The Mushroom Factor

Heating with wood warms you twice, once when you cut it and once again when you burn it.

Thus said Henry David Thoreau, or supposedly something to that effect. As a longtime wood-burning compatriot, I agree with his poetic words.

We’ve burned wood as our primary heat source for over 20 years. My husband grew up in a house heated solely with wood. Between the two of us, we’re qualified to say wood has a charm all it’s own. Its warmth and nurturing nature can’t be replicated with conventional oil, gas or electric. Perhaps even more charming is the huge savings it offers in fuel costs.

There are many options today for heating with wood. I have zero-tolerance for technical details, so I won’t go into any product comparisons. But, as mentioned above, HDT and I are like kindred spirits so instead, I’ll expound on the wood heating system we use and how it warms us twice.

Our Wood Heat

We live in a 1917, three-story, 2500 sq. ft. American Foursquare house. This doesn’t include the 1170 sq. ft. field stone basement because, needless to say, in a house this old you do as little basement living as possible.

Our heat is a combined furnace system of wood and LP gas generated by forced-air. The two furnaces sit side-by-side in a basement wood room. We burn wood for 95 percent of our heat and should the fire ever go out, the gas is ready to kick in.

Our setup is about 15 years old. By today’s standards, its likely not the most efficient and it certainly has some drawbacks. For example, someday we’d love to replace the dusty forced-air with radiant floor heating. But for now, our system suits us well enough because:

1. It’s located conveniently in the house yet the mess isn’t in our living space,
2. As a graphic designer, I work from home and can easily put another log on the fire,
3. My husband is dedicated to proper maintenance and cleaning (in winter he cleans the chimney once a month),
4. We have free access to “making wood,” which is field jargon for cutting wood.

So, even with this 15-year-old furnace system, what are our annual fuel costs? About $500. Five hundred dollars a year for LP gas, which includes the gas we use for our stove top and hot water heater.

Pretty sweet, eh? Yep, it is.

But wait. There’s a kicker (of course). This is where “heating with wood warms you twice” comes in.

The Real Cost of Wood

Wood isn’t free. You have to either buy it or make it, meaning you’ll pay for it one way or another.

Buying wood pretty much negates the idea of saving fuel costs. Depending on its availability, wood may or may not be cheaper than conventional fuel. Here in Wisconsin, a full cord of hardwood averages $200 on Craigslist. Comforting, nonetheless, is the fact that wood is a renewable resource compared to finite fossil fuels such as coal or gas. If managed right, burning wood can be environmentally beneficial.

We’re fortunate enough to be able to make our own wood. We have access to woodlots where each fall, winter and spring we cut enough dead and fallen trees for an ample supply. Well, I should clarify—my husband cuts the wood and, as is his nature, he continuously cuts enough to keep us warm well into the future. I simply help load it into the trailer, stack it, and later throw it into the basement through a wood chute. Yep, we handle our wood quite a few times.

Which leads me to the costs of making wood. Making enough wood to heat a home requires tools, time and labor.

A good chainsaw is a necessity. So is a means of transporting the wood from the woodlot to the burner. We also use a gas-operated log splitter, because as he-man as my husband is, splitting wood with a maul gets pretty tiresome after a while.

Time and labor? Well, yes.

If you’re one who has more productive things to do with your time or if you’re the least bit adverse to outdoor physical activity (hey, aren’t we all, at one time or another), consider that heating with wood may not right be for you.

That disclaimer aside, think of wood in more optimistic terms. Wood heat is warm and comforting. Making wood is cheaper than any gym membership. And spending time in the woods is a beautiful reminder of God’s creative hand.

Go for it!

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• The Kitchen’s Getting There…

Aside from a new sink, perhaps the most life-altering event in our kitchen renovation was the completion of my spice drawer. I realize this sounds a bit dramatic but, in reality, there’s a lot of truth to this statement.

Historically, cooking has not been my greatest forté. I’d like to be a good cook and sometimes I even put a little effort into it. But for the most part, cooking is a chore I try to finish as quickly as I can. Obviously.

If you look back at our original kitchen floor plan, you’ll see for 20 years we operated basically out of a 9′ x 7′ pantry. Needless to say, there wasn’t much room for efficiency and organization, two things that also are not my forté. So, like many people, I jammed all my spices together in miscellaneous plastic containers and shoved them in one of the few cupboards available. They were always a mess. A huge mess. A meal I should’ve been able to throw together in five minutes usually took 20 because 15 of them were spent rummaging through a gazillion spices (other people in our family actually get into cooking things that take longer than five minutes—thus the large collection of spices).

Enter the Universal Spice Tray by Ovis Online!

This simple piece of molded plastic has transformed my cooking and my organization! Note the fairly tidy and semi-alphabetized arrangement of spice jars in the heading photo. I lovingly refer to this as stadium seating. What used to be a gazillion jars are now only 30-40 because we assess our inventory and don’t buy spices we already have. And best of all, cooking is actually becoming fun! I pull open the drawer and easily choose a spice that will creatively enhance the culinary delights I’ve now mastered.

Okay, well, now maybe I’m over-dramatizing. But someday…

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So recently, as we were sitting around watching Bershawn “Batman” Jackson run his 400 meter hurdles at the Beijing Olympics, a bat came out of nowhere and was flying around in our living room. Really. An actual bat, with uncanny timing.

