A Political Addict Prepares for Winter

Special to FreeRepublic ^ | 23 Oct., 2004 | John Armor (Congressman Billybob)

[Squantos]

We too heat with wood . I lived in Michigan for a while as a teen and I remember cutting cord wood for money. I'd deliver and stack a face cord of oak, maple or cherry for 15 dollars. I made a lot of money up there. First base I was stationed at in the military was in Tucson where I saw an ad for a cord of Mesquite....100$

I thought I'd discovered gold till I realized how tuff just finding a cord or any wood the the desert was.

Pretty much same here in the Panhandle of Texas. I keep track of the tree trimmers and haul off oak and cherry when I can find it but I buy and maintain about 4 face cords of hickory for my personal heating on really cold nights. We lost power for a week after a really bad ice storm here a few years ago. It was pretty cold yet my home stayed toasty as we have 2 stoves, one in the den and one in the living room. Folks would be well prepared to install a good small stove sized for their home.

I remember days so cold that waterpipes froze, trucks would'nt start or couldn't travel in deep snow even if they were 4x4's. When folks would ask for suggestions as to what they should have on hand for such a weather event I told em to go outback and turn off the water, gas and electric. And spend a weekend without to learn what "they" need be it summer or winter.

Heat source, a cast iron tea kettle to keep hot water for tea, coffee, hot chocolate, soups , oatmeal etc. A source of light such as a oil lamp , LED flashlights / headlamps or simple candles. Stored drinking water and ability to melt snow or ice and distill, filter or boil suspect water sources like the swimming pool or jacuzzi if ya really get
low on water...


One of the nifty C. Crane Baygen plus radios. C. Crane modified mine by installing a auto DC plug so I can charge my laptop or cellphone with it also. It is nooooze and a source of light for 30 minute cycles befor ya have to crank it up again. Good cheap little emergency tool to have around.

When ice tears down or uproots a tree it tears down the power lines and or uproots the gas or water lines. Simple kerosene stove (kerosun brand) and a few 5 gallon jerry jugs of fuel for it stored in the garage will go along way to keep the family warm if you don't have a wood stove . A kerosene lamp is a source of light as well.

I'll add one caution to my post.......have two battery operated CO & Smoke Detectors in your home at the very least. I have also made sure I have a a couple of serviced and good ABCD extinguishers in the home all the time.

Stay Warm Congressman....

[Congressman Billybob]

As built in 1916, to a turn-of-the-century design with a wrap-around porch, the house had three bedrooms but only one bathroom (and no powder room). In 1933, my grandmother had a small stable moved and attached to the house, and added one more bedroom and bathroom.

In 1955, my mother added a laundry room and a powder room.

When I planned the renovations in 1994, I gave every bedroom its own bathroom, plus other renovations. My latest project is to close in one of the six outside decks to create a broadcast studio in the house, with a glass wall, an 80-mile view, and a fireplace. LOL.

Billybob

[mlmr]

EIGHT WOODSTOVES!!

What is your house made of ...LATTICE?

I heat my barn of a house with one extra large jotel.

In Maine.

[reformedliberal]

I like your predictions! May they come true!!!!!!

We heat 2 buildings: 2 wood stoves, a propane stove and 3 wall furnaces on propane (2-500gal tanks).There is a 2200 sq ft house and 1600 sq ft shop. Since the climate began to moderate, every 3rd winter has been an old-fashioned one and we usually get by on 2 fills of the house tank and one fill of the studio tank and about 7 large pickup truckloads of split oak, usually about one truckload more than we use. Our genny runs on gas and we rotate the gas stash, which has been stabilized. It will keep the house running for 24 hrs on 5 gallons if we unplug the hot tub and turn off most everything else before using the electric oven. We have a snowblower. Haven't been snowed in for more than a few hours or out of power for more than a few hours in years. Freezers are full, as are the cupboards, a closet and a couple of extra storage cabinets. We can survive for weeks, if we had to.

I am also a political addict and you can add the several books on the various political topics of the day sitting around the house waiting for those odd moments when we can read them.

The self-sufficiency is illusory, though. We depend on a lot of other folks to provide most of the wood, all the propane, the gasoline, the food, the power, the websites, the TV, the books. If we get hit by another terror attack, God forbid, our self-employment income will stop or slow tremendously and our savings will again be reduced. I love our life style and I love America and for both of those reasons and several more, George W Bush has got to win this election.

I love your posts, Billybob. Keep them coming.

[Congressman Billybob]

I have a Jotel also, in one of the bedrooms. Two rooms have the granite fireplaces built with the house in 1916. I put Vermont Castings stoves in two of the bedrooms. The office has a potbellied stove that is never needed, except to burn trash.

Most of the fireplaces are not used unless someone is staying in that bedroom at the time. Normally, we burn only three of the fireplaces. The chimney stack is 22 tons of granite through the center of the house. When we get that heated up, it acts as an energy flywheel that keeps the house warm for a day without fires.

It's complicated, but it works.

Billybob

[Congressman Billybob]

Thank you for a delightful post. I am fascinated to find how many people on FreeRepublic are just like me. Technically advanced, living on the Internet, but running our houses in a way that the Framers would have recognized and respected, with wood fires. Fascinating.

