For the second year in a row, Bill and I will be turning off our computer (which is also our TV and radio) during the week of Thanksgiving. It is a happy respite and digital detox that helps us recenter for the winter and reconnect with life off line. On Friday, we will also be leaving our lights off all day. This may be loosely based on Earth Hour, an international event where people turn off their lights for an hour on a specific day. Mostly, we do it because it is fun.
We have a collection of hurricane lanterns, a bunch of real books and a collection of board games. Also, we really enjoy spending quiet time together not just next to each other. When the computer is on it is an easy distraction, but when its off we don't even miss it.
We call this event Dark Friday, in contrast to Black Friday.
If you'd like to join us in spending the day after Thanksgiving continuing to be thankful for what we have, rather than battling to acquire more stuff, I'd love to hear how you plan to celebrate.
There are lots of people who will be celebrating in a similar way, but they call it Buy Nothing Day and it is an international event calling attention to rampant consumerism in the western world. If you'd like some more resources related to a low-impact holiday, check out Buy Nothing Christmas and Center for a New American Dream.
I hope you all have a lovely, rejuvenating Thanksgiving full of the people and moments that matter.
Showing posts with label economics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economics. Show all posts
Friday, November 22, 2013
Monday, April 23, 2012
Why?
Someday I'll write a series of posts about why I have quit my desk job to become a small farmer. In the meantime, Susan - the owner and shepherdess at Juniper Moon Farm - wrote a lovely Accidental Manifesto about why she left her life in a big city to be a small farmer.
She covers most of the big reasons why I'm doing this too. (Though, most of you will know, I've never spent a fortune on shoes, make-up or fancy sheets). The satisfaction she describes of decreasing dependence on a centralized, industrial food system, and the joy of making something useful - and honestly getting dirty - is something I really relate to.
Check it out.
She covers most of the big reasons why I'm doing this too. (Though, most of you will know, I've never spent a fortune on shoes, make-up or fancy sheets). The satisfaction she describes of decreasing dependence on a centralized, industrial food system, and the joy of making something useful - and honestly getting dirty - is something I really relate to.
Check it out.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
A rant about Industrial Eggs
Via Casaubon's Book, an article in the NY Times about how gross industrial "farming" is. The subject of this groundbreaking report: eggs.
The Humane Society of the US (which I often find to be a bit too radical - and which is no relation to the local Humane Societies where you should get your next pet) is about to release a report about a gross egg farm.
I agree (as I so often do) with Casaubon's Book author Sharon Astyk when she says:
I think I am nearly immune to the attempt at shock in these articles on factoring farming. If I can imagine something horrid happening, I assume that it does happen. In fact, the thing that I found most sickening about Times article was this one line - "Like many readers, I don’t particularly empathize with chickens."
I'm not sure why the author included it. Is it to make us feel better that we've allowed these places to exist? There are a lot of animals (and, to be honest, people) that I have a hard time liking. But that doesn't mean I can't empathize with their situation. It's not hard to see a bunch of stressed-out chickens missing feathers and crammed into a cage to think "I'll bet that sucks."
It's also not hard to find local eggs from small farmers in most places. We actually give our eggs away to coworkers as soon as the percentage of eggs to "other food" in our fridge goes above 50%. We accept donations to Heifer if people insist on paying for them.
Get a chicken. Or get to know someone who has a chicken. Or stop eating eggs.
Or, know that you are directly causing harm to animals and people as the result of your choices.
The Humane Society of the US (which I often find to be a bit too radical - and which is no relation to the local Humane Societies where you should get your next pet) is about to release a report about a gross egg farm.
I agree (as I so often do) with Casaubon's Book author Sharon Astyk when she says:
Anyone who doesn't know that factory egg and poultry production is a nightmare - a nightmare of cruelty to chickens, contamination of your food, a nightmare of manure and dead animal disposal issues that threaten human health is not paying attention. Eating commercial chicken or eggs is an act of willful blindness, and the investigation into Kreider farms is just par for the course.
This information has been available to everyone in the US for a decade and more, and promulgated in media, film, etc... Anyone who cares even a tiny bit about what they eat knows this. Most people who do not are actively choosing not to know.
I think I am nearly immune to the attempt at shock in these articles on factoring farming. If I can imagine something horrid happening, I assume that it does happen. In fact, the thing that I found most sickening about Times article was this one line - "Like many readers, I don’t particularly empathize with chickens."
