48 yr old single Female saying hello, I hope you are all staying warm!

So, it's getting colder and the wind is picking up here in Texas.  I'm home baking French meringue mushrooms enjoying my pine scented Christmas candle this evening.  Interested in how others may be staying warm and spending their evening.  I won't put in a height, age, or location requirement to initiate a conversation.  Tell me about your wood burning stoves, rocket mass heaters, campfires....  Best Wishes to all of you and I hope you are all safe and sound.

Cold in New England...but we have power.Merry Christmas....love the cookies.christopher

Hi Chris, I'm glad you are staying warm during Christmas in New England.  I'd love to visit Maine again in the future.
We visited Bar Harbor and had the pleasure of visiting Acadia National Park while it was snowing.  Amazing beauty!

Hi Amy....Acadia is beautiful ....anywhere on the coast is beautiful.Im in Boothbay.How's Texas? C

I'm 30 min north of Houston and the weather here is really nice for Christmas (sunny, high of 51, low of 28 tonight).
What sort of permaculture/sustainable living activities are you into around Boothbay?  I agree with you, the coastal areas
are really spectacular.  

Hi Amy....i'm interested in a cold weather greenhouse and want to learn about hugulculture and water and property management, nitrogen fixing,wood chips,..swails,rain water collection. There are lots of dead blown down trees needing removal.....im very opposed to burning brush piles for many reasons. My area is blessed with a botanical gardens and environmental center,a conservancy and land trusts,quite a few organic farms ....so many resources to engage. C

Hi Amy.  I am just a bit further north of you in Ontario.
I live in a small well insulated passive solar house that somehow wasn't as easy to heat with wood as I thought when I designed it. I am currently on my fourth heater in 12 years and I think this one is a keeper. It's a Sedore 2000.  Not many people will have heard of them but they are great biomass furnaces. Throws LOTS of heat, often too much! Burns just about anything but does best with nice dry wood of course. It a top load bottom draft design with flame at bottom. You can load wet wood on top and by the time it gets to flame it's baked dry. It has big cooking surface. I try to have soup on 24x7

Best part of heating with wood is it gives me reason to be out in my bush cutting down the worst and leaving the best. It also keeps my 54 year old heart pumping.

Nice looking baking. I bet they taste even better.

Cheers and Merry Christmas!

Thanks Jeff, the mushrooms are fun to make.  I'd send you some to Ontario if you like.  I looked up the Sedore 2000 and it seems like a beast!  The one I saw was heating a 1600 sq ft shop.  I like the fact that you can dry out wet wood at the top without it catching fire.  Thanks for sharing!  I'd be interested in the details of how you designed and built your passive solar house.  Merry Christmas to you as well!  

It looks like a traditional French Canadian style house with dormers and a pitched roof. Roof overhangs large south windows, shading them in summer when sun is high in the sky but lets in solar heat in winter.

Best investment was in adding extra 2 inches of insulation in walls (R30 )and roof (R40). Walkout basement is insulated concrete forms.  Since heat rises wood stove is in basement.

Still gets hot in summer.  I really should have deciduous trees on south side to shade in summer.  Will be planting some Honey Locusts there this summer.