Started getting some of the Holiday Meal items that are beginning to go on sale. The local Bi-Mart had the traditional items like stuffing, cranberry sauce, baking ingredients. The Stove top stuffing was 2 for $5.00 in the double pak box. Two cans of cranberry sauce for $3.00 and Cake mixes for $1.25 a box. I noticed that Fred Meyers and Albertsons are having sales on baking ingredients as well.
Turkeys cost about $1.99 per pound at most stores and I don't think we will see a large drop in the per pound price before Thanksgiving. I know $2.00 per pound for turkey is expensive compared to the prices we used to get but with that said I recommend you buy a turkey now and freeze it and if the price drops you can buy another turkey for next year. Even at $2.00 per pound turkeys provide a lot of protein for the price. I still find good prices on beef, so cooking up a prime rib, NY roast or even a Ham might be an alternative meat course for any of the upcoming Holiday meals.
I'm one of those that shops and stores Holiday food items year over year but if things go on sale running up to the holidays I buy enough for the next years meals. Stove top stuffing and canned cranberries are not going bad in a year.. Plus with as crazy as our supply chains are now who knows if some items will be available at any price. I spent about $13.00 and got 2 sides of stuffing and cranberries plus a dessert on hand for all the holidays. Starting early shopping for your holiday meal helps spread the cost over several weeks rather than a mad dash at the last minute trying to buy what you want for your Holiday meal.
I know splurging for a holiday meal with all the trimming is out of reach for some folks but I think these meals are worth splurging on and perhaps cut back on some other items to make these meals happen. I'd rather have a great meal rather than a gift and in a way this is a gift I make for my Aunt and Mom every holiday.
I refilled my porch wood rack. I have burning some firewood at least once a day just to take the chill off the house. There have been a few damp days that I burned firewood because cold and damp air feels unpleasant to me. I think the coldest I ever felt was doing guard duty in Georgia when it was 20 degrees F. and 100% humidity. Even below 0 temps that have little humidity feels warmer. I added another wooden box for kindling I got on sale at Bi-Mart. I will add two more of these boxes to my kindling boxes as they fit perfectly in my big kindling box. This will give me one box by the fire, a box full and a box to fill, if I don't fill up the big kindling box. One thing I have learned with my CIDP and wood heat, I will be down a few days in during the winter and you don't want your down days to coincided with days you need to gather wood or chop kindling or bad weather. I bought on of those canvas firewood carry bags and I love it. Sure I can use my wagon to move the firewood to the porch but I like moving a couple "bags" of wood every couple of days to keep the front porch wood rack full so I never get to low on easy to grab firewood.
The split fire wood pile is working out better than I had imagined. I will be cutting more kindling and I know I will have chunks of wood that will have knots and twisted grain that will make it difficult to split into kindling. So every time I cut kindling I will add more of those in between sized wood for starting fires. Update on the fire starters: It looks like 8 pounds of wax will be enough fire starters for both Mom and I since I use less wax to fill the egg cartons compared to to the cupcake papers filled with wood chips. I use the figure of using one fire starter per day as the baseline. So five (12) egg cartons equals about two months of fire starters. I add in extras after that because in the early fall and late spring you might start a couple of fires in a day to take off the chill in the morning and warm the house in the evening. It is easy to figure out how many fire starter you need to make based on the number of months you need to heat. I plan on heating with wood for about 6 months October-March so I need approximately 180 fire starters. That is not set in stone as we have had a warm October and March is the start of Spring in my area. Six months covers everything plus a few extra fire starters for any extra cool days or days I need to start 2 fires.
I am focusing on starting a fire in a wood stove and the things that work for me. I imagine there are a lot of people that are using wood for heating for the first time and may not know how to start a fire which is easy if you know how and very frustrating if you have never started a fire in your life. You may have done campfires as a kid or the Adults always started the fire and you just poke the fire with a stick or cooked smores. Having someone describe what you need to start a fire from the tools to the basic setup can be a huge help for a noobie to using wood for heat.
These are the things that work for me. I think a person could sell or trade fire starters , small bundles of kindling if they have enough extra on hand. People in the EU are literally burning trash trying to stay warm and I think the USA will see that level of desperation if later into winter. Make sure you have what you need first then you can sell ,trade or donate to people so the stay warm if you have enough for your self first. Personally I think you need at least 2 years worth of firewood on hand. One batch you burn and one batch seasons/dries for the next year.
Tools I think you need for firewood. I get my wood delivered cut and split so these tools should be considered the minimum.
- An axe in the 1.25-2 pound range for splitting wood into smaller chunks
- A hatchet for cutting kindling to start fires easily
- A splitting maul if you are splitting hardwoods. I prefer a small sledge hammer and a splitting maul of 3 pounds each because of my CIDP limits my strength and stamina. If you have the strength go for a heavier maul. I don't like the star splitters as they take more effort and the payoff in split wood does justify the effort.
- A chainsaw: I have a battery powered and electric powered chainsaw that works with cutting down over sized chunks of wood or doing yard work around the house. Even if you get cut and split wood some time the chunks of wood can be to big for your wood stove.
- Tools for sharpening your axe or chainsaw. Stones are great for axes and there are plenty of youtube vids for the process. Buy an extra chain for your saw and learn to sharpen it. I need to do this!
- Chimney sweep tools: Chimney sweeps have gotten expensive in my area this year. I did not want to spend $300.00 for a sweep so I bought a chimney cleaning tool for $80.00 from Home depot and cleaned my chimney and my Mom's chimney. I think the best thing about this tool is you can clean your chimney whenever you want or whenever it might be needed.
- Safety equipment. Smoke detectors place in sleeping areas around the house. Fire extinguishers that are place along escape routes and close but not in a room for potential fires.
I was about 8 years old and went through a chimney fire that was not fast moving but still scary as a kid. So I don't trust a chimney that is not cleaned yearly. I keep the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors along with fire extinguishers by the bedrooms so you could suppress the flames to get out. Will all this work? Don't know? I just stack the odds in my favor as possible and hope for the best.
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