"I spent a year in that town one Sunday." - George Burns

We got down to the mid-30's overnight, the first dip into that range. The firewood showed up just in time. It will take me awhile to get everything figured out - how much wood to load, how much kindling is req'd, how long a fire lasts - but in the end I think this will be a big improvement over using the furnace. We can hear the sucking sound as our electric bill expands exponentially every time it comes on.

The phrase, "the firewood showed up just in time" sounds so benign.
Pony (his real name; he's Native American) dumped a cord of wood in front of Barnette about 12:30 p.m. that had to be stacked if I ever want to use that structure for anything before spring. Or get the doors closed. This pic doesn't do it justice; it's a really big pile.

I went right to work stacking it inside Barnette and pretty quickly realized it wasn't all going to fit. As you can see by noting the door to the left, this stack is almost 7' tall. The color of this pic isn't so good because by this time it's 4:00, the light is fading, and I covered up the window with wood.

What didn't fit inside Barnette got stacked outside under its eaves. Tomorrow I'll tack some plastic sheeting over it to ensure it stays dry, and we'll use from this pile first.

Speaking of keeping warm, I've learned that Pam cooking spray works fine at room temperature unless that temperature is 63 degrees. Then it barely spits out of the can. Throw another log on the fire.
On the upside, it makes a pretty good release agent for concrete forms.

Living in 840 sq. feet has been great practice for going to a tiny house. We're discovering how little we really need. We were pretty confident before this that we could do it easily enough, but it's nice to get this confirmatory experience. The biggest challenge right now is mine, not having a place for all my tools. Some are in the second bedroom, some in Fred, and some in Barnette. Solving that problem just requires getting the inside of Barnette set up with shelving and wall pegs, and that requires getting something, probably T-11 siding or OSB, on the bare studs. And before that I have to get the electric run so I have outlets and lights. That should happen pretty quickly ONCE I HAVE A TRUCK TO HAUL THAT STUFF HOME!!

They told me the body shop bill would be paid yesterday via a credit card transaction directly with the shop. That didn't happen, so this morning I called Dan at Felt Transport and had a fairly heated conversation and emphasized that I wanted it to happen TODAY.  At 9:00 I called Jeff, the broker, and asked for his help in making this happen and got an email from him five minutes later saying, "The bill will be paid today."
It didn't.
I also didn't get the reimbursement check in today's mail, even though I was told it went out a week ago. Obviously another lie.
Tomorrow morning I'll call Jeff again, and then consider other options, including the BBB and ... well, I've got some ideas to make their life so irritating that they'll pay me and the body shop just to get rid of me.

Before I stacked a cord of wood I set fence posts, made most of the floor for the chicken coop, and scrubbed about a square yard of the kitchen floor. Which is to say I'm exhausted. I've just lit a fire that I'm not sure is going to stay lit, and now plan to do nothing except occupy this chair until I go to bed. That will be soon.