Notes from Here and There

1) More signs of official springdom: Flamingo #2 is starting to appear from the snow, the slushy snow has made skiing (sigh) end for the year, my snowman has lost his eyes, and I've done a clothing switcheroo.

2) It occurred to me that my loyal readers and miscellaneous surfers might be curious about my heating costs. So after two winters here, I feel I can give a pretty good estimation. My cabin is tiny (16 by 20 feet), so easy to heat. But although it's well-insulated for a log cabin, with the logs cut to be full rectangles and with fiberglass stuffed in between logs instead of chinking, logs are still not, after all, as insulative as modern building materials, with an inner and outer wall sandwiching giant, fluffy batts of fiberglass. The net effect is still positive for me, because heating a large space is always expensive!

So the numbers (drumroll please): I go through about 100 gallons of heating oil and 3 cords of wood a year. Heating oil prices fluctuate like gas prices do, so in recent years I have seen it as low as $3 and as high as $5.50 a gallon. So let's take $4.50 a gallon and say that's $450 a year. Wood, I could get for free if either I were willing to harvest my own trees (which I'm not), or I had a big ol' truck I could drive out to where folks are allowed to cut their own wood with a permit (which I do not). So I buy wood for about $250 a cord if it's seasoned (dry), or about $180 a cord if it's green (freshly cut). I'm a pretty good planner, so let's skew that average on the low side and say I pay $200 a cord. Which makes my average heating cost about $1000 a year. Is that a lot? Is that a little? To be honest, as a native of California, where air conditioning is a bigger concern than heating, I have no idea. Local folks? Please chime in!

3) What am I talking about, "logs cut to be full rectangles"? Here, I drew a picture for you:


Full rectangles mean I enjoy the full width of the log's nominal cross-sectional size, instead of losing those bits at the edges of the round. Most cabin logs are cut on three sides. I prefer the look of three-sided logs (so from the outside, your cabin looks like it's got round logs, like the Abe Lincoln cabin stereotype), but I don't feel that strongly about it!

4) A.G. Ferrari Foods has declared bankruptcy? Nnnnooooo! Say it ain't so, Ethel! A.G. Ferrari's is awesome! And their house wine is ten dollars a bottle and as good a reliable, sangiovese/zin-based red as you'll ever find!

5) Here are is a video of* orphaned bear cubs planing with an orphaned tiger cub. Apparently for no other purpose other than to make our hearts flutter.


*Rena has reminded me that, ya know, ceci n'est pas une pipe.