“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” ~ Oprah Winfrey
My goals for 2018
Goal #1 – Write Like No One is Reading.
“Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.” ~ Barbara Kingsolver
Goal #2 – Slow Down
Friday night I went to bed around 9 and woke up a little after 7. I felt so rested after sleeping for 10 hours, I wasn’t quite sure what to do next. I’m working harder than I have in years and yet, I feel like I have so much more energy. It’s kind of weird.
Goal #3 – Shop Small
So maybe I’m crazy, but if we’re going to keep our house warm this winter with wood heat rather than heating oil, we’re going to need a serious amount of firewood. The HH thought the remaining 2.5 cords {of the 3 we had delivered earlier this spring} would be PLENTY for this winter. I disagreed and ordered another 2 cords of wood.
And so now we have a total of 4.5 cords of wood to heat the house with this winter. I don’t know how many pieces of wood that is a day, but hopefully it will be enough to keep the house nice and warm from about mid October to mid April. Only time will tell I guess.
This summer, the HH will use his newly acquired log splitter to work on splitting wood for the winter of 2019/2020. And since the wood needs about a year to season properly, that means before the first snowflake even falls, we should have 8.5 cords of wood stacked. Which for some reason, I find amusing. It’s like were one of those crazy survivalist couples or something… But really not, this is just normal out here in our neck of the woods.
Stacking wood. I think I’m getting the hang of it. 😉
Goal # 4 – Have a Designated Meal Prep Day It’s Not for Us.
I threw in the towel early on this one. Meal prep, and cooking in mass quantities is just not for my family at this stage in our lives
Goal #5 – Install a Vegetable Garden Done!
Finally! Everything I set out to clear and get planted this spring has been completed. But now, instead of expanding the vegetable garden out towards the woods, I’m thinking about ripping up more of the lawn to expand the vegetable garden inward. I think it would create a more natural flow, plus removing the grass in that area would probably shave about 10 minutes off the mowing time. 😉
Goal #6 – Clear Land for a Chicken Coop and Future Raised Garden Bed Area
The HH won’t have time to build a large wooden coop set-up until July, so for now the ladies are scratching a pecking within the confines of their little Eglu. I did have the genius idea yesterday though to move their little coop from the lower vegetable garden area to the {very} neglected flower garden up by the house.
Maybe if I move the coop a few feet every 24-48 hours the chickens will get the weeding done for me {or most of it anyway}. Plus, I figure once the girls get familiar to their new surroundings in a day or two, I’ll be able to open the door to their coop so they can do a little free ranging in the afternoons. They are pretty far away from the veg patch now so I think it should be okay. What do you think?
Goal #7 – Grow 500 Pounds of Vegetables
So far this year I’ve grown 4 pounds 6 ounces of fresh vegetables and herbs.
Goal #8 – Hook 100 Rugs
I officially have 48 rugs left to hook until I can check this goal off my list for the year! Last week I listed a bunch of hooked flowers and a few other items in my Etsy shop, and over the next few weeks I’ll be working on some American flag themed pieces for my next shop update on June 30th.
Goal #9 – Make a Set of Dolls
I plan to make a set {or two} of primitive dolls later this year after the garden has been put to bed.
Goal #10 – Make a Sampler, Frame it and Hang it on the Wall Done!
Goal #11 – Visit 22 Bakeries
No bakeries this week but I do have a new lobster shack to tell you about!
Goal #12 – Start a Collection
The wood furniture collection continues! This past week I picked up a colonial style slip covered couch from the same lady we bought our new {to us} kitchen table and hutch from. I had originally bought the small couch for the sun room so Lucy would have something to lounge around on when she wanted to sun herself during the long winter months. I think I’ll leave it in the house for now though, until we find 2 wingback chairs for that spot.
Goal #13 – Read {or listen to} 26 Books
Thumbing through Vintage Cottages by Molly English this week for a little inspiration.
Goal #14 – Try 12 New Canning Recipes
I noticed a few strawberries starting to turn red in the garden this week and I may just have enough rhubarb to make a few jars of jam. So far this year I’ve canned Susan’s Lilac Blossom Jelly and will need 11 more recipes to try if I’m going to get this goal marked off my list.
