Cold Weather Is A Good Reason To Prepare!

The cold was extreme during the night and today. It hasn't gone above 10 degrees all day. We have kept our wood stoves cranking all day and I still feel a cold. Too cold to even consider a shower or a bath. Feeding extra hay to our horses to keep them warm. Having a good supply of wood this year has really improved our situation here.

Please come read my new blog! This is the post I wrote today:

Prepare Now! Don't Let Fear Stop You!

Copyright © 2013 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2012  Kathleen G. Lupole

Be Aware Of Fire Safety On The Homestead

Fire!

Since this is the time of year when many people are using wood stoves, I thought I'd touch a subject that is very important. That is the topic of fire safety. Cooking and heating with wood or any fuel source really can be dangerous, as I am sure everyone knows. Some people that contact me worry about the safety of using wood stoves, and will mention it scares them. Nothing wrong with feeling that way! I was the same way when we got our first wood heating stove.

Wood stoves mean having a fire burning inside your house!

You can follow all the safety rules and still have a fire. Or you can be so careful in how you do everything in your house, and then have someone stay with you or visit, who ignores those rules and in turn burns your home down with carelessness. What I have found that you have to do...........is to practice a little tough love on this person. After all, it is your house and all your belongings in it!

Stove is burning red hot!

Now to get on to the safety precautions you need to take. I am taking it for granted it is already installed correctly and is safe, and has already been tested to be safe. Or you are already using it and just want to brush up on the safety issues. You may want to ask your insurance company if they have a handout on fire safety or contact your local fire department.

Dry kindling!

The chimney is the first place to focus your attention. If you have a straight pipe with no elbows, you should have no problems with it. My cook stove is like that. We have hardly ever had to clean the chimney. My husband will check it and it is clean as a whistle most of the time. For that pipe, he uses a chain and drops it down the pipe. Simple!

Ash pail and shovel to the left, big pedestal sits above the floor!

The wood heating stove in our living room has two elbows. One at the stove where it hooks into the chimney. The other is upstairs where it goes through the ceiling. Because of the way the beams are, it has to have another elbow. My husband is planning on changing that in the future. But for now, we have two elbows, and I can tell you that is the areas where the creosote accumulates.

The first elbow right at the back of the stove!

Don't make a plan of cleaning the chimney once a year or something like that. Please, as soon as you realize it needs cleaning, do it then! One way to judge it is if it smokes when you open the door to the stove and the smoke pours out of it instead of going up the chimney.........it needs cleaning! Pipe is blocked. My husband cleans our chimney as soon as he knows it needs it. Several times a month, if needed. Depends on the type of wood we are burning, and if it banked back more due to not being all that cold.

Creosote is what accumulates in your chimney! 

Make sure you do not leave flammable items sitting on your stove or laying next to it. Sometimes you might set something on it when it is not lit, then forget it is there later when it is. Always take stock of what is around it. Keep your ash pail and shovel by the stove at all times. If a coal jumps out when you open it to put wood on it, you need the shovel handy to scoop it up. Not a time to go look for it!

Damper on the wood cook stove is open here.

Never leave the door open while you have gone to another location! I know that seems like anyone would know that, but not all people do. Make sure there is enough room behind the stove to where you stack your wood or where the wall is. We have roofing tin on the wall behind our wood stove. It never even feels hot. But it is way further than the 18-36" that is recommended. Make sure you have a fire extinguisher nearby at all times. Most times when you think you have a fire in the chimney, the first thing to do is to close the damper. That should shut it down.

Damper closed in this picture.

Make sure your floor underneath and in front of the stove is also fire resistant. Our big heating stove has a pedestal that is the bottom so it doesn't even touch the floor. In fact, our cats' favorite place to sleep in the early morning hours is on that pedestal. Our home office is right by the stove, so we are warm and comfy all day while we work. And our fire is never neglected that way.

Wood work is part of it!

Teach your young children right from the start about the dangers of fire and wood stoves. You wouldn't want one of them to start a fire, or do anything with your stove, when nobody is at home. I don't have any young children at home, but if I did, I would make sure they knew NEVER to open the door, or put anything on it at all, unless a grown up was present! If you have very young, like toddlers, I would put something around it so they could not touch it and get burnt.

Cook stove chimney from the kitchen!

I hope this helps you a little bit. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. You can also search online for fire safety and installation precautions. Stay safe and enjoy your wood stoves!

Updated 2020
Copyright © 2012 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2012  Kathleen G. Lupole

Morning Chores During Cold Weather

Cold Winter 2010

On a cold morning, on our Peaceful Forest Homestead, the first one who gets up must open the dampers on the wood stove. Then the first riser gets a fire going in the wood cook stove and gets the coffee pot on. The coffee pot has been prepared the night before. I am not always the first one to get up. My son is an early riser so since he has been staying with us, he gets up and does those chores. If not, either my husband or I do them.

Fire going in wood cook stove!

While the coffee is perking, the first riser will then add wood to the big wood stove. Then replenish the cat's dry food dish. We usually sit and have our coffee and talk about our plans for the day at that time. After coffee, time to get moving.