I'm not sure why the author included it. Is it to make us feel better that we've allowed these places to exist? There are a lot of animals (and, to be honest, people) that I have a hard time liking. But that doesn't mean I can't empathize with their situation. It's not hard to see a bunch of stressed-out chickens missing feathers and crammed into a cage to think "I'll bet that sucks."
It's also not hard to find local eggs from small farmers in most places. We actually give our eggs away to coworkers as soon as the percentage of eggs to "other food" in our fridge goes above 50%. We accept donations to Heifer if people insist on paying for them.
Get a chicken. Or get to know someone who has a chicken. Or stop eating eggs.
Or, know that you are directly causing harm to animals and people as the result of your choices.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Big birthday? Make it a big thing.
Do you freak out over milestone birthdays? I do a little. I don't want to be 20 again, or 25...but I don't feel old enough that TV advertisers should no longer care about me. Or old enough that my next milestone birthday is (gasp) 40.
So (way back) in my 20s, I decided to plan something so awesome for my 30th birthday that I could sort of forget I was turning 30 because I was completely focused on the exciting, big thing that happened to take place around the same time.
We went to New Zealand. It was awesome.
I tell you this so I can share a photo of the first glacier I ever saw, and also because it had an impact on my recent milestone birthday (35).
After two weeks in lovely, relaxed New Zealand, Bill and I returned to our jobs in DC. I was sitting in my office, listening to the angry car horns outside (and the godawful pan flute band that was on the corner every Thursday)...and Bill was stuck in endless commuter traffic - and we decided DC had been fun, but it was time for something else.
That something else turned into an old farm house and a few acres in Indiana. And a dog.
We realized we liked living in the country. We liked it a lot. We were entertained by fireflies and learned how to make jam and raise chickens. The cliched "simple things" were very fulfilling and though we miss many things about living in a city, we realized our little life was pretty satisfying.
Our consumer needs decreased and we found that what we really wanted was more time. Time to weed the garden. To make beer. To raise goats. To preserve seasonal food. To fix the multitude of sad things about our once-lovely house.
So, we made a plan. As a nice coincidence, that plan lined up well with my 35th birthday. For the past two years we've been living on a budget - paying off debt and saving money. We've been living on less, which meant lifestyle changes. Much less travel. Much more home cooking. Way fewer gadgets. We met our goals and we were happy doing it. We didn't miss the things we thought we would.
A few weeks ago - after two years of planning - I quit my job to become a full time small farmer. (Most of the time I'm really cool saying that. But it still gives me mild panic attacks on occasion).
Starting in May, I'll be part of a growing number of college-educated women who have chosen to leave the workforce. There are many reasons why we've made this choice - some political, some economical, but mostly it's probably because the only thing I think I've ever wanted to be is a small farmer with an old house.
And soon I will be!
So (way back) in my 20s, I decided to plan something so awesome for my 30th birthday that I could sort of forget I was turning 30 because I was completely focused on the exciting, big thing that happened to take place around the same time.
We went to New Zealand. It was awesome.
I tell you this so I can share a photo of the first glacier I ever saw, and also because it had an impact on my recent milestone birthday (35).
After two weeks in lovely, relaxed New Zealand, Bill and I returned to our jobs in DC. I was sitting in my office, listening to the angry car horns outside (and the godawful pan flute band that was on the corner every Thursday)...and Bill was stuck in endless commuter traffic - and we decided DC had been fun, but it was time for something else.
That something else turned into an old farm house and a few acres in Indiana. And a dog.
We realized we liked living in the country. We liked it a lot. We were entertained by fireflies and learned how to make jam and raise chickens. The cliched "simple things" were very fulfilling and though we miss many things about living in a city, we realized our little life was pretty satisfying.
Our consumer needs decreased and we found that what we really wanted was more time. Time to weed the garden. To make beer. To raise goats. To preserve seasonal food. To fix the multitude of sad things about our once-lovely house.
So, we made a plan. As a nice coincidence, that plan lined up well with my 35th birthday. For the past two years we've been living on a budget - paying off debt and saving money. We've been living on less, which meant lifestyle changes. Much less travel. Much more home cooking. Way fewer gadgets. We met our goals and we were happy doing it. We didn't miss the things we thought we would.
