Colder here. What's your temp? What ya burnin?

Already sitting at +3 C or 38 F for the day! Not expected to warm up any more but not sure I care. Fed the stove some kindling a couple hours ago just to keep it limping along.

 

50ºF outside.
Good day for no fire and clean out the ashes in prep for more cooler weather on the horizon.

 

We are finally getting ride of mosquitos.

 

Honestly, we could use a few days of that to kill off ticks & skeeters too. 35f & bit of an east wind here. No coat to work outside today.

 

I get enough that I can share. We don’t have ticks here winter is keeping them at bay for now.

 

Suppsoedly dry has more of an impact on insect populations than cold.
Ideal Spring conditions can revive even the lowest populations of insects and diseases unfortunately.

Course, if it is warm and wet enough that the little stinkers are still a nuisance the cold can be quite welcome.

 

When I lived in the Sonora desert of Arizona, we had fleas and ticks. Misquotes around the lakes and pools of water.

Alaska has 35 different blood sucking flying insects. And no ticks. Insect eggs can survive the cold, not the insect.

 

Mosquitoes as well as many other insects can hibernate.
Even trees do if you consider the conversion of starches to sugars hibernation.

 

I have no idea how many different types we have, probably not that many. All I know is I like it better when they ain't around & I can work outdoors without the heat & humidity. We had a hot sticky rainy summer. I'm liking the weather lately though. Cool & dry. Still just burning Silver Maple in the boiler. No need for anything better in this weather. Moved another 10-14 days worth to the boiler today. Got about 5 cord of Oak on deck for when it gets colder.

 

37 now and no fire, I burned some Oak for 5 hours this AM, small fire. Then Mrs. Mt. man baked all day (gas oven), so the house is warm.

 

Boiler hasn't gotten much work the past 48 hours. Had to relight it yesterday AM but it stayed lit all day today. Burning some oak and hickory.

 

33 here Ash and 1 of them saw dust logs. Got warm here today. Had some fly's here.

 

Have you tried Pine or other lesser woods in the warmer weather to see if it stays lit longer?

 

The 10 year old and I went and got some wood today, good temps. We used the snow machine and from the Truro wood lot is a 10-15 minute snow machine ride. Was a good day with my boy.

 

Ain't got none. Oak is my junk wood.

 

Temp has only dropped to -4 C or 24 F so far, but late into the night it's gonna drop. The wind is around 20 mph gusting much higher at times, so it's going to bleed the heat right out of here. Absolutely loving the pipe damper in windy weather like this. About a 1/4 is enough to cancel out the turbo charge draft effect from this wind and avoid running like a rocket and coaling up.

 

28 feels like 22 and our extended warmup has been cancelled. 2-4” of snow coming tonight into tomorrow so it’s cooling down but not like last week at least, mostly 20’s and 30’s so easy heating weather with no bugs. Then rain possibly next Friday. We’ll have to wait and see if we have a white or brown Christmas. At this point I could care less.