


We love using wood heat here. When we purchased our little wood stove, we envisioned it heating the family room only, however because of the open floor plan and the way the stairs from the lower level lead upstairs, we can heat all living areas in the house adequately. We tend to set our furnace for 16 C. The furnace generally doesn't come on at all until January, then only by about 4 in the morning for a couple of hours. Only in a real cold snap does it come on during the day. Last year we used only about 1/3 of a tank of oil, plus somewhere around 3.5 cords of wood. And oh, the smell of that first fire :) .... mmmmmm. We can hardly wait!