Wild Moon Cottage is a small working homestead in the pristine Ozark Mountains. We have dairy goats, poultry, organic herb and vegetable gardens, a start of a tiny fruit orchard, several black walnut trees, wild berries and fields of wildcrafting goodness. We raise our own milk, our own eggs, much of our own medicine and food. I do laundry by hand, make my own vinegar, candles, soap, bread, cheese ........ For a living I am an artist and herbalist. My goal for myself and our homestead is to be as self sufficient and self sustaining as possible.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Sleep & Warmth

Last night the electricity went out around 1:30am and stayed off until around 6am. Usually, without the hum in my head from all the current (i can even hear the it from the lines on the poles) I sleep better than ever. No lights but the starts and moon and no sound but the wind rustling the branches (and Pyewackets bloody loud snoring). But last night I couldn't sleep at all. I was sooo tired and wanted to sleep, didn't stay awake worrying or thinking, just could not fall asleep. I don't recall when i went to bed but I fell asleep sometime after the electricity came back on.

It's 10:00pm now and I'm hoping to get to bed early to make up the sleep lost last night.

And, speaking of electricity, I got the current bill today and it's the highest bill since we've been here. Over 50 dollars higher than our usual bill this time of year and I cannot figure out what the cause is unless it is the renter. We use only wood to heat and haven't done anything differently. It was quite shocking.

And speaking of wood, it seems like we're using a lot more to heat the same amount as last year. The wood we have is similar to the wood we have every year, nothing has changed but the wood we bring in for the day runs out long hours before bedtime. Used to there would be enough wood left each night for the morning fire to get going. That hasn't been the case at all these last few days of having a fire each day.



Altho I still cannot say more about the future, I can say that I believe I will be looking for a small wood stove in about a week. I'm not sure what the budget will afford but I am actually glad that we might be needing one. I could, of course, live other sorts of heating but, a wood stove is what i want. To heat with but also ready to cook on and the fuel for it can be found right out in the forest or wood.



I will miss our little wood stove here but what great things lay ahead ....

1 comment:

Missouri Gal said...

I'm not a fan of the heat so I crank the AC in the summer. Those bills are nothing compared to the winter and we keep the house at 60 to 64. We've had bills close to $500. Ouch! Happy wood stove hunting!!!