STAYING WARM

It has been bitterly cold this winter. We are so close to spring yet the weather continues to be very cold. I was happy to get my final load of firewood delivered and stacked a few weeks ago. Andy and his sons cut and split logs from their hardwood forest during the summer for burning during the winter. They choose trees that are already dead and dry -- it cleans up the forest, no living trees are cut, and it greatly speeds (but does not eliminate curing time). Their wood is reliably of good quality and is better than what I could get elsewhere.

My vintage Vermont Casting Resolute woodstove is designed to be a downdraft stove. I find this very finickity to get right -- the necessary bed of coals seems to need a lot of logs. Some experiments with shutting down the flue control within the stove have suddenly resulted in a much more efficient burn without using the downdraft option. No smoke from the chimney -- I keep a close eye on what comes out to ensure that I am getting a clean burn. I bought a chimney probe thermometer yesterday -- it will be fascinating to see just what is going on in there after years of just guessing.

LIFE OFF-GRID AND WILD TURKEYS

We were off the hydro grid this morning -- woke up to no electricity. Andy and I have been plotting ways of permanently being off-grid and of being self-sustaining but we forget just how dependent we are. My woodstove took care of heat and breakfast, but until the electricity returned, I could not properly begin my day's work. I always have fully charged battery packs but plugging my IMac into one of them was, I felt, perhaps risky. Power was expected to be back on by ten AM.

So Tip and I went for a walk. I left the snowshoes behind -- the tracks I had made on previous walks should have been sufficiently solid. Snowshoes would have made the walk easier but it was enjoyable nonetheless. We have a small flock of turkeys in our area-- the neighbours feed wild birds in the winter and the turkeys visit the feeding stations. At night they appear to congregate under a spruce tree close to where I walk. Their trails criss-cross and the sweep of their wing tips in the snow all make striking patterns. Coyote tracks would be expected also, but I don't see any this year. Rather puzzling -- could be that the new snow covers them.

When back on our property I knew that the hydro was back on by the silence-- the neighbours' diesel generators had been turned off.

NEW SNOWSHOES

The rawhide snowshoes are beautiful, work well, and are made in Canada -- all good reasons to remain faithful to them. However, I've been hankering for a pair of the new metal snowshoes for years. Once I almost gave in to buying a new pair, but the better ones can be expensive. How very delighted I was to find last week at the local hock shop, at a fraction of the original price, exactly the snowshoes that I had wanted but could not afford.

The bindings are easier to deal with than the leather bindings on the rawhide shoes and offer better control when walking. I have been getting out most days for a walk on my neighbour's property. The milder weather of February is ideal for getting out. I gather hardwood twigs and small branches to start the next morning's fire in the wood stove and try to read the tracks left by wildlife. I spotted a large hawk, probably a Redtail, on my walk. Lots of rabbits this year, so it has found no need to migrate.