endless...
just endless...
I just finished a six hour marathon of raking and hauling leaves from the grounds around Stately Sad Old Goth Manor and it's already covered with a fresh coating of leaves. It's a good thing I enjoy raking, I guess. And, it's a beautiful fall day, just barely in the sixties, a steady, moderate breeze from the Northeast and big puffy clouds. My closest neighbor on my side of the road, who is about two hundred feet away, has his wood stove going and it's scenting my yard. I love that smell. It's primal and reassuring, mysterious and friendly at the same time. Before we switched over to coal (yes, how very non-green of us, huh? I support the mining industry, what can I say?) we used to have a Vermont Castings Vigilant wood stove in our dining room and a small Jotul in the living room and during the winter, the house was filled with that wonderful wood fire smell. It was really great to come inside from the cold and cozy up the to stove. On holidays, I'd open the doors on the Vigilant and put the screen in and we'd enjoy an open fire. Nothing like it.
Coal is ok, it's cheaper and much less labor intensive, for me, anyway and it burns a long time and gives off a nice steady heat. It's the better choice for sustained heating, but gives off a horrible sulfur odor when you open the door to stoke it or feed it. Not very pleasant, but the benefits outweigh the occasional scent of Hades. The living room stove is on the way out, I'm adding an extra heating duct, with a thermostat driven fan to help draw air from the furnace into the room and I'm putting electric radiant heating under the new flooring, so I won't need it anymore. I think I'll move it to the workshop, if and when that ever gets built.
Well, I'm going to have a bottle of Sam Adams Black Lager and a few smokes and kick back for a while. Tomorrow is redoing the outside of our living room bay window. I'm redoing the trim and cladding under the window to give it a more traditional look that better fits the house. Gotta get stuff like that done while the weather cooperates.
I think if the wind dies down a bit tonight, I might get a fire going in the fire pit and spend my birthday eve with pipe and flagon and the waning moon.
Later, friends.


sow what you will...