Rose Cottage Ltd

I’m stuck at home for the second day due to ice and snow and let’s admit it – even if you didn’t have to go anywhere, knowing you just can’t, can get annoying. Just as when we were school age, playing in the snow is a great, new experience at first but then, “we have nothing to do” creeps in.

The adult version of “we have nothing to do” seems to involve poking fun at others who are dealing with their same version of “winter.” If you’re living in Boston or other parts of the northeast US right now, snow totals less than 4 feet don’t even catch your attention. In DC yesterday, 4 to 6 INCHES of snow shutdown the Federal Government. At my location in Central North Carolina, 2 inches of snow topped with a inch or so of ice – shut down EVERYTHING.

Niagara Falls – Frozen Solid!

Around this time of a winter event – for lack of better word, people start to get a bit touchy about their weather – almost defending their ability to live in a nearly hostile environment. People in Boston are making fun of those in DC and I am sure DC would be or is making fun of those of us “down south.” I don’t play this game because I never WANTED to win the “Who has more snow?” contest. It’s why I don’t live in Boston – lovely city that it is.

To all those who get too personally involved in the snow totals contest I say “Chill out.” I have friends in Arizona and Southern California who think we are ALL crazy for living anywhere where the temperature ever gets below 60 degrees! They get their digs in now regarding my close-to-zero temperatures but I will get payback when Arizona residents are dealing with 100+ degree heat in mid-summer and I am sitting in North Carolina on a balmy and perfect 80-degree day.

I’ve never seen a situation so appropriate for the statement, “It is what it is.” If your roof hasn’t caved in from snow pack and you are relatively warm, fed and healthy, just enjoy the day, or the week, or in the case of the northeast, the month – and know that this too shall pass.

I wrote a post back in January 2012 about some wood stove maintenance I’d need to do before the Fall/Winter stove season began. Even though there was one 82 degree day in Central North Carolina which made it seem silly to spend the day working on/with the wood stove, by the 38 degree morning yesterday, I was glad I had.

You’ll see from the January post that the stove’s gasket seal around the window needed replacing and that I also needed to replace some of the bricks that hold and process the heat. It took me about 2 hours to accomplish this work since I had already ordered the gasket roping, the “glue” to hold it in the stove’s window channel, and the bricks.

Based on yesterday’s and this morning’s burn, I apparently got the seal tight enough and I also think the new bricks are making for a better fire.

I also bought a little chimney sweep tool from Lowe’s. It looks like a Brillo pad on steroids and is attached (sold seperately,) to a snaky piece or two of narrow aluminum tubing that extends about 20′. I got up on the roof, ran this thing up and down the vent a few times, and then removed the outside vent cap and cleaned the creosote from that with some steel wool. I’m lucky to have a low roof so this was all accomplished quite safely in about 30 minutes.

My stove was purchased from Lowe’s in 2007. You can read some info about it – and the year-over-year savings since its arrival.

This particular model is hard to find now five years later, but I have linked some wood stoves that are similar here. Further down that same page is an interview with the stove’s installer with a few FAQs AND a few useful wood stove accessories.

I’ll be updating the savings enjoyed by using this wood stove for heat soon but I can tell you here that I made it through all of last year’s and the early 2012 heating season on one tank of LP gas. Prior to the wood stove, I was using at least one and one-half tanks to get through the cold months.

Today’s high is to be right about 49 degrees with very windy conditions and some rain. This is a perfect time to heat the house via the wood stove. I’ll set my central heating on 60 degrees, and probably not have it run for the rest of the day. All I’ll hear is the wood stove blower versus the quarters dropping every time the central heat WOULD be kicking in.

Music to my ears…