home

Indoors that is. In the wood stove. It has been raining so much. Rosalee has been so grumpy and I have felt chilly. I got drenched outside a few times and couldn’t seem to warm up. So I broke down and started the stove.

I was going to wait as long as possible. For the sake of clean air. For the sake of conserving my wood. But today I got some kindling and newspaper and lit a little fire. Rosalee leaped up into the top level of the cat tree. I grabbed my sewing and sat close by.

Six thirty and its time to turn the lights on. After solstice now. The days will shrink.

Last week was so smoky, and this week has become so rainy. Such a change. I have to learn the mechanics of using the wood stove now. It takes several hours to warm the place up. Then it gets very hot in the living room and I use the fan to circulate the air and blow it towards the back of the trailer. And by then, the air is getting dryer and dryer…

I keep a pot of water simmering at the back of the stove. And I have a little humidifier that is really an essential oil diffuser that I can run without any oil. I was considering a humidifier, but because of the smoke last week, my daughter and I both invested in air purifiers. They have not arrived yet. I cannot afford any more appliances now.

Not running the stove so hot and so long helped last year to keep the air moister. But my hydro bills were stupendous. Every year I feel the cold more.