A few weeks ago - after two years of planning - I quit my job to become a full time small farmer. (Most of the time I'm really cool saying that. But it still gives me mild panic attacks on occasion).
Starting in May, I'll be part of a growing number of college-educated women who have chosen to leave the workforce. There are many reasons why we've made this choice - some political, some economical, but mostly it's probably because the only thing I think I've ever wanted to be is a small farmer with an old house.
And soon I will be!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
A tale of two chickens
Two of the drawbacks I hear folks banter around about heritage breed chickens is that they grow too slowly and they aren't big enough for modern Americans. A lot of farmers and consumers tend toward hybrid birds to get past those drawbacks. (Sometimes gross hybrids, like the Cornish Cross we raised our first year which also make up all grocery store chickens. And sometimes more natural hybrids.)
For the past two years we've been raising Dark Cornish. They do take months, rather than weeks to mature and I can see how that is a draw back. If you're trying to raise chickens for profit, these probably aren't going to be them. Ours mostly free range which means low, low, low feed costs, but it also means greater loss to predators. (Ask me how my opinion of red tailed hawks has changed since my college days as a wanna-be-naturalist...).
I don't understand, however, the idea that these birds don't produce enough meat. I think that is problem of expectations and creativity. A problem we can solve right now. Ready? Think of meat as a condiment...not the whole meal.
A million years ago when we watched "Super Size Me" the thing that stuck with us most is that a serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards. It changed the way we eat at home and at restaurants (the annoying people that share a buffalo burger at Teds - that's us).
Two weeks ago Bill took two Dark Cornish out of our freezer. For two weeks they've made most of our meals - and I think we'll still be eating them for another week.
The first two meals were shredded dark meat from the legs, which was simmered in salsa and then added to nachos and burritos. Total meals: 2 each for 2 people (aka, 4 meals).
The chicken breasts were made in to chicken parm. 3 meals x 2 people = 6.
Bill made stock from the carcasses and plucked off the rest of the meat. We've had chicken soup at least 4 times each and just made tortilla soup from the stock. There are at least 6 meals of soup left for lunches this week. Some of the tortilla soup was also thickened and used on our breakfast of chilaquiles and again to make Big Bill's Bodacious Blend of Salsa de Enchilada (sauce for 5 total meals of enchiladas).
Side note - we eat a lot of tortilla based meals around here. It's because we have a tortilla press and homemade corn tortillas are the MOST AMAZING THING EVER! (Best $25 you can spend)
Bill is a big guy. He likes to eat much food. So we aren't talking about little girly meals here. In most cases we're getting fulfillment from the other parts of the meal. Homemade corn tortillas are tasty, but they are also way more filling than store bought ones. The same is true of the homemade pasta we ate in the soup and with the chicken parm.
So, I think we're up to 31 meals with products from 2 chickens. The chicken wasn't necessarily the main ingredient in many of the meals - in some it was a condiment. But we feel pretty great about this. Processing your own chickens sucks. It's really hard. Knowing that we've gotten so many meals out of these two birds is satisfying.
For the past two years we've been raising Dark Cornish. They do take months, rather than weeks to mature and I can see how that is a draw back. If you're trying to raise chickens for profit, these probably aren't going to be them. Ours mostly free range which means low, low, low feed costs, but it also means greater loss to predators. (Ask me how my opinion of red tailed hawks has changed since my college days as a wanna-be-naturalist...).
I don't understand, however, the idea that these birds don't produce enough meat. I think that is problem of expectations and creativity. A problem we can solve right now. Ready? Think of meat as a condiment...not the whole meal.
A million years ago when we watched "Super Size Me" the thing that stuck with us most is that a serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards. It changed the way we eat at home and at restaurants (the annoying people that share a buffalo burger at Teds - that's us).
Two weeks ago Bill took two Dark Cornish out of our freezer. For two weeks they've made most of our meals - and I think we'll still be eating them for another week.
The first two meals were shredded dark meat from the legs, which was simmered in salsa and then added to nachos and burritos. Total meals: 2 each for 2 people (aka, 4 meals).
The chicken breasts were made in to chicken parm. 3 meals x 2 people = 6.
Bill made stock from the carcasses and plucked off the rest of the meat. We've had chicken soup at least 4 times each and just made tortilla soup from the stock. There are at least 6 meals of soup left for lunches this week. Some of the tortilla soup was also thickened and used on our breakfast of chilaquiles and again to make Big Bill's Bodacious Blend of Salsa de Enchilada (sauce for 5 total meals of enchiladas).