!

Horses look forward to breakfast!

Horses being the first on the agenda. In the cold weather, horses need their hay for warmth. Sometimes they won't even touch the feed, knowing that the hay will warm them up. While they are eating is the time when my husband will usually clean the barn. There is one big stall for all three, with a big open door so they can go in and out as they please. The manure from this will be put into our compost pile.

Water drained down, handle up insures flow in cold temps

One of the most important chores on our homestead is priming our pitcher water pump. Since we do not have running water here, we cannot afford to lose the use of our pump. Horses need and want a lot of water in cold weather. Snow is NOT a substitute! After it is primed and running, we take fresh water to the barn, to the house and anywhere else we may need it. On cold days, the handle is put back up and water drained down out of the pipe so it doesn't freeze.

Split firewood - a VERY important chore!

Those are the regular chores we do every single morning. If we need firewood brought in or cut, that is usually done at that time also. Then we come in and check our computers and it is time for breakfast. A routine done every day, keeps your homestead orderly, organized and running smoothly........regardless of how cold it is. What about you? Does your routine vary in cold weather?

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2011  Kathleen G. Lupole

 

This Is The Year Of Food And Fuels

The cost of fuel this year has opened our eyes! We have decided this year is to be the year of Food & Fuels. This means we are going to work doubly hard on cutting the amount of money we pay out for either one of those things. Food we grow. But there are many things we use that we do not grow. I am going to grow more produce and herbs and use them to get the things we do use. Either by bartering or by selling.

As of today, I have started my goal of using my propane cook stove as little as possible. I will use it in the morning to brew the coffee, but the rest of the day's cooking will be on the wood stoves. I admit, I have gotten lazy lately and was using the propane stove more than usual. It is easier. Just flip the switch. The cook stove is a little more complex than that. I want to see how little propane we can use if we concentrate on doing just that.

Windmax HY400

Gasoline for the generator, the chainsaw and the truck is something I can't do much about. At least not right now. My husband has been wanting a crosscut saw and I know we have to try to get one of them in the near future. But this year we bought a wind turbine instead. So the crosscut saw will have to wait. The wind turbine hopefully will cut our use of the gasoline generator.

During the spring, summer and fall, we will be working hard this year, growing and harvesting food. Gathering kindling and wood. Hoping to get a couple of loads of logs dropped for firewood for next year. Foraging for wild foods in the forest and land around us. Cutting down the amount of trips we make to town unless we have many errands planned. Not just going for one thing. Making smart choices in the use of all food and fuel is essential for survival. Especially this year.

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole

Winter Time At Peaceful Forest Homestead

The bridge to my house.

Cold days of winter have really set in now. Our house is kept warm by the bustling of the wood stoves. One in the living room and one in the kitchen. The one in the kitchen is a wood cook stove. The heating stove in the living room is huge. It was here when we moved here. A monster really, but I love it. It will hold four of the big granite ware canners on it's top and still have room for two more pans. I cook on it quite often. We heat water on it every day. 

I have a friend who thinks to be a homesteader, you have to heat with wood. No, you really don't. I do. But that is my choice. This house had no other heating system in it when we moved here. We wanted to use wood anyway, so it was perfect for us. But you don't have to. No rules in homesteading. Do what you want to do. That is what is so great about it. If you want to raise animals...........go ahead. I don't. My animals are all pets. No food animals for us. Unless we add some chickens, which we talk about it on and off. I can always buy plenty of home raised eggs around us. I really love chickens though. A hen house of a few Rhode Island Reds would be perfect for me.

Many times, I see that others will try to sway you to do things their way. That is human nature I guess. I don't drink, yet I had friends who would always try to get me to drink because they did. Same with smoking. And I have even had people try to get me to eat what they are eating when they know I don't eat sugar or bread. Human nature I guess. I wonder if animals do the same thing? Of course, I know horses don't do that. They are selfish. The more they can eat before the others get to that hay pile the better! 

This post seems like a rambling of sorts. The reason is that I am working on a way to build a frugal shopping list that will cover those menus I made a few posts back. And still be frugal. The grocery stores are killing me. The prices even in the cheap ones are out of sight. So I am trying to come up with a good plan and be able to do a good useful post for my readers. 

I hope everyone is enjoying the first week of the new year. Time to take stock and make those changes I talked about last year. Now is the time! 

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Planning For Winter On Your Homestead

The road to our homestead!

There is no question, heating with wood keeps you warm. So warm that most of the time I am sitting here in shorts while I work. I only put on warm clothes when I go outside. My husband always says heating with wood heats him twice, when he is cutting it and carrying it and when it is in the stove heating the house. So true. Our wood stove in the living room is rather big and is great in the real cold time of winter. But this fall has been fairly warm for upstate New York.

