Alan Liere: Baby, it’s Cold Outside – inside too!
Many years ago, recently divorced, I was living in a trailer at Loon Lake. It was a tough winter, much like this one, and in early February, my hair often froze when I got out of the shower. I was younger and poorer then, and I accepted frozen hair as one of the punishments I had to endure for having let a marriage fail – guilt, compensation, and all that.
Well, I haven’t had enough hair to comb for the last 30 years. My digs have improved considerably, though, and my house here on Wild Rose Prairie is well-built and well-insulated. In a normal year, I’m never cold, despite using a wood stove as my sole source of heat. This winter, however, a number of factors have combined to create uncomfortable temperatures inside.
When the wind blows, it drives the cold under the doors through even the smallest gap. And while my log home will hold the heat, it will also hold the cold once it makes its way through the cracks. Just as the temperatures again hit single digits and the wind hits its most violent, my wood pile was yielding the worst fuel of the winter – stuff I cut last spring, mostly just to get it off the ground – punky white fir.
Before I moved to the country and became determined to heat with wood from my own property, I thought all firewood was created equal. Since, I have learned about BTUs, and though I still don’t know what the initials stand for, I know they are what make a fire hot or not so hot. What doesn’t have many BTUs is white fir, which is what I have the most of this year. Lulled by two mild winters, I thought I could get by. So here I am in the cold of February and the next two rows of logs in my wood shed are white fir. My house plants are turning black.
My wood stove should be larger. If I were to buy one again, I would have a stove the size of a Buick. During the coldest, windiest weather, I sleep on the couch by the stove so I can feed it when it begins to die. My stove has a built-in alarm – me. When the fire is almost out, I begin to shiver. I have brought both bird dogs into the house for additional warmth, but they keep to themselves – I think my shivering annoys them. In the meantime, there is dog hair everywhere.
I’ve been dreaming about Arizona. Their quail season is open through February. Lots of thorns, but lots of sunshine too. I’ve always wanted to hunt scaled and Montezuma quail in Arizona. With no one here to stoke the fire, the house will get pretty cold while I’m gone. But heck, I didn’t like those house plants anyway.