We live in the country and often see bats on summer evenings flying around our yard light, which is atop an electric utility pole set away from the house. Supposedly that’s kind of good because they eat mosquitos, right? But seeing bats high in the sky is very different than having one swooping around in the house, frantically trying to find its way out. Even my husband, who normally deals with anything, admitted to heebie jeebies. Eventually he was able to throw a blanket on top of the creepy critter and get it out of the house.

Needless to say, we want to know how and/or where a bat came in and should we be worrying about more? According to the Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management, there are several clues that indicate bats living in your house:

1. Two or more encounters with bats flying around in your house within one calendar year
2. Piles of mouse-like fecal material in your attic or on the ground outside your house
3. Bats observed flying around your house from dusk to dark
4. A bat in the house during winter months

What to do if you suspect bats living in your house, besides putting up a for sale sign? The Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management advises the following:

1. Locate the points of entry, commonly on roof edges, valleys, eaves, gables, dormers, vents and the chimney. Bats can squeeze through openings as small as 1/4 inch, depending on the specie.
2. Repair and seal these openings after dusk, when bats have left their roost. The best time for repairs is mid-August through mid-May, before the young are born and after they are weaned and able to fly.
3. Repellant and toxicants, according to the Center, have limited effects for various reasons.

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I live high on a hill. I don’t expect I’ll ever be flooded. Yet, lately, like many people, I have an awareness of flood insurance that I didn’t have before. Funny how nature captures our attention.According to the media, in Wisconsin alone, there are about 50 communities not participating in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). This makes them ineligible not only for flood insurance but also for state and federal aid. Why would so many communities, like that of Lake Delton, go without? For what reason would local governments leave their constituents, well, not exactly high and dry?The Capital Times editor emeritus Dave Zweifel has an interesting opinion in today’s paper. It sheds light on what otherwise is a murky matter. According to Zweifel:

“There are many reasons, but they usually boil down to that never-ending social and political battle we know as development. Once the municipality agrees with FEMA’s definition of a flood plain, new building within that plain is subject to numerous restrictions. Not only do the buildings have to be constructed to withstand floods, but their location in relation to bodies of water faces restrictions and, in some instances, building can’t happen at all.

Communities and, particularly, the developers don’t like that. Not only do the flood plain rules limit structures like resorts and condos on valued lakefront and riverfront property, but they can put a crimp into a municipality’s grand design to grow and add more tax base.”

How sad.

Once again, it’s all about money and personal desires. Developers want their fortune, without respect to sensible building standards or the land on which they build. And owners want their dream home, whether it’s safe from overflowing waters or not.

Once again I ask: Who should pay for this?

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• Who Pays for Flooding?

The Midwest typically is not a great concern in national news, however, in recent weeks our weather has made daily headlines. With repeated rains totaling anywhere from 7-12 inches at a crack, many Midwestern states are dealing with what’s now known as the Flood of 2008.

Here in Wisconsin, Lake Delton has become our poster child of flooding. On June 9, torrential rains caused the 245-acre, man-made lake to tear away the county highway that served as its dike and literally drain itself within hours into the already flooded Wisconsin River. Most dramatic is the coverage of lakefront homes that were ripped from the shoreline and washed away into the rushing waters.

You sure have to feel for these homeowners.

But wait. When I watched the TV news coverage, my feelings became mixed. I saw Lake Delton homeowners bemoan the loss of their…yep, you got it…vacation homes. Don’t get me wrong. I realize multiple-homeowners work as hard for their real estate as the rest of us. But when thousands of Midwesterners elsewhere are struggling to save the only home they own from water, sewage and who-knows-what, it’s hard to feel pain for those crying for their vacation homes.

My feelings were furthered mixed when I read of Lake Delton’s insurance woes. It seems the community was not enrolled in the federal flood insurance program. Nor were homeowners covered in their private homeowner policies. Here’s where I start to ask questions: At what point must each of us, as individual citizens, assume responsibility for our own rights and privileges? And to what extent are we, as a society, responsible for the rights and privileges of individuals?

One of the homes was valued at $1 million. As the Tomah Journal put it, “Does the government owe them another $1 million lakefront home? A less expensive home with no lake frontage? Anything?”

Another couple spent their life’s savings to build a dream home along side the lake, all the while knowing they were uninsured. Is this wise? Are taxpayers responsible for their love of water, even to the point of foregoing common sense?

A phone call to my insurance agency answered some of these questions. My agent explained that most private insurance companies do not offer coverage against flooding. Rather, homeowners purchase insurance from the federal government’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which they obtain through their private insurer.

But there’s a catch.

Homeowners cannot receive coverage if their community is not enrolled in the NFIP program. Reasons for not enrolling are usually because the area is determined to be a low risk for flooding. In the case of Lake Delton, a lakeside village located between Dell Creek and the large Wisconsin River, its officials disputed a federal updated floodplain map and forfeited their eligibility in the program.

This happened seven years ago.

So, let’s think about it. Here’s a community, surrounded by water, whose elected officials chose not to comply with its only source of flood insurance. For seven years. Would it not be the responsibility of homeowners to question these decisions? To oust those oafs from office and elect officials who act more in their behalf? To get involved?

These are difficult questions, to be sure. What do you think?

As for me, I’ll stay living on my hill and enjoy the water from afar.

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