Weather, Firewood, and food.

Adirondack case guy · Feb 13, 2015

Well this winter is getting long and the cold seams to be never ending. My wood is holding out better than last year, for some reason. I lit my boiler on Nov 10th. and it has burned 24/7 ever since. I went out and did a little measuring in the woodshed Tues, the 4th month aniversery of liteing the boiler. I have burned 7 cord of wood. I calculated a couple months ago and it looked like I was on a 2 cord/month rate, but to my surprise I am using less. Last year I burned 12.5 cord for the entire heating season. Looks like I will only burn 11 cord this season, and we have been very comfortable, the wifey likes it 75F in the house. My tractor shop where I spend my days stays about 65-70 during the day, when the unit heater is on, depending on the wind.
We have a large garden every year, and love our vegies. The wifey plans her weekly shopping list on the puter and buys meats and other stuff when on sale, for future consumption. Along with the canned goods, we also have two chest freezers in the enclosed breezway/pantry. If we were snowed in for a month, we could survive, with maybe the exception of diesel fuel for my genny, if the power was off that long. There might also be a problem with the barely pop supply too. HeHe. Might have to start makeing home brew!!
Loren, the Acg.

JayinNY · Feb 13, 2015

Lookin good Loren, my brother does that now makes his own home brew, then he gives me the used barley for animal feed, all he does is soak it in water, the chickens love it. Lol. I think he said it cost him 6 bucks to make a 12 pack. He orders the hops, barly and caps online.

merlynr · Feb 13, 2015

(quoted from post at 15:25:56 02/13/15) Well this winter is getting long and the cold seams to be never ending. My wood is holding out better than last year, for some reason. I lit my boiler on Nov 10th. and it has burned 24/7 ever since. I went out and did a little measuring in the woodshed Tues, the 4th month aniversery of liteing the boiler. I have burned 7 cord of wood. I calculated a couple months ago and it looked like I was on a 2 cord/month rate, but to my surprise I am using less. Last year I burned 12.5 cord for the entire heating season. Looks like I will only burn 11 cord this season, and we have been very comfortable, the wifey likes it 75F in the house. My tractor shop where I spend my days stays about 65-70 during the day, when the unit heater is on, depending on the wind.
We have a large garden every year, and love our vegies. The wifey plans her weekly shopping list on the puter and buys meats and other stuff when on sale, for future consumption. Along with the canned goods, we also have two chest freezers in the enclosed breezway/pantry. If we were snowed in for a month, we could survive, with maybe the exception of diesel fuel for my genny, if the power was off that long. There might also be a problem with the barely pop supply too. HeHe. Might have to start makeing home brew!!
Loren, the Acg.

Greg1959 · Feb 13, 2015

Adirondack case guy- Great pics!

I have often read about how you can remove the rings from canned items and reuse them.

I have been afraid to remove the rings in case a lid may break it's seal when stacking another jar on top of it or knocking the jar over.

I always reuse my rings after opening the jar but have not tried removing the ring after the seal has 'seated'.

Boy, that would save me a bunch on buying 'rings + lids'.

Have you encountered any problems by removing the rings after the jar has sealed?

PS- Obviously, you haven't had any problems because you use this method. I guess that I am so afraid of loosing just one jar as to why I don't remove the rings.

TomH in PA · Feb 13, 2015

I always remove the rings. Usually they're loose anyway, but if the cap comes off you had a bad seal anyway; better to find out sooner than later.

JayinNY · Feb 13, 2015

I also remove the rings and never had a problem. I wait until a day or two when they are completely cooled off.

Adirondack case guy · Feb 13, 2015

Jay, There used to be a lot of hops grown around here. My grandfather grew a lot of them, but a disease or insect infestation wiped out the crop for several years and he quit growing them. There was a hop barn on the upper road of the farm with drying racks and a huge wooden press beam and wooden screw about 12" in diamiter and 6' long to press the hops. Unfortunatly some kids expirimenting with cigeretts burned it down in early 60s.

Loren

JayinNY · Feb 13, 2015

People are starting to grow hops around here so the craft brewers can tout the pride of NY thing by using hops growen in NY, there are some growing across from the 84 lumber on rt 20.

Bob Harvey · Feb 13, 2015

Ditto

larry@stinescorner · Feb 13, 2015

its all beautiful(except that snow) ... lol,,, How many jars of that famous v 8 jiuce did you make?

jeffcat · Feb 13, 2015

My stars are you folks busy canners!!!! I did only 6 batches of plumb tomatoes this year cause they were horrible. Wet cool summer in south jersey and they just wouldn't ripen. When you pealed them they were so BRITTLE that they would crumble in your hand. Taste ok but end up as flavor in sauses cause they just go thuuup! Did apple sause with Mac apples and Brandied peaches. Early summer I do flat beans and corn etc. Enter in the local farm fair. Fun to get blue ribbons and the woman folk all look at me and go "YOU can"?? he he

Mike (WA) · Feb 13, 2015

Loren, if you're basing your calculations on 4 months consumption, as your post indicates, you may want to sharpen your pencil. Its only been 3 months since November 10. If you've burned 7 cords, you're at 2.33 cords per month.

