Today I think the sun woke me up, well I think the sun woke Scoob up, his unblinking stare woke me up. I lifted five layers of sheets and blankets and slipped into pants and a sweatshirt, slippers, let Scoob out, shoved the log I noticed last night was so dry it barely had any weight to it into the wood stove to warm up, peed into a bucket, filled the kettle with water from our hiking filter bag, lit the burner to get some tea going, fed Scoob, and went back to fiddle with the fire.
We've been here five nights and I think we've finally figured out how to hold a fire over most of the night. Yesterday and the day before I woke up freezing. The cabin was frigid, even our mattress felt cold. Today it was no colder than my own house is in the morning. I'm sitting here now sipping tea and not wearing a winter hat. The secret is not a technique, but the selection of wood. We noticed that wood from one pile in the basement burns faster than the wood from the other, larger stack. So last night we filled the stove with slow burning wood. I put another slow log on at about 4AM and voilà! I wake up today toasty. A 4AM log shouldn't be necessary if the stove had all its parts, including a stovepipe damper which seems to have rusted out. Today our mission is to purchase a new one and disassemble the stovepipe to install it. Sounds simple, but I'm pretty scared to even try. The stovepipe is rusty and looks like it might crumble. If we screw it up, we could be without heat over night. Depending on the weather, that could be NOT GOOD.
The weather here is...changeable, to say the least. Sunshine this morning does not mean it will be a mild day. Snow and powerful winds move in without notice. The day we arrived there was ice in the sea, floating here and there, overnight that night a huge mass of ice moved in. The ice floating by is endless. The ocean has been ice almost to the horizon for days.
We've been here five nights and I think we've finally figured out how to hold a fire over most of the night. Yesterday and the day before I woke up freezing. The cabin was frigid, even our mattress felt cold. Today it was no colder than my own house is in the morning. I'm sitting here now sipping tea and not wearing a winter hat. The secret is not a technique, but the selection of wood. We noticed that wood from one pile in the basement burns faster than the wood from the other, larger stack. So last night we filled the stove with slow burning wood. I put another slow log on at about 4AM and voilà! I wake up today toasty. A 4AM log shouldn't be necessary if the stove had all its parts, including a stovepipe damper which seems to have rusted out. Today our mission is to purchase a new one and disassemble the stovepipe to install it. Sounds simple, but I'm pretty scared to even try. The stovepipe is rusty and looks like it might crumble. If we screw it up, we could be without heat over night. Depending on the weather, that could be NOT GOOD.
The weather here is...changeable, to say the least. Sunshine this morning does not mean it will be a mild day. Snow and powerful winds move in without notice. The day we arrived there was ice in the sea, floating here and there, overnight that night a huge mass of ice moved in. The ice floating by is endless. The ocean has been ice almost to the horizon for days.
Beautiful, and scary, and exciting. Get hardwoods!! They burn slower!! Cherry, apple, etc, fruitwoods are good, but also maple n stuff... stay warm and safe out there.
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