Sun, Wood, Birds & Balsam

I jotted down in the notebook I keep, the Empty Mountain Almanac as I like to call it, that March 22nd was the first day of the year that our house batteries were able to get a full charge from the sun. And April 9th was the first day of the year that our batteries filled up while our PV panels were still positioned in the full sun. This means we are now in the time of year when we have excess light coming in to the point where the small system we operate on is max full by the afternoon. This also means we can afford to be a little less conservative with our electricity usage, which is kind of nice. We can charge up all of the batteries that power Mike’s tools without hesitation, and I can now feel more comfortable even doing some baking using the portable air fryer/mini-oven unit we have. So from now until sometime maybe in October we’ll mostly be able to use the sun to meet all of our electricity needs without making use of our gas-powered generator. Though we will likely need to fire up the generator once in a while when we have stretches of overcast days.

April 7th was the first day of the year we didn’t need to make a fire in our cabin’s wood stove to warm things up. Since then, we’ve had on average of one small fire a day. But over the past week or so, with our temps during the day in the high 60’s, we’ve gone a few days in a row without a fire. It’s Saturday morning, May 9, as I write this post and the last time we had a fire inside the cabin was Tuesday night. Even though our evening temps are in the high 20’s/low 30’s, our small cabin has been maintaining a pretty steady range of anywhere from 66-70 degrees F.

Yesterday we had 2 cords of firewood delivered from a guy that sells it just down the road. We learned our lesson and decided to get it earlier in the year this time so it would have enough time to properly dry out before we need to make use of it next winter. The 1 cord we purchased in November we started needing to use in December and we discovered it was still a little on the fresh side. We expected it to come to us pretty well dried out already, but that wasn’t the case.

In case you’re curious: 1 cord of firewood when stacked = 8 feet long by 4 feet high by 4 feet deep

Being a greenhorn still at using wood for heat, I didn’t understand how much it mattered to have the firewood dried out to a certain degree. I had always heard that you needed to let firewood sit for a while before using it, but I didn’t know why. So I looked it up to learn more. When you’re using wood for your home’s heat source, in order for the wood to burn well in your stove, the moisture content of the wood should be under 20%. Perhaps you’re now wondering what I first did when I read that online: How in the world do you know when the moisture content is below 20%? Turns out you can buy a meter that measures such things. So that’s what we did.

In general, softwoods like pine & fir require around 6-12 months of dry time to get the moisture content under 20%. Hardwoods like oak take 12-24 months, and sometimes even upwards of 3 years.

What I learned boots on the ground back in December was that when your wood isn’t dry enough, you have to babysit the fire quite a bit. It was either hard to get it going or once it was going it took some doing to keep it going. Turns out that was because the wood was too wet. Even though it looked and felt dry, it was holding more moisture inside than it appeared. Later in the winter, when the wood was drier, it burned a lot better. And when it burns better it also burns cleaner. In other words, it burns less smokey and leaves less charred remains behind.

On Monday May 4, we had our first hummingbird come and visit us on the porch when we were outside chatting with a friend who was staying with us. She came by and did a drive-by in-our-face hovering, which is a little something our hummingbird friends like to do when they’re around in our neck of the woods in the spring & summer. I took it as her way of saying: “We’re back! Please hang the feeder back up. We just traveled from Mexico and we’re famished!” I fetched the feeder from winter storage and hug it up the next day. Within an hour we had a number of them come by for a snack.

I don’t know birds very well. From what I looked up it seems we might have both of the two main kinds of hummingbird species that visit Montana here at Empty Mountain: rufous and calliope. Gosh they’re sure fun to watch and amazing to see. I know we have rufous hummingbirds for sure, and it may be that we have just that type. But I am noticing different body shapes and variations of color that make me wonder if we have the calliope too. The female rufous have glittery greens on their backs and the males are brilliant shades of rusty orange. Both have iridescent fire orange patches on their throat that glint super bright in certain lighting. They are a sight to behold.

The balsamroot flowers are a local delight here in Montana. Native to western North America, they are always a treat to see in the spring here. The large yellow flowers span hillsides creating a dazzling display. As is the case in many pockets and places around western Montana in the Rocky Mountains, we have our own unique micro-climate here in the canyon where we live. While the balsam have been popping up and growing in the valley for 2 or 3 weeks, they are just now starting to make their way up our canyon. I picked my first small handful just yesterday.

The other day I went on a solo walkabout after dinner to search for yarrow, which I use for making tea. It wasn’t growing yet when I went looking for it last week. Wonderfully it’s now starting to come up. While I was picking, I looked up and saw two deer watching me. Gosh they were lovely. I so appreciate living in a place where seeing deer is common. Given how close we were, they tolerated me pretty well. They huffed and stamped their feet a bit, which deer are prone to do when they want to assert themselves and feel threatened, but they didn’t run off. Eventually I meandered back to the cabin to give them space. But only after I sat and watched them for a little while grazing in Morning Sun Meadow as the sun went down.

The weather is warming and the flowers are blooming. Springtime in Montana is here and happening and it’s a lovely time of year.

Neighbors