A Political Addict Prepares for Winter

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

[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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[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