Preparing for Winter

Last Saturday my neighbour Doug and his son Ken helped me pick up half a cord of firewood from Randy in town. It had been raining so the wood was wet, but we stacked in in a spot where it gets some sun and wind, and it dried our quite a bit in that gale we had on Sunday.


It was stacked nice and tight. There's some fine hardwood in there, maple, beech and oak, with a bit of birch. It's chopped just the right size for burning too.

Before we start burning, the chimney still has to be inspected. Ideally we'd like to get a cast iron stove with a rear vent, so we can send the stovepipe up the chimney. We'll need the advice of an expert before we can do that. Failing that, we'll just use the fireplace. While it won't be particularly efficient, the romance factor will be considerable. In the worst case the chimney will be in need of major repair, and we'll depend on the electric heating for the rest of the winter.