Feeding the Fire
One of my favorite regional/local magazines is Northern Woodlands (another is the surprisingly good State of Vermont mag Vermont Life). As its subheading professes, A New Way of Looking at the Forest, Northern Woodlands isn't quite a trade magazine. It is chock full of advertisements, but also numerous informational nuggets concerning the natural environment. Each issue opens with A Look at the Season's Main Events which describes interesting natural happenings for the upcoming weeks. The big news for the first week of January, specifically Jan 3-4, is the peak of the Quadrantid meteor shower. With an early setting mid-evening new moon, it should be quite the show.
The latest issue also has a great article that
compares the cost of heating a home with wood vs. oil. I grew up with wood heat, back when a cord of wood cost closer to $70, but my current home runs on oil (by far the primary heating fuel across the State, at 59%). I still get my chopping and stacking fix, though, by helping friends put up their winter supply, which consists of seasoned quality wood costing around $225/cord.
The article, Whittling Down the Fuel Bill, states that the 50% increase in home heating oil in the last year have made firewood, which is seeing price increases at nearly the same level, the better option. ...if you're spending less than $348.18 per cord, you're paying less for the BTUs to heat your house with wood than with oil. At $225 or below, you are paying more than a third less.
Now if I can just find a way to get my parent's old Timberline wood stove up to my house...
Al Green - Light My Fire (links to hypemachine stream of the classic Doors Cover)
The latest issue also has a great article that
compares the cost of heating a home with wood vs. oil. I grew up with wood heat, back when a cord of wood cost closer to $70, but my current home runs on oil (by far the primary heating fuel across the State, at 59%). I still get my chopping and stacking fix, though, by helping friends put up their winter supply, which consists of seasoned quality wood costing around $225/cord.The article, Whittling Down the Fuel Bill, states that the 50% increase in home heating oil in the last year have made firewood, which is seeing price increases at nearly the same level, the better option. ...if you're spending less than $348.18 per cord, you're paying less for the BTUs to heat your house with wood than with oil. At $225 or below, you are paying more than a third less.
Now if I can just find a way to get my parent's old Timberline wood stove up to my house...
Al Green - Light My Fire (links to hypemachine stream of the classic Doors Cover)
posted by jds @ 12/30/2005 02:09:00 PM
2 Comments:
At 8:48 PM,
Dewey said…
Hmmmmm! It seems to me that I remember some wood stories too. I still have the old stove that Jerry made for me in the basement, and when the house was smaller, it would heat the whole thing. Now it is great backup. But I was foolish and did not get in my wood this year even for emergency. I did get frustrated with hauling my own wood out of the woods and all the things that could happen to chain saws, but a logger fellow used to deliver what he called "long logs" that were left over from logging for lumber. he wold drop them right in my driveway. Then I found it easy to cut up when it was my turn with the Homelite. And then I split them with one of those fine chopper ones. We had a party one time in the yard, and I did not have enough chairs or tables, so we took the cut chunks of still unsplit wood and arranged them as seats and used the larger ones as tables so the yard looked like a litte rustic cafe. We had a good laugh about it, but people thought it was cool and we had quite a picnic.
At 9:20 AM,
Flatlander said…
Regarding your top ten bands "Rocking the Walkman", I love the variety. I can't imagine too many people with Willie Nelson, The Flaming Lips and The Who in their top ten. Nice.
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