Weather and more

It started snowing early this morning. It has snowed hard all day. It's supposed to wind down around 10 tonight, but at that point the wind will kick up to 45 mph. Oh joy!

Given the circumstances, when I went to the basement to do laundry, I thought, why not start the wood furnace? It's been pretty clearly demonstrated to me that the gloom and doom scenario I had been presented about my chimney could be disregarded. Where the wood furnace vents into the chimney, the tiles are fine.

So, I surveyed the situation and ultimately, realizing that I needed to climb up into the cobwebs above the furnace in order to remove the newly installed (last year) pipe insulation (which would melt near the stovepipe) and try to put the t.v. cable as far away from the pipe as possible, I said, oh well, maybe tomorrow.

Around mid-day, I thought, come on, you can do it, and descended to the basement and did all of the above, and then opened various valves, turned a switch and built a fire. Then I stood there for what seemed like forever, to try to see if I had built a fire that would burn in the "good" range on the stovepipe thermometer, and could get hot enough to push the temperature of the water in the wood furnace to 195. The temperature of the fire can be regulated only by one small damper at the bottom of the furnace. I easily got the fire into the "good" range, but it took a while to get the water temperature up high enough to kick the valve open to send hot water to the system.

I have actually spent the rest of the day remembering what it is like to be warm! It is now 72 in the living room, and I'm feeling hot. I have a suspicion that the valve that sends hot water to the house is permanently open, and therefore if I build a fire too big, the house is going to turn into a sauna. As with so many things, it's a delicate balance.

So......yesterday I had two new windows installed, and my study already felt warmer today, and now, real, actual, steady HEAT all through the house.....tomorrow, 3 more new windows are going into the living room....who knows what that will do to the temperature in the house!! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!