Love all the canned stuff. I still marvel at the folks who plan their menus, then go to the store to buy the stuff. They've got it backwards- go to the store, buy what's on sale, and then plan the menus. Mrs. (WA), the tightest person I know other than myself, does exactly that- we shop at Safeway, and they show the savings for each item on sale. Not uncommon for her sales slip to be 20 items, and each one is on sale. Then she gets stuff out of the freezer to make it work.

larry@stinescorner · Feb 13, 2015

you are supposed to remove the rings so they dont form rust,it wont hurt to leave them on,but you are supposed to remove them

Billy NY · Feb 13, 2015

Loren, that's the post I've been waiting for! It's one of the coldest days we've had, the wood supply is more than ample, all under cover, pantry is full of the provisions out of the garden, heated shop to work in, cozy and comfortable. Its about the same here, wood supply will make it, got 2/3 of a cord of seasoned wood in one stack and 2 more cord of seasoned blocks as you call it, under cover waiting for a calm day of about mid 20's and up, nice weather to split and it will all go inside for the remainder of the season. Next years is all blocked already too. Have a small stash of 3+ year seasoned oak too for days like today. The 2 bay 4 car garage and work area here is nice and warm, the freezer is full of venison from this season, all of that I cut up, trimmed clean, etc. Its a good feeling on a day like today. I believe you have made similar posts about the same time in years past, I look forward to seeing them for some silly reason ! LOL!

GordoSD · Feb 13, 2015

You could save a lot of heat energy by facing that overhead fan assembly toward your doors, "pushing" against drafts rather than helping them.

jm. · Feb 13, 2015

I do not know where you got it but I can tell you that one photo has a KUBOTA crate in it. Had acres of them piled up at one time. Now we are using returnable crates. Great photos, doubt that I could cut that much wood in a year.

Adirondack case guy · Feb 13, 2015

Gordo, In order to suck air in, you need a place where air can escape. This shop is very well insulated and well enveloped with Tyvec. The overhead doors have what are known here as Artic seals on the outside. I have been a building contractor and have installed lots of heating systems and the rule of thumb is to place heating equipment under windows and on exterior walls.
The unit heater in the pic also pushes air across the boiler picking up heat from it and distributing it further back in the shop to the rear where a ceiling fan pushes the warmer air back down to the floor, and then it circulates back to the front where it is reheated. My shop floors range from 56F towards the front to 62F without the benifit of radiant heat, which would have been in there if I knew back in 88, when I built the shop, what I know now.
In 89, I took out our old forced air system with home built wood add-on in the main house and installed an oil boiler and retrofitted radiant under floor heat in the main house and subsequent additions that we built on since. Back then I was too busy and the wife was working and wood heat wasn't practical, other than an air tight "Fireplace Extrordinair" that I built centrally in the house. I installed my dad's Royall wood/coal boiler pictured in the shop 3 years ago after his passing, and my retirement. The Royall wood boiler back feeds the oil fired boiler in my basement, but the OB hasn't run in the last 4 years other than to make sure it will, if something happens to me.
Loren

Adirondack case guy · Feb 13, 2015

JM,
I have an unlimited supply of Kubota crates from my good friends at Randall Imps. Most every thing I build is made from them !! The one like you saw in the pic make great frames for work benches and wall cabinets. I just cut the tubing to length, mig weld the peices together, cut up some mower deck crates for angel iron to make drawer slides and mount some plywood drawers and doors.
I will make a new post in a day or so of my many, many Kubota crate projects for you.
Loren

Brian in Ohio · Feb 13, 2015

So, let me ask this. Will all that snow have any effect on your maple production? Someone once told me that the ground moisture from the snow contributes to how much sap will run. If that's the case, you'll be cooking syrup until the 4th of July.

Dick · Feb 13, 2015

Looks like you'd better start eating some of your canned food or you won't have room for this years crop. I have the same problem, can't eat all I can so I end up buying more jars every year. Oh well, it keeps good and I put the dates on all the lids so I use the oldest first. I can mostly meat and I've never had any go bad yet. Beef, pork, turkey and chicken canned is sure worth the effort as it is great for a quick meal. This year I tried canning hamburger stew and it turned out excellent. I was afraid the potatoes and carrots would turn to mush but they were still nice and firm after processing them for 75 minutes. Now hamburger stew is one of my favorites.

Happy eating,,
Dick

JayinNY · Feb 13, 2015

Maybe you ought to sharepen your pencile, If he started his stove on November 10 , its now past February 10 that would be four months??? It ran November, December, January and February. That's 4 months!

JOB · Feb 14, 2015

I was never good at math but it sounds like 3 months and 4 days to me. Rounded off to 3 months.

vtjoe · Feb 14, 2015

what is plugged in above the onions? dehumidifier?

JayinNY · Feb 14, 2015

I guess I look at it another way! Lol

Case Nutty 1660 · Feb 14, 2015

Hang in there Bro! I am sending some "Dry Heat" your way but not sure if will make it all the way,,, shots from yesterday here,, will not irritate you with the temps
cnt

black · Feb 14, 2015

You are well prepared . It's -42 in the wind today , the coldest it's been in years and tons of snow . We are all tiered of winter since it started Nov. 10 and hasn't let up .

Larry -- Ontario

Billy NY · Feb 14, 2015

Its coming back, I've read somewhere in the past that NY was #2 in hops production at one time, a blight apparently lingered too long and farmers stopped growing them. I know a local brewmaster of a craft brewing operation, that has been going since '92 and he said he'd buy all of what I could grow. Given the trellis's and whats involved, that would be a challenge, but I have seen plenty of small plots of these, all the way through Vermont headed up to Windsor to the Harpoon Brewery, trellis work and all. That Harpoon brewery is a great place to visit as well, I'm due for a road trip there soon !

Adirondack case guy · Feb 14, 2015

Barley pop cooler.

JOB · Feb 14, 2015

Nov 10 to Dec 10, 1 month. Dec. 10 to Jan 10. 2 months Jan 10 to Feb. 10, 3 months Feb 10 to Feb 14 3 days. You definitely look at it a different way

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