Last days above 0 C at the farm

Got to the farm late as usual as I had to have the chainsaw serviced first. I bought two screws for the "oil tract", one to replace the lost one and a spare one just in case. They were quite cheap, not even $2.00 each. The guy also sharpened the chain and sold me a much thinner chain oil.

Then I ventured to find the stove maker who built the fireplace at the farm about ten years ago. I had to ask around but I did find him, a short guy in his sixties (at least). He complained that he's not the same person he used to be since his wife died last year. But then he agreed to discuss building a tile-stove at my apartment here in the city still before the winter.

I am wondering how much money this would save me. While the cost of his work equals the amount of a single invoice I pay for gas for the two coldest winter months, February and March, the cost of materials (bricks, clay, wire, stove doors.. tiles will be recycled, I still have some in my garage and he still has some used tiles piled up next to his little house..) may end up as much as the cost of his work. The total cost might then be about two thirds of what I pay for gas in a calendar year.

And I will still be left with a kitchen and bathroom to heat with gas because I have no stoves there. So it looks like the stove would not pay for itself in the first year but more in the third. And what if I run out of wood to burn? I'll have to start buying coal. Will coal be cheaper than gas? Because certainly it will be more troublesome. Et caetera. I'm quite at a loss at what I should do.


Anyway.. When I got to the farm I had scrambled eggs with coffee, then I cut up some more logs for the fireplace. Black locust was so tough that I thought something was wrong with the saw - the freshly sharpened chain kept stopping. But then pines turned out easy to cut as butter. I brought all the wood inside the house to dry, as well as to prevent it from being stolen, and then it got dark.

I was back in the city before 7 pm. Had some lovely bell pepper stew (actually frozen but really tasty, red and green peppers with onion) with fresh chicken over noodles for dinner, washed down with some hot red beet soup. Delish!