Bert's Musings

Can't get photos to upload, will edit this as soon as I can get them to upload. This morning I got some cardio exercise splitting some wood by hand.  Steve still has my wood splitter. I'm in no hurry to get it back. This is 3 buckets full in my tractor. I haven't started my chainsaw since I've been back in Missouri, no need. I've split 7 or 8 bucketfuls and have seen enough chunks of wood around the property, already cut to length, that I could probably find enough for at least another half a cord. This afternoon I went to Nathan's Tire Shop and had a new set of Yokohoma tires installed on the CR-V. So far, only 8 miles of smooth road, I'm well pleased. Andy took this photo last night. This was the first time that Lydia actually crawled up into the bookcase. She has thought about getting in there before, but never actually crawled completely up. She is SO CUTE, not that I might be biased. Good evening to all. May God bless you and yours.

I hope all of you have a Happy New Year. Last night was our coldest night so far this season. The overnight low was 7 degrees. Today’s high was 34, I think yesterday’s high was about the same. I’m pleased with our wood fired boiler. I loaded it up a little after 5 yesterday evening. When I checked it around 8:30 this morning there were still plenty of coals to fire a new batch of wood. I’ve been burning mostly junk wood during the day and the good stuff at night. Based on what I’ve seen so far a lot of the trashy wood I burned, in burn piles last summer, would probably have been fine for daytime use. Live and learn.   We have used our vent free gas fireplaces, we have one on both levels, a few times. We only used them when it was to warm to bother with lighting, or keeping a fire going in, the wood boiler. Last night we left the thermostat set on 72 degrees overnight, much higher than we ever did in Indiana. Before the heating season started  I thought we might burn 10-12 cord...