Thoughts on Sustainability

This first week of March begins the transition to spring and the last quarter of winter heating. Now there is room for stacking new chunks of wood in our wood crib. It's time to replace the six cords of wood we'll burn for cooking and heating this season. By May we should have filled the crib for a total of 13 cords so next season we can burn wood collected during Spring 2015, letting this year's wood dry for two years.

Wall of 2015 Wood Opposite Room for Stacking 2017 Wood

Fresh 2017 Wood Being Stacked Opposite Wall Above

For me, collecting wood is a welcome aerobic activity. I cut up dead trees and fallen limbs within a quarter mile using a hand saw or battery operated chain saw. They are both quiet and easy to carry. I cut trees and limbs into pieces that are readily carried over my shoulder and make 15 to 20 trips per day to our garage that houses our wood crib. That way I am able to log over 10,000 steps a day that helps get me in shape (and shed winter weight) for planting chores. This year I'll be able to collect about two cords of wood this way before carting the rest from our neighbor's woods more than a quarter mile away. 

I have more than two cords of wood waiting at our neighbor's and will use our electric tractor to pull many wagons full home. I'm still using grid electric power to charge its battery but I'm working on charging circuits that will allow solar panels and a pedal powered generator to charge them directly. Maybe next year I'll be able to power both the tractor and a chain saw with batteries charged sustainably. I do now use a gasoline powered chainsaw for large trees and logs, but prefer using muscle power for limbs and smaller trees. Arm-powered loppers quickly cut anything smaller than a wrist.

Cherry Logs Waiting to Be Cut in Half, Split and Stacked, with the Stove Wood Cart

Our Stove Wood Cart that Carries Enough Wood for a Typical Heating Day

A Single Day's Supply of Wood Cut in Easy-to-carry Length

The Source of All Our Heat and Fall, Winter, and Spring Cooking, Maple Syrup (7 Pots Boiling Away Above), and Plant Germinating (The Four Blocks of Onion Sets on Top)

Eighteen Quarts of 2017 Maple Syrup from Boiling Away 180 Gallons of Sap

It takes time to realize how best to reduce dependence on using fossil fuel based energy. All its forms are so easy to burn and they greatly reduce human effort needed to perform most tasks. But, to me, it doesn't make sense to drive to a gym, fire up a treadmill or an elliptical in order to exercise. It's much more fun to be outdoors, listen to flocks of geese, woodpecker songs and spring peepers serenade spring, or late winter. This February, we've had brilliant sunny weather that's gone from 60F+ temperatures to near zero this past weekend with clear blue skies, visible in the photo above. And I enjoy all of this without leaving home!

Midway Through the Heating Season

It takes weeks for outdoor temperatures to catch the earth's dance around the sun. The hottest time of year is usually not the longest day, first day of summer, and the coldest rarely occurs around December 21, the shortest day. Seasons reflect this phenomenon by getting colder as winter progresses and the sun shines longer every day. Today in mid January we're halfway through a typical heating season - having burned half the wood we'll need to keep warm. It's been an extremely mild winter, so far. This month we even had a thunderstorm with a rainbow and haven't had to shovel the driveway yet, though we did have to sweep a few inches of snow off the deck.

So Far We've Burned Less Than a Quarter of Our Two Year Wood Supply

Rare January Rainbow

Tracks Plastered to Deck Boards Resist Sweeping

The pond finally froze over earlier this month and we had to install the bubbler to aerate the water. This also melts a large hole in the ice. Colder days shrink the size of the hole, warmer days expand it. Our neighbors' fish died last winter from lack of oxygen because heavy snow blocked sunlight from reaching underwater plants. Last week I installed a bubbler in their pond and they are enjoying an otter frolicking around the resulting hole and scooting up on the surrounding ice. 

Our Almost Frozen Pond

Pond Frozen All Across

Hole in Pond Ice by a Bubbler

Recently, a few nights went near zero so we had to bring the carboys of fermenting cider indoors. We also had to move the Granny Smith apples into the greenhouse where we crushed and squeezed most of them into 17 gallons of cider. We still have half a bushel for eating fresh and pies. When it is windy and well below freezing outdoors, sun warms the greenhouse to 50-60 degrees making it pleasant to work in shirtsleeves. Night time temperatures there drop to the low 30's. 

Row of 11 Buckets/Carboys of Fermenting Apple Cider, Pear, Grape and Berry Juices

Our Local Male Pheasant Out for a Stroll

Gathering Wood and Putting Away Firewood

Now that maple sugaring season is over, my primary outdoor activity is replacing the wood we've burned heating our home, cooking and making maple syrup. This winter was very cold and seems to be going on forever. Today, April 23rd, it's in the 30's with snow flurries. The stove is keeping us warm and is cooking our meal for tonight. We've burned over six cords of wood this heating season making room for another six cords for the 2016 heating season. We still have five cords of well seasoned wood for next season.

The Lighter Colored Wood on the Left Is for Next Heating Season, the Darker Colored Wood on the Right Replaces Half of What We Burned This Heating Season

Today I cut down a few dead cherry trees and placed lengths of trunk on the trailer. I cut up wood to the largest pieces I can readily handle, usually two or three times as long as readily fit into the stove firebox. This minimizes handling and trips to load the trailer. I can get a half cord load of wood on the trailer if I place larger pieces two deep on the bottom and cover these with ever smaller diameter limbs. 

