A Cold and Windy Night
Well, I've boarded up all the cracks and have a good pile of wood stacked up in the house to feed into the stove tonight. Snowing a bit and the wind is blowing hard. I was over loading the inlaws outdoor furnace and the drifts are waist deep and just happen to be right over the only wood left on the place. The weather has been goofy this January, cold for 3 days and then warm for 3 days. Between the barn cleaner screwing up, fresh cows and baby calves, some frozen pipes, a busted pipe and a small fire in our bedroom one night, I've been a little to busy to blog. Yesterday we had some cattle customers out looking at cows. I got to spend the morning doing one of my favorite things....talking cow families, bulls and bloodlines. Its always nice to sell cows to people who are breeders, folks who plan on continuing all the hard work you put in to devoloping a maternal line. I don't care to sell stock to folks who are just looking for more connon fodder for the industrail dairy machine. I perfer to sell to folks who love cows as much as I do and will put some thought into what they mate them to and will have them scored every year. We have had some positive devolpments on the soap making front. I think this may turn out to be something we accually make some money with. I'm starting to think about maple season a little bit. As I get stuff cleaned up and set up, after 2 years of setttin' idle, I promise to get some photos up for everyone that has asked in the past. Matt has quite a bit of hard cider made up and the boys from church have decided we should make some apple brandy. I'm going to dig out the still this week and clean it up. If we ever get started on this project I'll let you all know how it turns out. We made one of our rare trips off the farm and into the concrete jungle this last week. We have a new covenant child in our congregation!!!! Dave and Michelle had a little boy named Timothy and we had to go welcome the little guy as soon as he was born. He is fine looking youngster who I trust will grow up to serve King Jesus. I can't wait for the baptisim, and the feast that will follow.........I'll provide the meat, Dave...if you provide the brew!
posted by Scott M Terry @ 5:49 PM
11 comments
11 Comments:
We have a new covenant child in our congregation!!!! Dave and Michelle had a little boy named Timothy ... who I trust will grow up to serve King Jesus. I can't wait for the baptism, and the feast that will follow ... I'll provide the meat, Dave...if you provide the brew!
This is, indeed, great news! It's always great news when God blesses his people with children. It's even greater news when the child is given to a covenant-keeping family in a covenant-keeping church!
Have fun celebrating!
Brew? Didn't you read that tract from the back of our church? Well, I may not bring any to our church, but I'm willing to be a closet heretic...guess we'll have to celebrate after the baptism at my house.
Scott, I noted with great interest that you mentioned an outdoor furnace. Not having a wood stove, we just paid out $429 for 200 gallons to fill our oil tank, so we are seriously considering installing an alternative source of heat. Actually, it's a must. I'd appreciate any advice you can give in that area. Congratulations to your friends on the birth of their son! God bless.....Emily
Emily
We love wood heat. Nothing beats a good fire for thawing out frozen bodies! We have our own woods, so it really dosen't cost us anything to heat this winter. Oh, some would say my time....but we all know that on a good year the reformed farmers time is worth about 3 cents an hour :) So just gas and oil for the saw. We have a stove in the living room that heats our (w)hole place. We've had the windows open this winter to help cool us off---unless the wind is blowing, then it is just about right. My inlaws have a outdoor furance(so dose the Tom from the Northern Farmer). I've been taking care of it for them while they are away. Its nice becouse it keeps the mess out side and it takes some mighty big chunks of wood(less cutting)and it heats the water for the house. I still perfer to have a fire inside. I love the feel of the heat coming right off the fire. The outdoor one seems to me anyway to use a lot of wood. I know Tom loves his outdoor burners, he has 2 of them I think.
I agree Scott, I'd rather be sitting by a hot "Pot Belly" when the wind is howling. But them outdoor stoves do have big advantages, no chimney fires in the house, no waking up dead from carbon Monoxide, no mess in the house. My wife's hands used to crack and bleed badly in winter when we burned %100 in the house, now they're as smooth as can be because of no combustion in the house. Makes life easier for me, let me tell you :)
All in all, there's advantages and disadvantages as with anything. But it sure is nice not spending one red cent buying fuel for winter. That's a lot of money that doesn't have to be "earned" to give to some big corporation.
Also beware of poorer insulated piping that they're selling nowadays. The one my folks bought is terrible, (the piping that is), compared to mine. That's where most heat gets lost, in the underground piping. I use about one quarter the wood they do, and most of it is from the joke called insulation that the dealers are trying to pawn off nowadays.
Tom
I hear you on the insulated piping. My inlaws have a path from the stove to the house, where the snow is always melted. I'd be tempted to dig it up and redo it if it was mine.
Scott & Tom:
Thank you, gentlemen. I can see that we have some research ahead of us. I don't imagine that we'll be able to glean all the fuel we'd need from our own property, having a little under 3 acres, and only part of that wooded. Oh, that reminds me. Have you ever heard of a timber tax? We have a huge old maple that has become hollow in the middle and needs to be taken down as it is dangerously close to the house. We just found out that if we are planning on using the cut wood, supposedly we are to report the board footage and pay the state a certain percentage of what it's worth. This could quickly turn into a rant on my part, so I'll close here, but have you had to deal with anything like this?
Wow, I've never heard of such a tax! Don't you live in New Hampshire.....live free or die????
Living in NY I figured I had heard of every tax there ever was, but I tell you this.....Taxing my firewood would cause some BIG problems for whoever tried to collect it. Over my dead body.
Sheesh, almost as cold as it is here it sounds. If you want to take a look, I am writing on applied Reformed theology and noticed you had an interest as well. The name of the blog is The Village Green located at
http://vicusviridis.blogspot.com/
Would love to hear from you.
Well, Scott, my husband's opinion of the timber tax pretty much echoes your own. We did find an exemption in the law that covers our maple tree so guess we won't have to break out the old shooting iron at present. ;) Live Free or Die may be NH's state motto but there are so many spineless jellyfish in the House and Senate that the motto may as well be Roll Over and Play Dead. ~sigh~ Don't get me started!
Kosmic Egg Man
I'll be stopping over soon.
Emily
"the motto may as well be Roll Over and Play Dead."
Heheehhe, thats great. Thanks for making me laugh so hard :)
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