Goal #15 – Secret {for now} Holiday Project
Last week the missing piece to my secret holiday project arrived! I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT this project I can hardly stand it. That being said, I have a LOT of trial and error hours I need to get in before I can show you what my secret holiday project for this year is. I’m hoping to have something to share with you by early September, but for now, mum’s the word. 😉
How about YOU? Did you set any goals for 2018? How are they coming along?
~Mavis
Read About My 2018 Goals HERE.
Katelyn says
You haven’t shared the square footage of your home but I think you need at least another cord of wood. It’s so much better to have it and not need it than the other way around!!
Lissa says
How long did it take you to burn through a 1/2 cord? I’d want to be toasty warm 🙂
Love that you bought a love seat for your puggle princess. Didn’t you originally buy Lucy for your son?
It will be fun to see the ladies free range for play time. Did one of them turn out to be a rooster?
Denise Soderlind says
Will you be able to catch the chicks? I’m weighing my harvested herbs. So far around 80 grams of yarrow flower, rose petal and other garden flowers, oregano and two parsleys and mint. I have rosemary mint and stevia drying in front of the air cleaner thing in paper grocery bags. Woo hoo. What am I going to do with it Mavis? Lol.
Maxine says
Less lawn is always a win! Trying to do that each year, but need to plant up areas that are already not lawns. Planning a big no-dig lasagna border in the fall to wipe out a nice chunk of front lawn.
And chickens doing the weeding for you? Heck yeah!
Do you have a storage cellar for over wintering crops like squash, potatoes, apples, etc? Or would they be ok in one of your other buildings/sheds? Feel like the only piece missing on the homestead.
As always, thanks for letting us tag along on your journey.
Betsy in MN says
Lasagna gardens are the best and easiest way to turn lawn into garden. Mavis, if you would start layering right now, you would have beautiful soil for next year!
Em says
I can’t wait to learn about the secret project!
Andrea says
Hi Mavis! We live in Colorado (suburbs of Denver) and have chickens too. Once your chickens arrived, how long was it before you moved them outside and have they been living outside since then? Our temperatures drop at night (it would be in the 50s at night and 80s during the day) so we have been keeping them inside while we finish their coop. Now with the summer here, we actually let them stay in the coop for the first time yesterday, but with it being in the high 90s today, we are worried about the heat. This is our first go with chickens and we are excited to see how that goes!
Lolly says
Our landlord in Germany had the most beautiful stacks of wood! I think he had 3+ yrs stored in hos barn, and was always working on the 4th. He had his way of rotating thru the wood. It was strange to me, as I had (and have) never lived in a place heated by wood. T hey had an amazing wood stove….it was massive, and built from blocks….and the heat went round and round the channels inside of all the blocks, and then radiated into their home. They built a bench for the dining table against the heater….and it was sooooo amazingly toasty warm to sit there, with your back against the tile, in the winter. AHHhh! Idk if they had heat in their other rooms….I don’t remember….
Our apt had regular heat….well, regular German heat, not forced air, like in the US. Idk what that heat would be called…..it was by the windows, like you would expect a radiator, but it didn’t run on water/steam. It was explained to me, in broken English, that the energy (electric?) came to the heater, and then there were stones inside that heated up (and radiated into the room). It also had a blower on it, and that could be set by a thermostat. It was lovely to sit on the floor, with my back against the heater, a blanket on my lap, a dog on either side of me, and a book to read!!! Oh, and coffee on top of the heater, to sip from. 😉
Nora says
You are referring to a „Nachtspeicherheizung or Nachtspeicherofen“. They are not very economical or ecological and nowadays one gets discouraged from building/buying those.
Earlene says
I don’t think u have enough wood. I think you should at least 2 more cords. I hope you have a back up system.
Annie says
I agree. We live in VA which is way further South and we go thru about 4 Cords a Winter.
Karin Carson says
Good afternoon, we have heated with wood for years, my number 1 tip would be don’t cut your wood so small when your are splitting it that size will burn very quickly, the bigger you can leave it it will last longer and if you can have some that you do not split they will be great and are better for stoking it up for the night, is Birch available to you , it’s the best but needs to be split when green and seasoned a year, when we used wood for 2400 sq home we will have 6-10 cords , we have lots of snow and running out mid Sucks .
