Today's cool and damp air reminds us that summer doesn't last forever. The weather will get chilly again, even cold, and we'll need heat from a variety of sources.Ours is hybrid house of sorts with wood, hot water heated by oil, and some electric baseboards. We get most of our heat from a wood stove in the family room. We burn between four and five cords a season. During the ice storm, when we were without power for 11 days, the stove kept even the most remote regions of the house above freezing.
My mother lived with us for the last years of her life. Along with my in-laws, she literally kept the home fires burning during the work day. After her death, when Sandra and I were both at work, and the in-laws decided that winters in Canada were almost a good idea, the family room got quite chilly. So, we added a loop of hot water heat to keep the temperature steady.
The rooms where my wife's mother lives have electric baseboards, providing quick but expensive heat. Those rooms were added in the 80s and not connected to one of the many small cellars in this nearly 200-year-old house, so running hot water pipes wasn't practical.
We got a good price on greed firewood from a guy named Ed. His big truck broke down in the early spring and so brought our order in half-cord loads, a lot more handling for the same amount of money.
There are, of course, lots of people who do all of this better. Son Adam has new wood-fired boiler that burns cleanly and gives his family all of the heat and hot water they need. Friends Liz and Robert have solar panels that reduced their electric bills from $100/month to about $4. My father and his father before him wore long underwear.
As I write, the temperature has dropped to the mid-60s with a steady rain. We might even need a small fire at suppertime to dry out the chill. Funny weather, this, but, as a New Englander, we come to expect it. Tomorrow, it'll be 90.
This post originally appeared in Karl Hakkarainen's Holden Blog on OntheCommon.com .
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