Side note - we eat a lot of tortilla based meals around here. It's because we have a tortilla press and homemade corn tortillas are the MOST AMAZING THING EVER! (Best $25 you can spend)
So, I think we're up to 31 meals with products from 2 chickens. The chicken wasn't necessarily the main ingredient in many of the meals - in some it was a condiment. But we feel pretty great about this. Processing your own chickens sucks. It's really hard. Knowing that we've gotten so many meals out of these two birds is satisfying.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
It's Super, I guess
The Super Bowl is here. It's...whatever. I'm not gonna be a downer about the BIGGEST MOST AWESOME EVENT EVER TO COME TO INDY OMG!!!
But, I'm not gonna pretend to like it either. Bill and I went down to the Super Bowl Village earlier this week to see what it was all about.
This is what Bill thought of it:
There was a zipline. It went a whole city block.
And a couple of Indy cars.
And a lot of people sort of standing around and drinking Bud Light.
That thing in the center of the road is like, a Fire and Ice lounge or something. It's the only food available in the village and I think it's actually all beer. I don't know who runs those. I heard a rumor it was the Indianapolis tourism board perhaps. But until it's confirmed, I'll assume the money goes to the NFL. And Budweiser.
There was also the NFL Experience. You pay $25 a person to stand in a really big line so that you can get inside a building and buy the official NFL gear (which is only sold inside that building). There were like games for kids and stuff too, I'm told. Apparently there are more checkout lanes in there than in a Super Walmart (I'm beginning to think the word "Super" ain't all that great), and they were all full constantly. Presumably all that money goes to the NFL.
But look at how much fun everyone is having.
Us too!
After about 20 minutes, we were just spent from all the fun, fun, fun, so we walked the 8 or 9 blocks back to my office and our car. We walked up Mass Ave, the center of awesome, independent Indianapolis. Lots of restaurants, shops, art, the best cupcakes, yummy truffles, an independent toy store, bars, (passable) pizza.... It's usually hopping every night of the week. These were the small, local businesses that would benefit so greatly from the unparalleled AWESOMENESS of the SUPER BOWL.
Or not. Where are all the people???
Oh, right.
But, I'm not gonna pretend to like it either. Bill and I went down to the Super Bowl Village earlier this week to see what it was all about.
This is what Bill thought of it:
There was a zipline. It went a whole city block.
And a couple of Indy cars.
And a lot of people sort of standing around and drinking Bud Light.
That thing in the center of the road is like, a Fire and Ice lounge or something. It's the only food available in the village and I think it's actually all beer. I don't know who runs those. I heard a rumor it was the Indianapolis tourism board perhaps. But until it's confirmed, I'll assume the money goes to the NFL. And Budweiser.
There was also the NFL Experience. You pay $25 a person to stand in a really big line so that you can get inside a building and buy the official NFL gear (which is only sold inside that building). There were like games for kids and stuff too, I'm told. Apparently there are more checkout lanes in there than in a Super Walmart (I'm beginning to think the word "Super" ain't all that great), and they were all full constantly. Presumably all that money goes to the NFL.
But look at how much fun everyone is having.
Us too!
After about 20 minutes, we were just spent from all the fun, fun, fun, so we walked the 8 or 9 blocks back to my office and our car. We walked up Mass Ave, the center of awesome, independent Indianapolis. Lots of restaurants, shops, art, the best cupcakes, yummy truffles, an independent toy store, bars, (passable) pizza.... It's usually hopping every night of the week. These were the small, local businesses that would benefit so greatly from the unparalleled AWESOMENESS of the SUPER BOWL.
Or not. Where are all the people???
Oh, right.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
All the mundane updates
In news that shocked the world (or 5 people), I recently deleted my Facebook account. I realize that this leaves a giant void for all the people in the world (5) who have a keen interest on the mundanity of my days.
As such, I bring you an update of all the things that have happened since I left Facebook one full day ago.
This morning was garbage day.
This evening for dinner we ate garden potatoes for the first time this year.
Whilst we were eating, an autumn leaf fell from a honey locust on to Sugar Pie's fuzzy ear.
Bernie slept through it all as cats are wont to do.
Bill has gotten to this point in his oven building.
