Posted on 10/23/2004 1:17:47 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
My wife says I’m a political addict. Looked at objectively, I am exactly what she says. I work in my living room, with my “drug” dealers with me at all times. The TV is tuned to one or more 24-hour news channels. My laptop is signed onto one or more discussion threads on politics. And Lord knows that these days, there are more than enough political tidbits that cry out for attention this week.
But it is fall, and more important business is afoot. The front yard is filled with dozens of tree “rings”: sections of the trunk of an oak tree, a two feet around at the base, that are roughly 18 inches high. Put through a wood splitter, these will fit even the smallest of our eight wood stoves. That one’s in Miranda’s room. She’s 11, but she’s learned how to build and tend a fire on her own.
Did I mention that I am probably the only person you know who heats his house entirely with wood? Did I mention that, when the temperature is down and the wind is up, the wind chill here can drop to 30 degrees below zero? Staying warm here on Kettle Rock Mountain is serious business.
Except you in most of California, the southern edge of America, and Florida, you know how nature announces the change of season in mid-fall. Shortly after the leaves have begun to change their colors, a day arrives when there is a snap in the air. Not just the fallen leaves, but the air itself becomes crisp. You go outside on that special day and the air is sharp, the equivalent of biting into a Winesap apple.
For most of you, that means “I have to remember where I stored my overcoat.” For us, it means a great deal more. I spent almost all my life in houses where the advent of fall meant to change the filter in the furnace, and keep the windows shut tight. The two times I recall that the furnace failed, all the members of the household huddled overdressed in the kitchen, and hoped we would not die of exposure before the serviceman arrived.
It’s very much different when you heat with wood. There’s no option of call today, get the problem solved tomorrow.
Like squirrels storing nuts, we store wood. All of it is hardwood, seven cords of it, split and dried and stacked in the covered woodshed and the indoor wood racks. If you have good fireplaces, and know how to build a fire, it’s possible to start a fire with nothing more than split oak pieces and a few sheets of crumpled newspaper.
And interestingly, it is also a fast process. The prices of all forms of heat are going up sharply this winter. Even if y’all were in the habit of leaving your heat on at all times, conservation and your wallets will both encourage you to act differently this winter and turn your thermostats down to 50 when you leave your houses.
What happens when you return to a cold house? You punch a button on the thermostat, and about four minutes later, you have normal heat. Believe it or not, a skilled user of fire can build one, get it started, and spread the heat throughout a room with a ceiling fan in about the same time. And there’s a certain aesthetic satisfaction in doing that with fire rather than machinery.
But that’s not the only preparation for winter.
When the remnants of two hurricanes came through the Blue Ridge about a month ago, we took about 30 inches of rain in a week. In addition to losing a few trees (now waiting to be split into firewood), we had ruts as deep as two feet dug into the half-mile gravel road that connects us to the outside world.
The last week, our able helpers have been on the road with a tractor and loads of gravel. Within days, the whole road will be back in shape so any kind of car, not just my well-traveled and battered Jeep, can negotiate the road. It’s important that the road be in good order, because when the snows come (the first snow is usually late in the year), drifts as deep as four feet or so will form in the curves. With a solid surface underneath, a four-wheel drive vehicle can punch a hole through the drifts and open up the road.
Then of course there’s preparation for failure of electricity. It’s a long story, and apparently one that will repeat forever, but the electrical co-op that supplies our power goes down about a dozen times a year. During show storms or large storms like the tail end of hurricanes, the power goes out for days at a clip. As with all else, it’s a matter of preparation.
There are flashlights and kerosene lamps in many rooms. The stove runs on propane, and so does the water heater. My computer (but no one else’s) runs on batteries. The phone lines don’t often fail. You thought I had set aside my addiction to political information?
Add to that some well-stocked cabinets and a freezer on the back porch and we’re good to go for a few days with no electricity and no way to get to town – when the snows are really serious.
