But I do have to say one thing the snow has helped me with. Fire making!
If you think you've been cold in your central heated homes, it's nothing compared to walking into a home heated only by a wood fire, which has been out all night. Now, luckily, this is not a description of my home. But it is a description of where I work. And during some of those REALLY cold days during the two "Polar Vortex's", nothing would get me warm again besides a hot shower and a warm cup of tea. So getting a good fire going pretty quickly was a skill much needed.
Now, as I've probably mentioned before, I've done hearth cooking for about seven years now, so an open hearth fire is pretty much a piece of cake for me. Now obviously if you have damp wood, or lack of kindling, or a very wet hearth then it will be a little bit harder. But if you have a good stock of dry wood, a dry hearth, and an old phone book you should be golden. But one thing you learn when you do use a fire, for heat or for cooking or just to look pretty, that there is nothing more beautiful than a fully stocked woodpile of well seasoned wood and kindling.
Absolutely beautiful. Almost as beautiful as a large pile of manure that in 6 months will be a smaller pile of rich dirt. Every gardener's dream!
So, as you can see, one of the probably hundreds of hearth fires I've built. Notice the necessary good bed of coals to help ignite the dry fire wood. And how the firewood is actually raised a little above the coals so that the air can get through. The more air that can circulate through the wood, the bigger the fire. And always when you start, which isn't shown here, put a base of charcoal from the previously banked fire, it will help the kindling keep a flame going.
But, as the title states, not every fire I've made this year was in a hearth. I also had to help maintain, or build if it went out, fire in this wood stove. When I was first asked to do this I thought "No problem! I've made hundreds of fires in a hearth, so a wood stove should be easy!" Ha ha. Joke was on me this time.
It is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than a hearth fire. Now the building blocks are the same, the need for dry kindling and wood, start building with the small and work to the bigger pieces. But that's where it ends. Because of the heat gets much hotter, there usually are very few coals, if any, available to keep the kindling going. Also the air moves differently through the stove. So I would get things burning, position the larger pieces to catch, and then close the door. Then, two minutes later, I would open the door to a cloud of smoke and no fire. It took me a little bit before I realized the two knobs on the door could be opened to allow for better air flow. So then I would relight the fire, get it going, think everything was all set, close the door, and again would check on it and find a cloud of smoke and half torched wood sitting in a cold oven.
Finally, after about an hour of fiddling with it, I got the fire going that you see there. AN HOUR! Who would have thought it would have been so hard, so different. But it did make it all the better when I did finally get it. It felt like a great achievement, and it was quite a good feeling when the house started to warm up.
So, with all the cold and all the snow that seems to never stop, think of the bright side. At least you didn't have to sit in front of a cold wood stove for an hour, trying to get a fire going. Oh, and that spring has to come some time.
On a side note, and speaking about good things that have come out of the cold winter, my husband and I are expecting!
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