It's winter

Winter has arrived at Elwin Farm and very picturesque it is too. Of course our firewood consumption has gone up a fair bit. At night I always light the Stanley wood range since I have to cook on it anyway and the fire is needed to heat the water since the solar panels don't do quite so well during the winter. We have both fires going at times which means that we're using up about 3 cubic meters of firewood per month. The wood bins are starting to look rather empty.

Consequently I have started chopping and splitting next year's firewood supply already. Just in case I need to use some it this winter. Doing this now gives the wood the best chance of drying out. If it turns out that there is enough firewood to last this winter then next year's wood will be really dry. So far I've dropped two trees, cut them into rings and am busy splitting them with the splitting axe I made from an old axe head I found in a paddock here. I do have a hydraulic splitter as well but it turns out that using the axe is faster and it doesn't use any electricity. Of course it keeps me warm as well, and fit too.

Here's what it looks like in our little bit of snow. It's nothing like the snows in Canada, the US or even most parts of Europe but it's cold enough to convince me that it's winter. Specially when the Southerly winds are blowing and bringing up that cold Arctic air.