I have gotten to this point in my hat and glove building.
(Also, since leaving FB, I have turned into a hard core rocker chick. Hard. Core.)
We received another delivery of wood.
I know, it looks like the last delivery, but I assure you it is not. See the wood in the shed? We stacked that. Also, please note our propane tank has been downgraded from 1000 gallons to 300 something. We use significantly less propane than the previous owners and the huge tank was unnecessary. Wood is the heating source of champions!
Finally, the turkeys want you to know that their tails are growing in for the season and they don't look nearly as silly as they did over the summer.
They want you to know they are handsome again. Image is very important to turkeys.
Very handsome turkeys.
As such, I bring you an update of all the things that have happened since I left Facebook one full day ago.
This morning was garbage day.
This evening for dinner we ate garden potatoes for the first time this year.
Whilst we were eating, an autumn leaf fell from a honey locust on to Sugar Pie's fuzzy ear.
Bernie slept through it all as cats are wont to do.
Bill has gotten to this point in his oven building.
I have gotten to this point in my hat and glove building.
(Also, since leaving FB, I have turned into a hard core rocker chick. Hard. Core.)We received another delivery of wood.
I know, it looks like the last delivery, but I assure you it is not. See the wood in the shed? We stacked that. Also, please note our propane tank has been downgraded from 1000 gallons to 300 something. We use significantly less propane than the previous owners and the huge tank was unnecessary. Wood is the heating source of champions!Finally, the turkeys want you to know that their tails are growing in for the season and they don't look nearly as silly as they did over the summer.
They want you to know they are handsome again. Image is very important to turkeys.
Very handsome turkeys.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
More and less
It's currently the very specific time of year which results in many conversations between Bill and me regarding wood supply. It's been wicked cold this week and our stacked wood is dwindling. Every individual log that goes into a fire initiates an estimate from Bill on how much wood we have left and if it will get us to spring.
We have this much left in the wood shed:
(can you see the tiny pile in the back? It's about 4 pieces)
And this much on the porch:
Current guess is that we'll be ok until March, but we will have to dig into the pile of unstacked wood which is under snow, but covered by a tarp.
While we have used much more wood this year, we haven't used any noticeable amount of propane. In fact, the batteries in our thermostat were dead for 2-3 weeks around Christmas break, meaning the furnace wasn't on at all, and we didn't even notice. It is possible the propane company may come take our tank from us, as they expect us to use at least 500 gallons per year.
(the tank just looks lonely and disused, doesn't it?)
Between last year and this year, I think we've used a total of 200 gallons. Far less than the 7-800 the first year we lived here. And - with two wood stoves and a proper amount of wood, we are much warmer than when we burned propane.
As an added bonus of using more wood and less propane - I love stacking wood...and boiling water for tea and hot chocolate on the stove...and even lugging carts of wood from the shed to the house through the snow. I love putting on my blue hat (knit from yarn I spun and dyed!), boots and gloves and venturing out into the cold - especially when the sky is blue and the ground is white. The cold is refreshing and I appreciate the warmth of the house even more when I come back in.
What's that? You haven't seen my blue hat yet? Well...here it is:
It was made with my first knitable handspun. I've spun more since then - it is more even and less bumpy, which is very exciting.
(new yarn- shows improvement!)
(bumpy "yarn" from my first attempts)
I believe I've now earned the chance to spin with colored roving. Bill helped me dye a pound of it yesterday. Both of these are dyed with the same 3 colors, but different distribution. On this one, I just plopped the green, brown and yellow all over randomly.
On this one, I kept the colors mostly segregated:
I'm interested to see how they spin up! More color, less white!
We have this much left in the wood shed:
(can you see the tiny pile in the back? It's about 4 pieces)And this much on the porch:
Current guess is that we'll be ok until March, but we will have to dig into the pile of unstacked wood which is under snow, but covered by a tarp.
While we have used much more wood this year, we haven't used any noticeable amount of propane. In fact, the batteries in our thermostat were dead for 2-3 weeks around Christmas break, meaning the furnace wasn't on at all, and we didn't even notice. It is possible the propane company may come take our tank from us, as they expect us to use at least 500 gallons per year.
(the tank just looks lonely and disused, doesn't it?)Between last year and this year, I think we've used a total of 200 gallons. Far less than the 7-800 the first year we lived here. And - with two wood stoves and a proper amount of wood, we are much warmer than when we burned propane.
