The Land of Four Seasons

It's said around here that our town is the "Land of Four Seasons" and people joke that it sometimes happens all in one day.  I've seen it myself. 

Autumn is now upon us and it's cool, windy, rainy and damp.  We've had rain for a couple of days now.  Today, we had a tornado warning come across the radio's Emergency Broadcast Network for a county north of us.  That's not something that happens very often in these parts!  

The gold, red and brown leaves are dropping from the trees, then promptly blowing into someone else's yard. Not to worry, they'll blow away again.  Just give it a few hours or so. After the first freeze, the mulberry trees will often drop their leaves in a heap, all at once, on the same day.   With nightime temps down in the 40s it's good sleeping weather and the daytime temps are perfect for a menopausal woman! 

But, the cold days are on their way, and by Halloween, we start having freezing temps at night.  I just love a good roaring fire to warm the house and also for the asthetics.  The fireplace insert/blower that we have does a pretty good job of taking the chill off, but it is always a pain to get going so it didn't get used often.  Besides, Papa and Bubba were the fire starters in this house.  Ab and I gladly left that job up to them.  Oak wood is plentiful around here, but it's often too hard to get a fire started without a lot time, patience and  effort.  Since the wood's kept out on the back patio, it will get covered with snow and then you have to get out there in the cold to bring it in, and the all that wet snow gets trampled inside.  What a pain!

Now that Papa and Bubba are gone, I wanted something easier for Ab and I to manage and something more energy efficient.   So today I ordered us a pellet stove insert to replace what we have and it will be installed within a couple of weeks.  The store was also throwing in a ton of pellets with the purchase!  A ton!  Of course I don't have anywhere to store a ton of pellets, so the store runs a tab and you just pick up a few bags at a time until you use up your ton!  The stove has an easy, push button, electric ignition that Ab and I can manage.  And, it will feed itself via a hopper throughout the day when I am at work, and we will come home at the end of the day to a toasty warm house.  I am so excited about having a fire more often and cuddling in front of it with Ab during those cold winter evenings.  It's my understanding that pellet stoves are eventually going to replace all traditional fireplaces as they are virtually smokeless and create very little ash.

Additionally, they don't suck all the moisture out of the room like a traditional fireplace, or so I was told, so we won't need to use a tea kettle like you would with a wood stove. 

Just think...I'll soon be saying to Ab..."Come on Baby, light the fire!"