FIFO

Not enough here for the Zombie Apocalypse (aka Trump Presidency). Makes me nervous.

So one of the first things I learned at the winery was the concept of FIFO, or first in, first out. It's important with wine because wine that's sitting in a 75-degree tasting room is not being kept in its optimal conditions, so it's important to move through the stock in a way that has the wine sitting inside the winery itself, behind the bar, for the minimum number of days.

It's also important when you can and preserve, which is why most of us date all our canned goods and go to the oldest ones first when using supplies.

But at least there will be food and wine....

But Big Ag and I are not always successful in doing this with everything here at the homestead. We are currently are using pellets for the pellet stove that are two seasons old...basically when we got a new pallet each fall we just stuck the new bags on top of the old ones, and used those first. 

So right now we're burning wood from the bottom of the pile, or fall of 2013. And we're going to take our stores down to nothing before buying a new pallet. Our wood pellet use is clearly anti-FIFO. It's FOFO, so we're fixing that, because FOFO may be F-U if the pellets don't hold up well with age. 

with various canned accoutrements.

But every time I look at that dwindling pile I get nervous. I love to be stocked up on supplies and goods, especially in wintertime.  Basically, I want to be the family dining on delicious foods, staying warm and enjoying fine wine whilst shooting zombies off the back porch.

 What about you? Are you a stock-up kind of person, or do you have enough faith to know if you're low on something the stores are just a short drive away?

January Laundry

As I mentioned in the previous post, our mornings here have been clear and cold -- not cold by east coast or midwest standards, but cold for us.  I have been noticing that anytime we have cooler weather (even if it is sunny outside), the marine air makes the day's laundry much more difficult to dry, and when it does come in it develops a slight musty odor in the closet within a few days. This is probably from the clothes not being completely dry at the time they were brought in -- even though they felt dry (but cold) in my hands. 

It's hard to measure the dryness of clothes in 55 degree, 70 percent humid weather -- unlike summer when it's easy because it's 100 degrees with no humidity and everything has no choice but to turn to a crisp after a few hours in the sun (including me).  In hot weather, if your clothes are cool they are also inevitably damp.  In cold weather, all the wash is cold, making it harder to tell if it's actually dry as well.

Moist...

My solution has been to use the inside dryer to "finish off" the line-dried clothes, and to place smaller items like socks and t-shirts in front of the pellet stove, which puts out a very dry heat.  This serves a double purpose of not only drying the clothes nicely but also adding some humidity indoors, which we lack anytime the pellet stove runs.

or extra-crispy?

It's a strange dichotomy -- too humid outdoors, too dry indoors, but I'm sure anyone who lives in a coastal climate in winter can relate.  Sometimes it can take awhile to fashion some new techniques to accommodate a new climate.  In this case, we are entering our third year here, there are still some things I am figuring out.  

Luxury

This morning I was busy running around the house doing chores and answering phone calls and failed to keep an eye on the pellet stove. Once I checked on it, I realized it had shut down due to being out of pellets, and the house seemed very cold indeed.  It was 64 degrees, but I usually try and heat it to at least 69 degrees in daytime so when we come home from work it's still got some warmth in it.

So I turned on the HVAC, which heats the whole house using extremely expensive propane.  It's now warm and toasty.  A luxury I don't indulge in often, and therefore greatly appreciated.  A heater which heats every room in the house, closets, and bathrooms, at the same time!  I used to take that for granted. 

So nice to have a really warm house, but we won't do this every day.  As I said, propane is expensive and although having constant temperatures throughout our living spaces is lovely, it's not really worth going broke over lol. 

Winter is coming!

Oh, you can't feel it in the air yet, but there's no question that cooler days and nights are just around the corner.  This week it's been 100 degrees, but as the ancient Chinese wisdom says, whether it's something good or something bad, "this too shall pass."  So the other day I made a trip into town, first to the propane place and second, to the fireplace store, to get us set up for cooler weather.  Because it will be here before you know it.


Our home runs off propane, which I'm learning is about the second most expensive way to heat a home -- the first being throwing dollar bills directly into the fireplace and lighting them.  We bought $899 dollars worth of "pre-buy" (bought at cheaper summer rates, in advance of winter) propane, which should give us roughly two tankfuls.


So how much will we use?  I have no idea.  We're pretty energy efficient, but the men do love their long showers and I occasionally take a bath instead of a shower, which uses a lot more hot water.  And that's not factoring how much propane we'll use to heat the home, which is kind of a mystery as it's our first winter here.


So we've been thinking about energy efficiency a lot this week.  And that led us to the fireplace store.  Because we knew when we bought this place that our fake, decorative fireplace just happens to run on...you guessed it:  propane.  So off we went in search of alternative heating options.


Long story short, we settled on a high-efficiency pellet stove.  We thought about a woodstove, by far the simplest and most off-the-grid option, but as my husband pointed out, we're not getting any younger and splitting cords of logs may not be something that's feasible for us to consider doing in the long run.  A pellet stove has more electronics and therefore a higher failure rate, but will not require the use of a full-time lumberjack.


So the stove should be installed next week and we should be ready for whatever comes in winter.  I've got to say, I'm excited about it.  I'm really hoping heating our home with the pellet stove makes our propane go farther, since it costs $600 a month as opposed to using wood pellets, which will cost about $70 a month (according to the fireplace dealer).  


Either way, more money in our pockets and less going up the chimney will be a good thing.  It's hard to imagine those cold days and nights now, but never too soon to begin planning for them.  Because winter is coming.  No doubt about it.