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Cat Forum / Cat Anecdotes / December 2006Thanks for the Cards!
The cards have certainly been doing a lot to make me smile. It's going to get down to 19F tonight (BRRRRRRRRETH!) That's freakin' cold for west Tennessee, people! I am grateful Persia is a snuggle-bug. She's nice and warm. I suspect she likes it, too :D Jill > The cards have certainly been doing a lot to make me smile. It's going to > get down to 19F tonight (BRRRRRRRRETH!) That's freakin' cold for west > Tennessee, people! I am grateful Persia is a snuggle-bug. She's nice and > warm. I suspect she likes it, too :D I swear by my electric blanket in the winter. I put it on an hour before I go to bed and the whole bed from top to bottom is warm when I get in. Could you get one? It's great. Tweed >> The cards have certainly been doing a lot to make me smile. It's >> going to get down to 19F tonight (BRRRRRRRRETH!) That's freakin' [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Tweed I have a heated waterbed (softside, looks like a regular bed). Not a good idea to add electric blankets on top. But my Scottish grandma's knitted afghan's are very comfy cozy when I'm on the couch with Persia reading or watching TV :) Unfortunately it's too cold for a fire in the fireplace. I know that doesn't make sense to some people, but the flue sucks all the heated air out so unless you don't have electricity, don't burn a fire. We're fine, but I'm not going outside for a few days LOL Jill >>> The cards have certainly been doing a lot to make me smile. It's >>> going to get down to 19F tonight (BRRRRRRRRETH!) That's freakin' [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >so unless you don't have electricity, don't burn a fire. We're fine, but >I'm not going outside for a few days LOL A wood-burning stove, even the basic low-tech variety, is a much more efficient way to heat a house than is a fireplace. My parents used a wood stove as their primary heat source for the last 25 years of their lives (they died about 6 months apart). It still sucks outside air into the house, but I have read about some more elaborate installations that include an air duct to bring outside air to the stove. Of course, you still have to deal with the ashes afterwards, as you would with a fireplace. I was amused to notice that seven or eight school systems across Tennessee had decided to close school early, or in one case to cancel school altogether, even though this storm system is not expected to drop any significant amount of snow. It will simply be cold.  SignatureJohn F. Eldredge -- john@jfeldredge.com PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu "Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria <snip> >I was amused to notice that seven or eight school systems across >Tennessee had decided to close school early, or in one case to cancel >school altogether, even though this storm system is not expected to >drop any significant amount of snow. It will simply be cold. Right now it is 15 degrees F, with a wind chill of -6F. We have had about 3 inches of snow since this am, and it looks like it is winding up out there. The snow is coming down about 1 inch an hour. The schools around here (central New York) don't cancel unless it is either too snowy to drive in or the temp is too cold for the kids to wait outside in. I just went outside to check my outside cats - they are camped out in my garage, where I have sleeping bins and blankets they can snuggle into. I warmed up their wet food so they could have a wam dinner, made sure that their sleeping bins were fluffed properly, and came back in to my warm and toasty cats. They are having a cat spaz, esp. Jacob. He just ran behind my chair, prrrt prrrting and looking like a mad cat, tail up and bouncing sideways. Such a cute boy! >>>> The cards have certainly been doing a lot to make me smile. It's >>>> going to get down to 19F tonight (BRRRRRRRRETH!) That's freakin' [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] >>so unless you don't have electricity, don't burn a fire. We're fine, but >>I'm not going outside for a few days LOL Your flue should not suck all the heated air back out up the chimney. Heat should radiate from the fire all round your room and only the smoke should go up the flue or chimney. It sounds faulty to me. > A wood-burning stove, even the basic low-tech variety, is a much more > efficient way to heat a house than is a fireplace. My parents used a [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > stove. Of course, you still have to deal with the ashes afterwards, > as you would with a fireplace. Woodburners are great if you are in most of the time. The trouble with them is that if *you* go out for a few hours, so do they. Literally. I have a woodburner as my main heating source. Sustainable energy and all that, trying to be "green." If I light it in the evening when I get home from work, it takes a lot of my attention for an hour at least to get it going. Lay it with newspaper, cardboard, bark, twigs, bigger twigs etc. Watch it go out and have to start again ;-) Once it gets going, it is marvellous. It needs an eye on it all the time and reloading approximately every 1-1 and a half hours. It goes out overnight, obviously. I go to work at just after 8 a.m. Mon-Fri so when I get home my house is absolutely freezing cold in the winter. I would recommend a woodburner for anyone who is home for most of the time. If you can keep it going you will be as warm as toast. There is some work involved with having one, though. Even though I buy my wood - so I find it a bit expensive to run - it comes in random sizes, often too big so some chopping/splitting with an axe is required. The ash is not a problem. You have to run a woodburner on a bed of ash anyway and I find I only need to reduce it to a small layer about once a week. Wood ash is wonderful fertiliser for the garden, full of potash, just dig it in. Grows great parsnips! Tweed >>>>> The cards have certainly been doing a lot to make me smile. It's >>>>> going to get down to 19F tonight (BRRRRRRRRETH!) That's freakin' [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > Heat should radiate from the fire all round your room and only the > smoke should go up the flue or chimney. It sounds faulty to me. Then every fireplace I've ever had has been faulty. Not trying to be argumentative but even when I was a teen living with my parents we never used the fireplace if it was in the teens or twenties (farenheit) because all the other rooms in the house got cold. A proper fireplace draws the smoke upwards and with it goes the heat. It's certainly warm right around the fire but other rooms suffer because of it. And I was wrong, it got down to 16F in the wee hours of the morning! BRRRRRRRR! But Persia snuggled next to me and I had one of Grandma Brown's knitted afghans on top of the covers on the bed so I was nice and toasty :) Jill > Then every fireplace I've ever had has been faulty. Not trying to be > argumentative but even when I was a teen living with my parents we never [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > next to me and I had one of Grandma Brown's knitted afghans on top of the > covers on the bed so I was nice and toasty :) My parents have a fireplace in their rec room. First, the former outside-door of the house bars off the rec room from the rest of the house and so the rest of the house doesn't lose heat; secondly, the fireplace is built out of old-style cut stone, and so even after the fire goes out, the stone radiates heat for 12 hours or more afterwards, keeping the room warm. That's where the real warming power comes in. However, when there is an East wind, the wind goes down the chimney and the whole room is like ice. --Fil > Woodburners are great if you are in most of the time. The trouble with > them is that if *you* go out for a few hours, so do they. Literally. I used wood heat most of the years I was in Arizona. I would put a few logs in the stove before I went to bed and there was always a bed of red-hot coals in the morning. |
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