As an added bonus of using more wood and less propane - I love stacking wood...and boiling water for tea and hot chocolate on the stove...and even lugging carts of wood from the shed to the house through the snow. I love putting on my blue hat (knit from yarn I spun and dyed!), boots and gloves and venturing out into the cold - especially when the sky is blue and the ground is white. The cold is refreshing and I appreciate the warmth of the house even more when I come back in.
What's that? You haven't seen my blue hat yet? Well...here it is:
It was made with my first knitable handspun. I've spun more since then - it is more even and less bumpy, which is very exciting.
(new yarn- shows improvement!)
(bumpy "yarn" from my first attempts)I believe I've now earned the chance to spin with colored roving. Bill helped me dye a pound of it yesterday. Both of these are dyed with the same 3 colors, but different distribution. On this one, I just plopped the green, brown and yellow all over randomly.
On this one, I kept the colors mostly segregated:
I'm interested to see how they spin up! More color, less white!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Would...
This weekend's activities revolved around wood. We're preparing our bedroom for the addition of a wood stove. The first step involved the unprovoked torture of some very old wood. We had to remove the baseboard around the chimney and it was unwilling to be separated from the wall due to the massive number of square head nails holding it into the masonry.
Why, yes, that is an electrical wire we found under the molding.
This is is the current state of our new hearth. The cement board has been applied and is awaiting our slate tiles. Also, yes, I know our floor is not painted in the middle. Our bedroom was our first project when we moved in and I felt guilty about painting the unpainted wood. I enjoyed pulling up the old carpet and discovering the 3 different colors of brown paint that had been applied over the years and wanted to preserve the experience for the next inhabitants of the house.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Fire!
We sah-ho do not have enough wood to last us the winter. Our fabulous, glorious wood pile of old is down to sad, sad scraps. While I partially blame this tragedy on a ridiculously early winter (like really early not just we've-been-living-in-DC-so-we-think-"winter"-is-a-week-or-two-in-January early), we also did not cut nearly enough wood. We've been selecting the best candidates for next year and will be chopping trees as soon as it gets warm.
We've also imposed rationing - no fire unless its below 20. Which means...WARM SOCKS! This pattern is called "Flame wave" and the yarn was dyed by Bill's former co-worker and fellow blogger, Julia (she also grows orchids and has the fluffiest bunny on the planet). I LOVE the yarn and can't put it down. I want to lick it.
We've also imposed rationing - no fire unless its below 20. Which means...WARM SOCKS! This pattern is called "Flame wave" and the yarn was dyed by Bill's former co-worker and fellow blogger, Julia (she also grows orchids and has the fluffiest bunny on the planet). I LOVE the yarn and can't put it down. I want to lick it.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Home heating economics (firewood and other contemplations)
In our house we have central heating and air. We have not yet turned on the Air conditioner, and we probably never will.
Heat for this house has in the past been supplied in many ways. Once, there were wood stoves. Then, there was coal. Coal was replaced by fuel oil. Fuel oil has given way to propane. Propane again gives way to wood.
The current central heating system for the house actually consists of 2 propane furnaces working in harmony and controlled by a multi stage thermostat. One of the furnaces alone does not have sufficient power to heat the house, especially the upstairs. Most of the reason for this is that we have large lengths of ductwork that runs through crawlspaces and the basement, all of which was uninsulated and leaky when we moved in (we also have drafty single pane windows... that's a story for later). When we moved in, the secondary furnace was not operational. As a result, it took about 2 hours for the furnace to begin delivering warm air into a cold house. we always knew where our mittens were. The basement was warm though, and the ducts radiated much heat! Owing to the lack of insulation, in rooms serviced by long runs of ductwork the air blowing out would never be "warm".
After getting the second furnace operational, magic things happened - if you throw enough brute power into things, we get cooking quite quickly! The furnace was fixed on a very cold day, but the house heated up like magic! Two furnaces firing heats the whole house quickly. Of course, wonderful things can happen if you are willing to burn 50 gallons of propane in a day!
This number is real - we burned 50 gallons of propane in a single day. This explains why the average use of propane by the previous owners was 1800 gallons per year!!!! Propane currently costs 2.69 per gallon. I have no interest in spending $5,000 to heat our house this year. Fortunately, I don't think we'll have too.
