daily gratitudes

[chelidon]

1. SnowSnowSnow!!! Looks like 6-8 inches so far, which means I should probably plow, but don't absolutely have to (all the vehicles are 4WD). But that also means tomorrow is a skiing day, woo hoo! Er, assuming I get this article done tonight, that is ;> (nothing like incentive!)

2. splitting wood and feeding the wood boiler to keep the house warm and toasty. I love heating with wood. Lugging the wood, while good exercise, isn't so much fun, but splitting it, tending the fire, twiddling with the stove, all very enjoyable. I feel so...intimately connected to the house, and to the hearth by doing this every day, by touching and getting to know every piece of wood that keeps us warm. All of my clothes, my hair, my fingers, have that yummy woodsmoke smell, the whole basement smells good all the time. And nothing like building and tending a fire daily to learn truths about fire. Interesting...

3. A box of Marich (dark) Chocolate Espresso Beans from my Lovely Housemate lylythe_strega. Not remotely health food, but.... mmmmmm, as well as highly useful for those late-night deadline-meeting marathon writing sessions.

4. A care package from across the pond (from ravenedgewalker), brought by Royal Mail at the nothing-less-than-miraculous speed of 3 days transit time(!) Three *weeks*, I'd not be surprised by, but this beats anything I've seen. There must be some kind of direct teleportation conduit between Manchester, England and Manchester, New Hampshire, is my guess. Care package included 2 beautiful sets of handmade jet runes, a copy of the BBC Dr. Who Christmas Special (which my partner has already put dibs on for tonight), and some rose petal tea, which I will have to try out tonight! Unexpected kindnesses and happy surprises are seriously uplifting for the spirit.

5. Getting the DVD of the Winter Revels production, and listening to all of that wonderful music again last night. Even though it was taped on a night when we were really not at our best musically, actually seeing the show from the point of view of the audience was great fun.

6. In between writing projects and house projects, teaching myself how to create and burn DVD masters, and turning the bootleg copies of the first season of the new Dr. Who into DVDs that should work on any DVD player (instead of requiring a computer to play). I'm a bit dubious about the quality level that will result from recompressing video streams with another different codec and changing resolution (to DVD-standard) at the same time. The master will probably take 16+ hours to process all of the video, then we'll see..

7. All of you.

Comments

[threejane.livejournal.com]

I love the kind of heat generated by a wood stove. It feels warmer and more snuggly than the heat that comes from a furnace somehow. Do you have a stove with a window? We used to gather around the wood stove and bliss out watching the flames and just talking about nothing.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

mmm, yeah, it's the best show on, for sure! We've got a couple of fireplaces with the heat-glass doors that we use in the Fall and Spring and early winter when it's not too cold. The wood boiler I put in is actually a central heating unit from Tarm -- the one I got is this one (http://www.tarmusa.com/hot-water-heating-systems.asp), the only one they have which is totally natural-draft and can operate without electrical power, blowers or fans. We've got it hooked up to a 955-gal hot water storage tank which works like a big heat battery. The boiler burns full bore hot (and so as efficiently as possible, with minimum smoke and creosote), and heats up the tank, and the house heat (baseboard radiators) and domestic hot water runs off the tank until it's time to fire up the furnace again. When it's warmer, I only have to start up the boiler once ever 2-3 days (will probably be once a week or less during the summer), and now I start a fire once a day or so, and can load the boiler up with wood once or twice and let it burn out. It's actually a bit more efficient to load in wood a little at a time, and since I'm usually home all day, that's what I do. It's a really nice system -- anything that'll heat water can be used as input to the tank -- wood, solar, on-demand gas, etc, and I can use it to heat with baseboard radiators, radiant floor heating, even thinking about how I might be able to route it to heat the water in the hot tub instead of using the electric heater...

In case you're interested, pics of the boiler going in are on this page: http://www.casachaos.net/Casa_Chaos2005/index15.html

Can you send me your email addy again? (chelidon at mythosphere dot com)

[mystfemme.livejournal.com]

And you.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[anthologie.livejournal.com]

I looooove it when people smell like woodsmoke.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

mmmm, me too. Then you'd love it here, everyone has been at least slightly maple-smoked :>

[anthologie.livejournal.com]

Do they take kindly to California girls sniffin' 'em? :)

(Actually my favorite secret way to sniff people who smell good is hugging them. Hopefully not too many people mind that.)

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

*lol* It's always polite to ask first, but hugs are almost always welcome.

[draiguisge.livejournal.com]

You and your beloved wood stove make me think this song is totally for you ... yes I am still on a new-Peter-music kick. ;)

The Houses of Winter
by Peter Mayer

The houses of winter stand row
With chimneys that billow and windows that glow
They play out their scenes for the snow drifts and icy streets at night
Inside they are clearing their dishes away
Watching the news and recounting the day
And reading their children stories before their bedtime

And when the rites of the evening are done
The lights in the windows go dark one by one
Until the inhabitants all fall asleep
And the houses of winter become houses of dreams

And they tend their fires with care
And whisper a prayer
For their dreamers' safe-keeping
As the cold blows wind at the doors
And hangs icicle swords
Where his captives are sleeping

The houses of winter stand in the cold
Fending off blizzards and muderous lows
Biding their time till they breathe in the April breeze again
Harboring lives with their walls and their roofs
Watching like mothers watch over their broods
Wakeful as monks meditating before the day begins

And in the darkness, before the day starts
They ponder the purpose in their furnace hearts
And hope that the people for whom their hearts burn
With love, the long winter, will love with their own hearts in turn

And they tend their fires with care
And whisper a prayer
For their dreamers' safe-keeping
As the cold blows wind at the doors
And hangs icicle swords
Where his captives are sleeping

And Orion holds court in the sky
And night owls fly above frozen rivers
And dreams like chimney smoke rise
From behind the closed eyes
In the houses of winter

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, Gorgeous...thank you! And so perfect. Orion holding court reminds me of that night a little while back where I came out of the barn and saw the stars above (http://chelidon.livejournal.com/107962.html). Glorious.