And I didn’t mention the clothes to prepare for winter. In Washington, D.C., where I lived and worked for ten years, a guy can wear wingtips all day, every day, regardless of the weather. You can get by, dressed in a suit, in a fully “civilized” environment. But not here on the mountain.
Boots, jackets, gloves, hats. Remember when you were six years old and your mother dressed you up like the Michelin man so you could go out in the snow? Your clothes were so excessive that you could barely walk, and if you fell over, getting back up was a serious project? Well here, you dress yourself that way whenever you go out. It’s not just for the brief trip from the house to the car. It’s also for the possibility – which has happened to me twice – that the car or the road will fail, making a half-hour walk outdoors the key to survival.
No big deal. Just a matter of being prepared.
So a week from now I will be deep into politics again. For us political addicts, the World Series only comes around once every four years. And if it gets cold as a brass toilet seat in the Yukon, and the power fails, I’ll be warm, online, and absorbing last-minute information. I’ll be on the computer, even if it is by the light of a kerosene lamp.
I won’t make any predictions next week. I laid those markers down two months ago, on 29 August. And if my predictions for elections at the national and state level come true, as I still expect they will, I should be on radio the morning after the election, explaining why I got it right early while “experts” got it wrong late. Even if I have build a nice fire before I can do that.
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About the Author: John Armor is a civil rights attorney who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. CongressmanBillybob@earthlink.net
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Simply beautifully written. I can almost smell the fires.
I'm on my way.
And don't you dare forget the carbon monoxide detector.
"I love calling North Carolina home" ping!
Thanks...I enjoyed reading this...political addicts, well, now I have a name for this malady....LOL
I could never live in that kind of climate. Well, I suppose that's a lie. I grew up in New England and, believe me, never want to even visit the place again. Can't stand the cold. I live in Los Angeles, and today things are a little nippy by my standards (50s or so).
Okay, a personal question: If it's more genuine than politics, why does politics attract you so much?
And with that bad a chance of losing power, why not just buy a generator? As I recall, for a few hundred bucks you can get something adequate to at least make sure your computer and TV keep humming for the duration of the emergency. (I know you say your computer's on battery - but it doesn't last for days, does it?)
D
"I laid those markers down two months ago, on 29 August."
1. Please refresh my memory about your predictions.
2. I do hope you have indoor plumbing...if not for yourself, then at least for the girls in your family.
BTTT
Wind chill of 30 below? Sounds like a tropical paradise, compared to Minne-so-cold.
We heat our house entirely with wood. We haven't turned on the electric furnance for 3 years. I get almost all of my wood free from a cabinet shop up the street. I grew up in a 2-story, 4 bedroom house and all we had was a free-standing wood stove. There is nothing like the warmth from wood.
A nice, relaxing piece. Thanks for the read.
Not trying to be nit-picky.....it just seems that you are almost as much a perfectionist as I am.
I think you mean, "Even if I have TO build."
Billybob
That's 50 AMPS, not 50 watts. BB
Billybob
Living in L.A., if you get the urge for snow you can always to go Lake Arrowhead or Big Bear. We lived in Whittier and Lake Arrowhead for 26 years, but now in West Tenn. Hardly ever see mountains or snow like we did in So. California.
On your other comment, we are in the sticks, but we are not primitive. We have five bathrooms, three with Jacuzzis. A library, a movie theater, a hot tub -- it's a nice house, just at the end of a half-mile gravel road in the mountains.
Billybob
So we replaced it with a new Franklin stove. Hardware stores hereabout carry such classic cast iron stoves for about $125.
Billybob
You are absolutely right. The mind got ahead of the fingers; it should have said "TO build." BB
Yikes! 5 bathrooms! There for a few minutes, I was worried about the female "Billybobs" in your home! LOL!!
I like my thermostat. But in Louisiana, I grew up in a house with a floor furnace that was only turned on about once a year. you really don't need heat down here, in fact I like having no heat on at all. Our AC goes about 11 months a year however.
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