Billybob

[SamAdams76]

Good column! I'm a big fan of the fireside also. I go through 2 1/2 to 3 cords of wood a year and have two fireplaces in my house.

I always have my first fire during the first week of November, usually a day or two after Halloween. I always look forward to spending those cold New England nights in front of the crackling fireplace with a good book and a glass or two of my favorite adult beverage.

Sometimes I have a "medieval" night where my wife and I turn all the lights off in the house and have dinner (usually roast turkey) by candlelight with the fireplace roaring and some medieval (or early Baroque) music on the stereo, such as Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 or some Gregorian plainchants. It really sets a festive and relaxing mood on a cold winter's night.

I used to dread winter but now I really look forward to it, especially since I now do daily walks outdoors in the woods around my house. I like the feeling of walking through the woods on a brutally cold day, feeling my ears and legs gradually grow numb, knowing all the time that I have a warm fire to come back to as I breathe in the cold, crisp air. The feeling of coming indoors after a long walk on a day like that and getting in front of the warm fireplace is indescribable.

I'm taking my first delivery of firewood next weekend and my first fire is only about 10 days away!

[markman46]

Ya those 75-100 below wind chills will get to you. ah those were the days the big lake frozen as far as the eye could see, and all bundled up and headed to work on square tires.

[El Gato]

And with that bad a chance of losing power, why not just buy a generator?

Given that he doesn't need power for anything but lights, which could be low power flouresents and his electronics, he could probably get away with a wind turbine as back up power. A nice vertical turbine would probably be best up in the mountains. Having it charge batteries rather than run things directly, would be a good idea, since that would let him continue surfing and watching the news should the turbine or generator needs fixn' at a particularly interesting or critical time, or even just at night. The batteries would give him some time to get it working again.

[reformedliberal]

The original portion of the house was rebuilt from 2 houses (described by one of the original inhabitants as shacks) in around 1912. We have added about 700 sq ft to the house and dormers to the old hay mow, insulated, added modern insulated windows, etc over about 30 years time and we are 85% finished, not counting what will have to be renovated/replaced for a second time, at some point. There were almost no closets because no one than had anything and yet, they had 6 kids. The studio/shop was converted 30 years ago from a 23-stantion barn. The original family farmed 34 tillable acres w/horses. Today, 20 of those acres are gone back to woods, as you cannot get a tractor up the 60-degree slope.

20 years ago we got the hot tub and put it inside because it made no sense to get warm and then have to brave 30-below winds to get back inside. 5 years later, we got a deal on an old C-Band dish system that lasted until around 1999, when no one carried parts any longer around here. We were TV-free for the 16 years prior. These luxuries earned us the appellation:"Yuppie Hollow". They make life livable (although now we have DirecTV). We have a large above ground pool (which unfortunately eats propane in a cool summer in this climate)which is our major recreation in the summer along w/my husband's P21 trailerable sailboat. Having one experience with the leeches that share our river, the pool is, in my mind, a necessity in the hot, humid Upper Midwest summers.

I really rejoice in the contrasts. I like to think we taught self-suffiency to the one *kid* (now almost 40) and everyone who comes here in the winter goes immediately to the wood stove to warm themselves and they reminisce about growing up with wood heat. This house did not get plumbing or a submersible pump and pressure tank until 1967. This was average for out here and all these aspects of the hill country lifestyle formed strong people with decent values who knew better than to whine.It wasted time and didn't change anything.

There are still alot of these folks around and they are a blessing and an inspiration. We struggle with the city people and their 6000 sq ft starter castles and their impatience with the ways that worked just fine for generations. We fear that when we have to sell out, when we are too old to care for all this, it will go to someone with more money than brains or heart. I hope there is a paradigm change among the young before that happens. I would love to know that we sold our homestead to people who could appreciate its heritage and the character-building aspect of this way of life..

[Choose Ye This Day]

Ya, you betcha.

[Coldwater Creek]

You could always burn tumbleweeds. We live in Tenn. now, but I miss those things blowing everywhere. Just a little nostalgia. It is dark, dank and dreary here and I long for the West Texas dryness.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Seven cords of wood, Congressman? You don't seem to have much confidence in the theory of global warming.

[El Gran Salseron]

I've lived in this house for 20 years and I just don't understand all this stuff about firewood, stoves, fireplaces, cold.....what is that? Cold? Please explain. :-)

From South Texas.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Beautifully written. Stay warm - and plugged in.

[Coldwater Creek]

But is it dry in South Texas?

[bethtopaz]

Laura Ingraham - Radio Talk Show Host - They announce on her show -- "Your healthy addiction" - this is an addiction - since I discovered the SwiftBoatVets in August I can barely pull myself away from the Internet and Talk Radio - sometimes I feel guilty, then remember all the time I've wasted laying around watching Lifetime movies, etc. Go W!!

[Squantos]

Agree.........always greener somewhere else. When I was in the service we'd say the best places were where ya came from and where you were going to........:o)

Stay safe !

[bethtopaz]

Seems like there are lots of experts here on woodstoves. Anyone care to give me any advice on the pros and cons of wood stove vs. pellet stoves vs. gas stove. The store I'm thinking of purchasing from recommends a gas stove. Thanks.

[mystery-ak]

Welcome to FR....and yes this site is so addicting...when you are away from here you will start having withdrawals...LOL