A Half Cord Load of Wood

Same Load as Above with One Side of Cart Removed Showing Large Pieces on Bottom and Tree Limbs on Top, Chain Saw in Its Holster

I try to minimize burning diesel fuel in the tractor and gasoline/oil in the chainsaw by using them very sparingly. Gathering wood for one heating season takes less than one gallon of each. I'll eventually use solar panels to charge batteries that will enable accomplishing both tasks without burning fossil fuels by using an electric tractor and electric chainsaws. I've been removing all the limbs smaller than a thumb with hand clippers and slightly larger ones with lopping shears. Limbs up to two inches diameter I cut with an efficient hand saw. I've cut a few of the foot diameter logs into stove lengths with a crosscut saw but it would take me too long to do all of them this way. There are gardens to plant! To cut logs to length I now use a corded electric chainsaw or chop saw that can be readily solarized with photovoltaic panels and a battery bank. Maybe next year. 

Newly Stacked Wood Showing Halves, Quarters and Sixths of Logs and a Variety of Smaller Limbs: Sizes Reduced to Dimensions That Fit Through the Firebox Door

When I cut down a tree, I try and use as much of the wood as possible. Since you need kindling to start fires and burning any wood produces heat, any wood that fits through the stove firebox door is good. I leave only rotten wood and twigs too small to readily handle on the forest floor or hedgerow.

Less than a Quarter of the Heating Season Left!

March 2 is typically the day when three quarters of the annual heating degree-days are behind us. They measure how many degrees “colder than 65F” over a 24 hour period there are. Fuel delivery folk use this values to estimate when it’s appropriate to automatically refill oil or propane fuel tanks without bothering homeowners. It’s been going below zero many nights here for quite a long time so we’ve been burning more wood than usual but we still have a ways to go before we’re halfway through our supply, see photos below. The wood stacked on the left we will burn next year but hope to begin harvesting solar energy to diminish what wood we need. I’ll try and fill up the empty portion on the right that we burned this season as soon as the weather improves so we’ll have enough fuel for the 2016- 2017 season even if the solar project doesn’t get finished or has issues.

Right Side of Wood Crib Empty: March 8, 2015

Lots of Wood Left for Last Quarter of This Heating Season and For 2015-16

It’s still not warm enough for maple sap to start running. I tapped one tree yesterday and the jug below the tap is still empty. Air temperatures warmed up to a few degrees above freezing for a few hours each of the past two days but more than two feet of snow cover will probably delay tree roots from pumping sap up trunks for a few more days. The weather forecast for later in the week, though, looks good. It’s important to capture early sap runs because some years the season is very short. Trees need warm days and freezing nights to pump sap and once temperatures stay above freezing, the season is over. We’ll have very unhappy daughters if they run out of syrup before the following season flow.

Heavy Snow Has Covered Everything for More Than Two Months

The size of the hole in the ice on our pond varies with temperature. The small compressor pumps the same amount of air into the air-stones at bottom that makes thousands of bubbles to buoy up warmer water from the bottom. Really cold weather where it doesn’t get much above zero shrinks the size of the hole to half the diameter than when temperatures go above 20. Ice rings that freeze around the edge record this activity until new snow covers them, see photo below.

Diminished Aeration Hole in Pond Ice with Four Foot Drifts in Foreground

Heating Season: We’re Halfway Through!

Although we’re only a month into “winter”, theoretically we should have burned half our fuel for the heating season. We burn our wood in a kitchen cook stove that also heats our meals, helps seeds sprout, dries outdoor clothing when we come in from skiing and skating and makes maple syrup. The photo below shows that we’ve uncovered one window in the garage that was hidden by stacked firewood. This year we’ve been burning well-seasoned maple and oak so we’ve used less than a quarter of the woodpile so the wood we put away this year we may not start burning until 2017. Less dense wood like poplar and pine burns more quickly and a given amount of heating value takes up more volume, though pound for pound, they are similar.

View of Half Our Wood Pile with a Window Uncovered

Yesterday I removed the mower deck from underneath the tractor and put on chains that reduce the chances of getting stuck in snowy or muddy fields as it pulls a trailer loaded with tree trunks and branches. 

Diesel Tractor Without Mower Deck but With Tire Chains

This year I’m going to try cutting down trees with an ancient cross-cut saw that a friend refurbished and loaned. Chain saws are noisy and burn gasoline/oil and also use quite a bit of heavy oil to lubricate the chain. In a year we typically go through over a gallon of bar oil that ends up in the sawdust. Our garden worms have not complained about having to deal with the oil but they would probably prefer not having to process oil in the wheelbarrows of the tiny pieces of wood that a chainsaw makes that we spread on garden paths. Old-time manual saws don’t need lubrication because no chain runs against a steel bar. The set of the teeth creates a gap in the groove made by the saw as its cutting so lubrication is not needed between the blade and log. Information on how to maintain, repair and sharpen these saws:  http://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/pdfpubs/pdf77712508/pdf77712508dpi300.pdf

One-Person Cross-cut Saw With Cutting Teeth and Twin Raker Pattern

I also installed new golf cart batteries in one of our electric tractors so that we can use it for plowing snow. I prefer to shovel snow but my wife likes to use one tractor or the other. Although we have an amazing snow blower attachment for our diesel tractor, I don’t like using it because it requires completely removing all the connecting pieces for the mower to install different assemblies for the blower. Having the snow blower attached also negates using the tractor for carting firewood. Finding opportunities for collecting firewood when the soil is frozen and without deep snow is difficult enough without having to wait until there is little chance for more snow.

Electric Tractor With Plow