I wrote a post in the past called Self Reliance - Today's Topic Is Heating. That post explains more about heating with wood. Of course, there are various ways to heat your home. I really like the wood heat as it warms you immediately, right down to your core. Once you get warm you stay warm. The other types of heat turn on and off. On and off. You get cold and then it finally comes on. I remember well turning my thermostat up till the furnace kicked on. My mother had me do it many times at her house while she was freezing waiting for it to come on. Of course with wood stoves you just may be warmer than you like. So I wear shorts. You could open a window a bit or if you have an enclosed porch you could open the door to that and let it heat up too.

Our forest

We have taken about all the trees we want off our own property for the time being. Now it is just downed wood and dead trees that we are using. We plan on buying some loads of logs in the next few months and letting them season for next year. That way will be easier on my husband as he is working with a crushed elbow and both of his feet have gotten bad. So I would like his work load to lessen. I mean he does jobs for me that I can't do now because of my knees. So if I can help him by buying the logs we will do it.

Firewood

Planning for the winter is just what you do when you live out in the country. Planning by stocking up your food supply, your wood supply, your water supply and of course planning for the snow that will eventually come. For us that means shoveling paths, and keeping it clear enough for hauling in hay for our horses twice a month. We get a lot of snow out here and I am not complaining as the snow helps to keep our water table full for using a lot of water all year long. Horses drink a lot of water daily. I take hot baths in a big claw foot bath tub. I can several times a month. All of that uses water. To live with a shallow well and never have a problem with it having enough water is a good thing.

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Self Reliance - Today’s Topic Is Heating

Self-reliance is a big topic these days. People laughed at us preparing in 1999. Then when nothing really happened......though things did happen, but it was not visible to the mainsteam public. It was behind the scenes. There were people working nonstop behind the scenes and that is WHY nothing happened. Thank you to all those people! Anyway it is time to prepare and stay prepared. If nothing happens now.....do not stop preparing. It makes common sense to keep preparing until the day you die.

A very important item in your search for self-reliance is heating. Heating takes up much of your household expense money! Add it up for the year. Plus things are getting worse or so they say. It is being reported in the news that this year fuel costs will cause people to freeze and some to cut their budget by not buying the nutritional foods they need. So if you can find a way to live without paying a lot for your heating costs then you should think about doing it. At least for back up.

In the 9 years that I have lived here, I have paid maybe $200. total for heating. And that was for our kerosene heaters, which we have only had for the last 3 years. We only use them when it is just too warm for the wood stoves. Or, if we have been somewhere during the day, and come home to a cold house. We light them just to warm up the house, while we get the wood stoves going.

There are various ways to heat a house. But the most self-sufficient way is to use a wood stove. Not a pellet stove! If you have no source of heating fuel, what would you do? Or have you ever heard of the fuel companies turning off your tank if you did not pay your bill? They don't care that you just got rolled over by road roller at your job and can't work!

A wood stove makes it easy to find free heating fuel or very low cost. You can buy cords of wood from the state forest land in NY, for as low as $10. A FULL CORD. You can also go places that throw away pallets or crate wood. There is a tractor place in a small city not far from me that advertises it in the paper. Free Crate Wood. I saw it the other day, not good for building, but for fire wood, it would be fine.

I also gather branches in the woods. My husband cuts the trees down, and also uses downed trees in our woods. I gather alot of kindling, and we also use pine cones for fire starters. Another thing that works good for starting fires in your stove is dried corncobs. After you take the kernels off, dry out the cobs and save them for the woodstove.

We use several different kinds of wood. Pine is great for a really hot fire, or just for getting a cold stove to take off. It's also great for getting a high temperture on your cookstove. Most people will tell you that you can't use it or it's not good. Well, if you are cold, anything is good, if it'll burn. We have burned everything you can imagine. Remember the pioneers used to throw their furniture in the stove for firewood when things got bad! Let's hope it does not get that bad.....but then again......

Have a great homesteading day!!

katlupe

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

Cold Days Of January

This is Patches!

The last few days have gotten cold again so I am busy trying to stay warm. We have two wood stoves in our house. One is a big Alasksa wood heating stove. It is a big sheet metal stove, with two big cooking surfaces on it. I love it. I heat all my water on that stove and since it's right next to my bathroom, it's pretty easy to carry the water to the bath tub. Some day, we will have the gravity fed water system in, maybe this coming summer. But for now this is what we use and I am quite happy with it.

Our other wood stove is a Jewel wood cookstove, made by The Detroit Stove Company. It is black cast iron and has Zinc fancy work on it. It is old and has some cracks and broken spots on it. But I am able to cook and bake with it. In fact, I cook my Thanksgiving dinner on it every year, and it comes out looking like the dinners you see in the pictures. I cook the best meals on that stove! My breakfasts can't be beat!

Since my system is down right now, (I am working off my battery, and right now I am charging my computer battery off the little bit of power that I can get from the sun today) I am trying to do little bits of work, as I can. I think we are going to plan on purchasing a wind turbine this year. I wanted to add more solar panels, but think the wind turbine would be a good addition for the winter months, when we do not get much sun. Our system keeps changing it's design as we live with it and see what we need.