At any rate, burning in it is different, it heats up slower, which isn't a bad thing...the stone takes a while to get hot. Saturday night I put a decent size log in at 8 and there was a good amount of well burned coals in it it this morning to put another good size log in and have it catch this morning. The damper was all the way down, the end of the hall was 72 degrees, living room was neither blazing last night or cold like normal with the other stove at 7 AM. The temp. outside was 44. Not freezing but not warm either.
We're happy!
We went and got a piece of plywood and some tile it for a backer. The stove should be 24" away from the wall. The last stove only needed to be 16" away as it had a deflector. Don't need the timbers in the wall drying out and breaking so the chore this week is to tile the plywood and grout it. We lucked out because as we were pulling the plywood off the shelf an employee was walking by with a piece of 3/8" that he had cut for a customer that was going into the scrap because the guy didn't need it that was the perfect size for or project so it was free!!! Can't beat that.
Halloween came and went. Last week Saturday we joined some friends at their lot on a local lake for a party/get together. Last week I spent prepping for a craft fair on Saturday for our county 4-H. Thursday I spent the afternoon with the kids at school for their Halloween parties and by Saturday night I was exhausted.
Jeremiah had a student over Saturday morning while Rachel and I were gone to help him clean up the wood pile. They had every intention of splitting all the wood as a surprise for me when I got home but the tractor has been acting up so that was a no go. There was water in the hydraulic lines so Jeremiah drained and refilled 2 times and it's working much better now. The truck has been acting up, the relay on the glow plugs was going out so he changed that and it seems like in this never ending circle of things needing to be done, other chores fall to the wayside.
I have been after Jeremiah for a year to get that shop cleaned up and little by little we make progress and then after all the chores and fixing, it's a disaster again. The garage is cleaned and I appreciate that because it's imperative in the winter not to be falling over things nearly killing ourselves dressing and undressing from barn chores. I cannot tell you the huge load of stuff we took off to the Goodwill! I try to give this stuff away for free and people say they'll come and get it and never do. So much of it is auction "throw in" stuff that follows us home. Meaning, we didn't really want it but to get the item(s) that were being auction we did want, we had to take the throw in stuff. Some of it, you just wouldn't believe...brand new in the box <insert item here> and people just won't come and get it so we've gotten wise and the chore when we get home from the auction is to sort it right then and there and whatever we don't want or need, it goes directly to the give away.
Oddly enough, the whole auction thing has become a little bit of a side job. We enjoy the auctions very much and bring home some really nice things that we can either use or need. Some of it is by chance we pick it up and re-sell the large items and pay for everything we bought for the day so it works out! The kids HATE the auctions, oh how they hate them.
Snow had her (small) litter of pups 4 weeks ago, a male and a female. The male will be following us to California. A goat friend of mine will be adding him to her farm. The female may stay here locally but I'll start advertising her pretty soon here. They are cute as can be at this age.
November has stayed pretty warm though people are expecting a bad winter. All the weather "experts" are expecting it to be warm this month. We had 2 days of rain last week and got more than an inch of rain between the two. November and Dec. are usually pretty dry.
The colors this fall are simply amazing. I wish we had more orange and red leafed fall trees but the cottonwoods and hedge trees are in full color...though after the wind we had yesterday I am sure all the trees are bare now. Driving to town on 4th is beautiful...all the trees lining the road are so vibrant and as much as I hate poison ivy, it's the only pop of red color so it really does look very beautiful right now.
We're expecting a big storm to roll in tomorrow and temps are dropping into the 50's. I threw out some wheat seed last week into the pastures and the dang turkeys multiplied to about 50 head overnight from the original 20 or so we've had hanging around and I am sure there's probably not a seed left out there! Jer said he's going to thin them one of these days. We need them thinned by about 3 dozen. That would feed the dogs for a while! Stupid turkeys.
The chicken coop is winterized (meaning we replaced the metal roosting poles with wood). The sow is probably bred again for a mid-Feburary littler, most of which I think we'll keep and raise on pasture and goat's milk and sell for those looking to put a half or whole hog in the freezer. I expect to raise another brood of layers in about January from the incubator if our hens will be laying at all. I've learned that fall chicks will molt the following fall where as the spring chicks will go a year and a half so that should ensure eggs more regularly.
This time of year the wind howls almost constantly and it's wearing. I'm still hanging clothes out on the line while it's still nice though tomorrow I'm hoping to process the last of these 3 bushels of apples we bought while it rains outside. I've made some outstanding pie filling and applesauce so far. The garden is kaput. I have some furniture I'd like to refinish that I've bought here and there and I had better get on that before it's too cold in the garage.
It's nearly time to get the kids up for school. I'll end for now. Have a great week.
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