splitting wood

Heating a small home with only fire is a skill that I am constantly adjusting. I mean getting the wood stove at the perfect temp and then maintaining it. We have one of the smallest woods stoves on the market because our place is so small. (360sq.ft.) Growing up having natural gas heat I learned nothing except do not touch the thermostat or dad gets pissed off. With our stove I found I need several sizes of wood split. Small kindling to start the fire, medium logs to get it up to temp and bigger logs to maintain temp.

Also, the arrangement of the logs in the stove is just as important. You have to allow for air flow. I did not understand the concept of the damper so I had to learn about that. I did get this little stove way too hot on Thanksgiving and burned off some paint on the stove pipe and we had to open the windows because it smelled so terrible. All the wood pieces we bought are so big they will not fit in our stove. They have to be split into thirds or fifths. I also learned that these pieces of wood with knots in them totally suck to split.

I do about 75% of the splitting but the knotty chunks I leave did my husband. My back is getting really strong from splitting wood and hauling wood. My son who is 3 also thinks it's fun to pretend he is a logging truck, he has me load him up (1 log) and haul it to the saw mill (front door step). We did pick a wonderful winter to move up here. It's been very mild, consistently in the 30s for highs and just a dusting of snow so far. I must have read too many Little House on the Prairie books because I had visions of us freezing to death out here. Our sleeping area in the loft stays between 60-65 degrees. At first that was pretty cold for sleeping but I have adjusted and sleep wonderfully.

My husband used the remainder of left over boards to start the skirting along the bottom of the house. Normally you need to use skirting that is plastic or some sort of metal like on a mobile home, wood wicks up moisture. We ran out of money so we have to make due with what we have until spring when we can do it properly.

The shower is installed but not plumbed in yet. Neither of us has plumbing experience so there must be some research done before my husband starts that job. So it's still truck stop showers for me. I swear I am going to take the longest shower ever when this thing is up and running. I'm still sad about losing the bathtub. Winter is my prime bathtub reading season.

I made my first batch of soap in Wisconsin! I altered my lard/coffee recipe and added in Shea butter and some fragrance. I'm getting annoyed with the yellow color, so next batch I'm removing the palm oil. I also made peppermint beeswax lip balm. The next thing I make will be body butter. The wood stove is making it pretty dry in here.