We stayed chilly for most of last winter, and between mid January and now we have used 600 gallons of propane. We did manage to insulate 80% of the ductwork (Makes a big difference). We also lined some of the windows with plastic shrinky wrap lining (Huge help there!!!). JoAnna also made curtains for the bedroom (kills those drafts quite nicely!). INstallation of a new programmable thermostat was also a big plus. Despite all of this, I still feel as though we're probably getting less than 50% efficiency out of our 80% efficient furnace (we only turned one on for most of the season). Lots of heat wasted still.
Fortunately, we have wood, and 2 stoves to burn it in.
I recently surveyed the trees of our property, here is what I learned:
Our property is slightly more than 8 acres, half of which is a field. The remaining half has trees. I measured every tree on the property with a DBH of greater than 4 inches. We have 438 trees of this size. There are an additional 3-400 saplings of 1-4 inches DBH. The average DBH of the trees on our property is 9.6 inches. The largest tree that we have is a Silver Maple with a DBH of 43 inches. The second largest is a Sugar Maple with a 36" trunk. We have 197 significant Black Walnut trees, 28 of which have a DBH of > 16 inches. The predominant species on the property include Walnut, Sugar Maple, Black Locust, Cherry, and Mulberry.
After reading material from a variety of extension agencies, I am estimating that our trees make up about 115 cords of wood. I am also estimating that 4 acres of woodlot trees can produce 2 cords of wood per year.
Here are some other fun factoids:
1 gallon of propane = 14.6 pounds of wood.
1 cord of walnut = 218 gallons of propane. A cord of Black Locust is the BTU equivalent of 275 gallons of propane. A cord of our least favorite tree, silver maple, is only 188 gallons of LPG.
Let's normalize these somewhat and assume that we want to burn the equivalent of 750 gallons of propane per year - this approximates to ~3.1 cords of firewood, give or take. In the extension materials that I have read, this seems like a reasonable amount of wood and is in line with the experience of others. This may be beyond the sutainable yield of our woodlot though, by about a little more than a cord per year. In 90 years, our woodlot will be a field of stumps. Lesson learned - We have enough wood for our lifetime!
We want to keep trees though, so we need to take a sustainable yield.
So this year, I would like it very much if we did not have to use our central propane furnace at all.
This spring we dropped 4 trees that were interfering with our barn, as well as a large dead walnut tree. We also chopped up a large Sugar Maple that fell in a severe thunderstorm. Our labor earned us a little over 2 cords of walnut, locust and maple, ready and waiting for the first chilly evening. I don't know if 2 cords will be enough to make it through the winter, but I have to believe that anything is better than burning propane in our central furnace, including space heaters.
A 1500 watt space heater will do an acceptable job of heating a room. Left on for 8 hours, it consumes 12 kilowatt hours of electricity. We pay $0.07 per kilowatt hour (for now...). This translates to 84 cents per day per space heater. Even if we run 3 heaters 8 hours each per day, we are still looking at 2.52 per day, or about an extra 75 bucks on our electric bill each month. Even if we doubled that to be an extra 150 bucks per month, and assumed that we ran them for 6 months, we're still looking at less than a thousand dollars worth of electricity. I wonder how this compares to the cost of electricity for the blower on the furnaces. In the winter with the furnace, our electric bill last year was over 200/month. In the summer, it has been 80-100 bucks per month. The only thing not on now is the furnace...
This, coupled with our wood stoves seems the way to go. As fossil fuels become more and more scare, we need to go full circle, back to wood stoves, the way this house was heated when it was built, 152 years ago.
Anyone wanna buy 2 propane furnaces and an A/C compressor?
Heat for this house has in the past been supplied in many ways. Once, there were wood stoves. Then, there was coal. Coal was replaced by fuel oil. Fuel oil has given way to propane. Propane again gives way to wood.
The current central heating system for the house actually consists of 2 propane furnaces working in harmony and controlled by a multi stage thermostat. One of the furnaces alone does not have sufficient power to heat the house, especially the upstairs. Most of the reason for this is that we have large lengths of ductwork that runs through crawlspaces and the basement, all of which was uninsulated and leaky when we moved in (we also have drafty single pane windows... that's a story for later). When we moved in, the secondary furnace was not operational. As a result, it took about 2 hours for the furnace to begin delivering warm air into a cold house. we always knew where our mittens were. The basement was warm though, and the ducts radiated much heat! Owing to the lack of insulation, in rooms serviced by long runs of ductwork the air blowing out would never be "warm".
