After an incredibly beautiful, unseasonably warm fall which spoiled us rotten, Old Man Winter slammed his fist down upon the land with a vengeance. I’ve lost count of the snow “storms” (I hate to use that term, because to me a storm is violent and loud and snow “storms” are neither), but each one has delivered anywhere from 8-12 inches of the white stuff such that we’ve probably accumulated a total of around 5’ of snow so far this winter. Winter, I might add, is barely 11 days old.
When we lived “there,” winter prep basically included making sure we had ethanol-free gas for the generator and a pair of rain/muck boots without any holes in them and still kept the water out. “Here” is a whole other story.
For the smart local, at least one of the heat sources for home is wood of some sort – preferably a wood burning stove, but pellet stoves are fairly common. For the wood burners, firewood gathering begins in late summer and runs throughout the fall. With the purchase of a nominally-priced permit, one can gather firewood in the national forest through November 30th. Many folks gather their own, but lots of others buy it from folks who often gather and sell firewood as their second or side job. From what I can tell from local Facebook postings, a cord of firewood runs anywhere from $150-$200, depending on type of wood, season purchased, whether or not it is delivered, whether or not it is split, and whether or not it is stacked upon delivery. As we move deeper into the season, the price goes up in accordance with the never-changing principles of supply and demand. I’m told by one such entrepreneur that late February or early March has been known to fetch a price of over $300 for a cord of firewood. Front and side porches are stacked high with split firewood, ready to go into the stove, accessible with a quick step out the door.
In keeping with the incredible sense of community here, it was a real blessing to watch folks take care of their own and others who could not take care of themselves. For the elderly parents and grandparents whose health or age prevented the gathering of their own firewood, there were grown children and grandchildren who gathered and split not only their own family’s fuel for the winter, but also mom and dad’s or grandma and grandpa’s. Likewise, there were several instances where folks were having health issues or were recovering from surgery or were perhaps recently widowed where friends and neighbors all pitched in to make sure the wood shed was full. At the local community church, wood is the sole source of heat, and the church family had a work weekend where everyone got together and split and stacked wood until the intended goal was reached.
Pellet stoves are present, though I get the impression that they aren’t as popular at least in part because one can’t gather one’s own pellets to burn. Fiercely independent, I think this rankles some native Idahoans to be forced to buy one’s winter fuel source from the hardware store.
For those not familiar with pellets, they come in 40 or 50 pound bags, and though they can be sold by the bag, they are most often sold by the ton and delivered on a pallet.
Folks who have lived here over a period of years know how many cords of wood or tons of pellets it takes to heat their house for the winter, and the well-prepared Idahoan has these all laid in before the first snowflake falls.
Needless to say, our house is all electric, including the heat, so we’ve already flunked the first test of assimilation, though we are having a wood stove installed in our newly constructed garage, so that should count for something, right?
Interestingly, all electric heat is not as uncommon as you think. Idaho has the cheapest electricity rates in the nation, so electric heat is surprisingly inexpensive. It does, however, fly totally in the face of a sense of independence or self-sufficiency, which is why it is extremely common here to find wood-burning and pellet stoves added “after the fact” to everything from single wide trailers to restaurants to shops and garages.
For us personally, our house’s floor plan doesn’t lend itself to a wood stove installation, so we’ll stick with the electric furnace and keep the kerosene heater handy with a backstock of kerosene should the electricity go out. Once the garage is finished – insulated and wood stove installed – we’ll have a backup source for both heat and cooking should the need arise. Showing signs of promise for Idaho citizenship, we do have a cord of firewood on hand…just in case.