Nyboy said:
journey11 said:Usually in mid-October for us, particularly if the house gets below ~65 degrees. We heat solely with wood, sometimes tossing in a chunk of coal if it's very cold and don't want the fire to go out by morning. Our wood furnace has a blower and is connected to the ductwork so it heats the whole house. We have a gas furnace too, but haven't used it for years. I did have DH fire up the wood stove one night a week or so ago when we had an unusually cold night, but that was mostly for the baby and since 3 of us have already caught a cold this fall.
Most years we will burn 4 cord of wood (stack of wood 4'x4'x8'). Last winter was so mild we only burnt one cord.
My dog is old and arthritic too. She is an 11 year old pitbull (aka. giant chichuahua). She will seek out the warmest spot in the house (year round) and that is where she camps. She has been sleeping beside my daughter's bed for a long time now, but last night for some odd reason she decided to come sleep by mine. I've had a horrible cough keeping me up the past 3 nights and I started out sleeping in my recliner last night so DH could get to sleep. Once he's out cold, I can come back to bed and cough my head off and it won't bother him one bit. I came up at 3am last night, tip-toeing in the darkness, trying not to make the old farmhouse floor squeak and I tripped over the dog, fell on the floor and kinda landed on the dog too (probably didn't help her arthritis any!) This scared the baby to death and she started bawling and I ended up losing another half hour of sleep just trying to get her to go back down. DH woke up for a whole two seconds, faintly concerned that I was alright, and went right back to sleep! The dog is ok. I didn't squish her too badly.