After getting the second furnace operational, magic things happened - if you throw enough brute power into things, we get cooking quite quickly! The furnace was fixed on a very cold day, but the house heated up like magic! Two furnaces firing heats the whole house quickly. Of course, wonderful things can happen if you are willing to burn 50 gallons of propane in a day!
This number is real - we burned 50 gallons of propane in a single day. This explains why the average use of propane by the previous owners was 1800 gallons per year!!!! Propane currently costs 2.69 per gallon. I have no interest in spending $5,000 to heat our house this year. Fortunately, I don't think we'll have too.
We stayed chilly for most of last winter, and between mid January and now we have used 600 gallons of propane. We did manage to insulate 80% of the ductwork (Makes a big difference). We also lined some of the windows with plastic shrinky wrap lining (Huge help there!!!). JoAnna also made curtains for the bedroom (kills those drafts quite nicely!). INstallation of a new programmable thermostat was also a big plus. Despite all of this, I still feel as though we're probably getting less than 50% efficiency out of our 80% efficient furnace (we only turned one on for most of the season). Lots of heat wasted still.
Fortunately, we have wood, and 2 stoves to burn it in.
I recently surveyed the trees of our property, here is what I learned:
Our property is slightly more than 8 acres, half of which is a field. The remaining half has trees. I measured every tree on the property with a DBH of greater than 4 inches. We have 438 trees of this size. There are an additional 3-400 saplings of 1-4 inches DBH. The average DBH of the trees on our property is 9.6 inches. The largest tree that we have is a Silver Maple with a DBH of 43 inches. The second largest is a Sugar Maple with a 36" trunk. We have 197 significant Black Walnut trees, 28 of which have a DBH of > 16 inches. The predominant species on the property include Walnut, Sugar Maple, Black Locust, Cherry, and Mulberry.
After reading material from a variety of extension agencies, I am estimating that our trees make up about 115 cords of wood. I am also estimating that 4 acres of woodlot trees can produce 2 cords of wood per year.
Here are some other fun factoids:
1 gallon of propane = 14.6 pounds of wood.
1 cord of walnut = 218 gallons of propane. A cord of Black Locust is the BTU equivalent of 275 gallons of propane. A cord of our least favorite tree, silver maple, is only 188 gallons of LPG.
Let's normalize these somewhat and assume that we want to burn the equivalent of 750 gallons of propane per year - this approximates to ~3.1 cords of firewood, give or take. In the extension materials that I have read, this seems like a reasonable amount of wood and is in line with the experience of others. This may be beyond the sutainable yield of our woodlot though, by about a little more than a cord per year. In 90 years, our woodlot will be a field of stumps. Lesson learned - We have enough wood for our lifetime!
We want to keep trees though, so we need to take a sustainable yield.
So this year, I would like it very much if we did not have to use our central propane furnace at all.
This spring we dropped 4 trees that were interfering with our barn, as well as a large dead walnut tree. We also chopped up a large Sugar Maple that fell in a severe thunderstorm. Our labor earned us a little over 2 cords of walnut, locust and maple, ready and waiting for the first chilly evening. I don't know if 2 cords will be enough to make it through the winter, but I have to believe that anything is better than burning propane in our central furnace, including space heaters.
A 1500 watt space heater will do an acceptable job of heating a room. Left on for 8 hours, it consumes 12 kilowatt hours of electricity. We pay $0.07 per kilowatt hour (for now...). This translates to 84 cents per day per space heater. Even if we run 3 heaters 8 hours each per day, we are still looking at 2.52 per day, or about an extra 75 bucks on our electric bill each month. Even if we doubled that to be an extra 150 bucks per month, and assumed that we ran them for 6 months, we're still looking at less than a thousand dollars worth of electricity. I wonder how this compares to the cost of electricity for the blower on the furnaces. In the winter with the furnace, our electric bill last year was over 200/month. In the summer, it has been 80-100 bucks per month. The only thing not on now is the furnace...
This, coupled with our wood stoves seems the way to go. As fossil fuels become more and more scare, we need to go full circle, back to wood stoves, the way this house was heated when it was built, 152 years ago.
Anyone wanna buy 2 propane furnaces and an A/C compressor?
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