Nothing like wood heat.
My very close friends 2 winters ago when we were -30 for around 4 weeks they used 10 cords for the seasons using wood from October-March .
Mavis Butterfield says
I told my husband I think we need more than the 4.5 cords we have and he thinks I am absolutely NUTS.
Rita says
How long did it take to burn half cord? I think better to have too much than not enough!!
Mavis Butterfield says
I’d say about a month, but it wasn’t insanely cold either.
Barbara Benware says
I live in the Adirondack Mts. of NY state and also have a woodstove in my home. I would have more dry wood to burn this winter than what you have now. As someone else said, better to have more than enough and not need it than to not have enough. I was also taught to stack the wood bark side up to help keep the rain out of my
wood.
Tracy says
Mavis, I don’t heat with just wood now, but have. My house is only 1,800 sq ft and I think you need about twice what you already have. You will be amazed how quickly you blow through your supply when it gets below about 20 degrees. And where you live, you should have many days way below that. It’s a much different cold than in th PNW….downright bitter. (But I love it.). I would not go into a New Hampshire winter without about 10 cords of dry, seasoned wood stored under cover, but not under tarps, which prevents the wood from drying properly.
And…if your ‘secret’ project involves a loom, I’m going to send in interventionists!
Barbara Gantt says
We are in Southern Vt. We use anywhere from 5 to 8 cords of wood. Always better to have too much than not enough. This especially true if you get power outages. You will want to cover those stacks of wood to keep them dry. Wet wood doesnt burn hot. Also, it is a good idea to have some wood stacked near the door for those minus zero, windy snowy days.
UpstateNYer says
Mavis – Have you thought about how far away your stacked wood is from your home? Consider this for winter time when you must haul wood inside daily. And even have to snowblow paths to your wood piles. Secondly, you might want to consider getting a generator if that is your budget. You won’t regret it when the power goes out in the winter.
Mavis Butterfield says
Luckily the house came with a generator, but yes, the wood isn’t too far away from the house and in an area that we {the HH} would be plowing anyway so that’s a plus.
Nancy D says
My grampa would be impressed with your wood stacking skills with NO SUPPORTS! Have you seen pictures of the hols hausen style of stacking wood? Your piles reminded me of those. It’s no easy feat stacking wood straight and sturdy! Great job Mavis!
Mavis Butterfield says
I’m going to have to try that!!! It looks so cool. Thanks Nancy D.
Kirsten says
While I don’t heat primarily with wood, I would say that I usually have at least two cords. New England weather is wacky, at best. We’ve had some out of the norm snowstorms (October 2011) where we didn’t have power for a week and the extra wood saved us. And don’t assume winter in New England begins and ends at a specific time. It does what it wants. I say it’s better to have a surplus of wood your first year and then determine from there what is a “typical” amount to have. I think 10 cords (for you) is probably your target.
Linda says
Your wood stacks look great, but I am concerned about how they are overlapping the pallet they are stacked on. I was the wood splitter and stacker when we used our woodburning furnace. Your firewood is going to dry out now that it is split and stacked and it is going to shrink. As it shrinks it may set up a “landslide” in your pile. We found that we neeeded to have some sort of support on both ends of our stack and even then sometimes as the pile dried, it fell forward. In the end, I split the wood and threw it into a big round pile and let it sit there all summer to dry in the sun, and in the fall , when it was cool, we stacked the wood . That seemed to solve the falling down stacked wood pile. Most people don’t realize this whole wood cutting, drying, stacking, storing firewood is a real art form and a learning process.
Lace Faerie says
Having the girls weed your garden, win-win. They eat the weed leaves and seeds as well as fertilizing for you. Maybe you can teach Lucy to keep the girls out of the veggie garden?
Deb says
Just a thought…for future wood you may consider getting a grapple load of green wood. It comes in tree length without limbs and should take you 2 or 3 seasons, depending on how much you heat with. It may be cheaper and can season as it sits, and you can putz with it (cut, split, stack) when the weather is cooler (early spring, fall and winter). You will want to use your oil heat set at a minimum 55 or 60 degrees cuz frozen pipes are no fun!