h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Personally, I think if he's going to steal the neighborhood fencing in the middle of the night, he should be snealing instead of sneaking.

Especially if he's doing it in a beighborhood.

A lot of people have wood. It sits on their necks.

Mrs Gosho's dad used to be able to get wood all the time when he had a landscaping business and spent some of his time trimming and pruning trees, but he doesn't do that any more. Besides, you have to let the wood dry out for a year don't you?

I'm guessing that the other people here who burn wood (there are some because you can smell the wood smoke in the air... and on Dewey's fur when he comes back in ) either keep it in their storage shed or buy those pishe little packs from the supermarket which are, in all honesty, a complete ripoff.

Of course, it would be very handy if one could get coal in Austin, but a log fire is somewhat more cosy isn't it

...and I say to you "ppppthththhhhhpppththht!!"

That was to the previous posts.... not to your simulpost, Gosho.

BBC is acting funny again... lots of error messages and "Service not available" notices.

Yeah, wood fires do have that comforting flicker and flame.

There's a grocery store/nursery/seasonal store in this area that sells 1/17 of a cord for $13.99. I'm sure there must be plenty of people who buy it by those little wagonloads, just to have a fire one or two evenings, but if you do the math on that, it comes out to $237.83 per cord. If you buy a whole cord of wood, the price is not all that much lower, though. They charge extra to deliver it (I've never asked how much, but apparently they're expecting people to burn it on the premises for the mere price of the wood), and if you want them to stack it for you, they charge $22/hour for stacking.

We buy our wood from the same supplier they do, and yet they pay him *less* than what we do for it.

Surely there's *someone* around there who sells firewood in reasonable amounts for a more reasonable price, Gosho. The classifieds are usually full of firewood ads this time of year around here. Maybe you could find someone to sell you 1/2 cord... and get them to store it for you, bringing it home every few days by the trunk load, as you need it.

*Sneals in and whispers ?*

We do coal in our beighbourhood. And peat (not pete).


F/b

I didn't know we had any coal left in this country

Well they got coal down my local garage in 10kg sacks. And I burn it on my fire - along with logs from the apple trees I pruned in the spring.

Perhaps it's not Scottish or British coal? I don't know. Ooh err, I feel I ought to know where it's from... I check everything else I buy for airmiles.


Fb

Okay, Lady Scott, you now have the cheapest possible wood for your fire. All you have to do is plant the seeds, wait thirty years for the trees to grow, and then cut them into logs for your fireplace.

Luverly wet-snow night tonight, here.

Perthshire Thursday morning. Warm 6C. No wind. Light cloud.

forecast for Sunday


F/b

Wet snow all night, so the roads are a bit treacherous. Turns out that my mother, who told me she had put sonw tires on all four tires, in fact, only had them put on the front. The back tires were only rotated. That explained why I was travelling sideways down the road, at one point this morning....

My street flooded last night, what with all the rain and the melting snowbanks. It mostly drained during the night, and then what was left of it froze.

Sideways means that you're at least moving, Mudhooks. You should have just turned the steering wheel 90 degrees.

When my mother first came to Canada, she had never driven in snow, let alone freezing rain.

She and a friend lived (in a log cabin, no less) up in the Gatineau Hills, which, back in 1953 was "out in the sticks". They set out one morning, the first time she had even SEEN freezing rain, with my mother at the wheel.

They hadn't gotten very far along the highway when my mother said "My God. Is winter always like this?!? I just can't handle this. Will you drive?" She pulled over and got out, and stepped behind the car (luckily). Her friend got out from the passenger side. She put her hand on the side of the car to steady herself on the slick shoulder and the car slid majestically, sideways, across the road and into the ditch on the other side.

Are they still waiting for roadside assistance to arrive?

Perthshire Friday:

forecast for tonight now A cold front is dropping down from Iceland, bringing blizzards with it

Perfect timing as my Xmas hols start at noon. I shall be happy to be snowed in...


F/b

Better to be snowed in at home home than snowed out when you have a long way to drive on an unplowed highway.