A Certain Something in the Air
Lately the weather has been absolutely fabulous here in the Charlotte area. Cool, crisp mornings, followed by nice warm days with lots of sunshine, then chilling down in the evenings until you get a nice crop of goosebumps on your arms. I have lived in the Charlotte area for nine years, and Mint Hill specifically for 6 years, and the best time of the year for me is right now, at the beginning of autumn, before all the leaves have turned. Yes, I like seeing all the fall colors later on in the season, but by then the time change from Daylight to Standard time will have been in place for several weeks, and that always gets me down a bit. Right now, it's still new enough that it hasn't affected my moods (I'm always a bit more inclined towards grumpiness in the winter), so I'm truly enjoying the weather.
I have noticed something different this year, though. For the past few days, whenever I have stepped outside in the evenings to let the dogs out or pick up the mail or the like, I have noticed the strong scent of woodsmoke in the air. I have never noticed it before as being this strong, nor coming this early in the season. Now, let me explain. I live in an area of Mint Hill that I guess could be considered transitional. It is mostly suburban, but still has a number of pastures, open fields, and dense woodland areas. There's still lots of old homes with chimneys around. So I think I probably would have noticed this in years past, but to my knowledge this is the first.
A couple of possibilities comes to mind. A new house went up just a couple of doors down, so it could be they who are taking advantage of the change in the weather to try out their new fireplace. I can understand that. When I was a kid, especially in the first years after our house was built, my dad would take every opportunity he could to fire up the wood-burning stove. He'd put the screen in place and I'd sit in front of it for hours, watching the fire and listening to the rushing sounds of the flames. Of course, being a boy, I'd take every opportunity to use the poker and poke around the logs, getting the fire good and hot. (And I've knocked out hot coals onto the floor on at least a couple of occassions and gotten fussed out for it.)
Another possibility is that more people are turning to wood fired stoves as an alternative to high fuel prices. Heating oil, propane, natural gas, all of them are expected to shoot really high this winter. Heating oil is already up around 25% in price from this time last year, and propane is up almost 30%. Wood, on the other hand, is readily abundant and easy to get, just chop down a few trees. (Of course, you'd have to have seasoned wood to burn, that's wood that has been cut and stacked for at least a season and has had time to try out. You can burn green wood that you have just cut down, but it doesn't burn nearly as well. It's better to find dead trees and cut them down.)
I'm seriously contemplating having our chimney and wood-burning stove checked out to see if we can use it this winter. While I don't have any wood readily cut, there is a great deal of dead wood out in the back of the property, including an old dead cedar tree that hasn't come down yet. My wife grew up in a house that did not have a fireplace, so I think she would enjoy being able to snuggle up next to me by the fire.
Later,
I have noticed something different this year, though. For the past few days, whenever I have stepped outside in the evenings to let the dogs out or pick up the mail or the like, I have noticed the strong scent of woodsmoke in the air. I have never noticed it before as being this strong, nor coming this early in the season. Now, let me explain. I live in an area of Mint Hill that I guess could be considered transitional. It is mostly suburban, but still has a number of pastures, open fields, and dense woodland areas. There's still lots of old homes with chimneys around. So I think I probably would have noticed this in years past, but to my knowledge this is the first.
A couple of possibilities comes to mind. A new house went up just a couple of doors down, so it could be they who are taking advantage of the change in the weather to try out their new fireplace. I can understand that. When I was a kid, especially in the first years after our house was built, my dad would take every opportunity he could to fire up the wood-burning stove. He'd put the screen in place and I'd sit in front of it for hours, watching the fire and listening to the rushing sounds of the flames. Of course, being a boy, I'd take every opportunity to use the poker and poke around the logs, getting the fire good and hot. (And I've knocked out hot coals onto the floor on at least a couple of occassions and gotten fussed out for it.)
Another possibility is that more people are turning to wood fired stoves as an alternative to high fuel prices. Heating oil, propane, natural gas, all of them are expected to shoot really high this winter. Heating oil is already up around 25% in price from this time last year, and propane is up almost 30%. Wood, on the other hand, is readily abundant and easy to get, just chop down a few trees. (Of course, you'd have to have seasoned wood to burn, that's wood that has been cut and stacked for at least a season and has had time to try out. You can burn green wood that you have just cut down, but it doesn't burn nearly as well. It's better to find dead trees and cut them down.)
I'm seriously contemplating having our chimney and wood-burning stove checked out to see if we can use it this winter. While I don't have any wood readily cut, there is a great deal of dead wood out in the back of the property, including an old dead cedar tree that hasn't come down yet. My wife grew up in a house that did not have a fireplace, so I think she would enjoy being able to snuggle up next to me by the fire.
Later,
posted by Cicero at 17:10
4 Comments:
Strange that you mention this. I was thinking the same thing the other evening - how it seemed early to be smelling the fireplaces. I don't know why it is, though I'd venture a guess that it's more to do with economics than anything else.
What I do know is that the scent seems to punctuate a beautiful autumn day with absolute perfection, doesn't it?
You're right, we plan on using our free standing woodstove much, much more this winter because we have natural gas heat.
It really pumps out the heat. If you use ceiling fans, you can distribute it through the house. But it dries out the air a lot, so it's good to keep a kettle of water on it. Plus you'll always have hot water for tea!
Yup, Laurie hit it on the nose - we've been burning the fire during the day for a few weeks now. I've even moved the computer to the living room so I don't freeze my bum off in the back of the house. We have an insert, which really blows the heat, but dust and ashes along with it. We've always burned wood in the winter, but this year especially, we're letting the furnace stay dormant until the wee hours of morning. We're saving money and fuel, and still staying very warm.
We are tickled at our house because we have yet to turn on the heater--we just take the chill off in the morning and evening with the woodstove. It's absolutely about energy costs. My husband meandered around last summer 'helping' people clear out those unsightly piles of seasoned wood as well as cutting up and toting away downed trees.
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