Pellet Stove cleaning and heating our home

Isn't it the way it goes? The boys are off skiing on this fine Sunday, and I'm at home cleaning the pellet stove. Poor me! Cleaning the pellet stove is a dusty job and requires dumping the ash from the previous 8-10 days of burning and sweeping and vacuuming the stove to remove dust. It takes about 30 minutes to clean and restart.  

I thought this post would be interesting to any of you who wonder how we heat this big old house in the winter.  The pellets come in 40 pound (lbs)  bags and each bag costs about $6.00 USD. We usually burn 300+- bags of pellets each winter--that's six tons of pellets. We also burn oil for forced hot water heat and for the hot water we use for washing. The oil furnace is on all year long as a way to heat the hot water.

OK. That's your lesson on cleaning and heating! For some it may be boring... but not me! :-)

Vacuum cleaner and scrapers for inside of the pellet stove

Ash bin for 8-10 days of continual burning 

First shipment of pellets in November 

Whitecap yet again

While Guido was skiing at Black Mountain and Sebino wrestled in southern Maine in the town of Wells, I went hiking with Bailey on Whitecap Mountain that's somewhat behind our home. We had temperatures reaching 40 degrees F yesterday, Saturday, December 28, 2019. Now, snow is forecast for the next three days. We NEED natural snow.

Bailey taking a break (waiting for me) on the ascent of Whitecap. 

Cairns (rock markers) on the western summit of Whitecap.

Western mountains with a view toward the state of New Hampshire's White Mountains

Sunshine on the summit

The large mountain the background is called Old Speck. It is on the 2100 mile
Appalachian Trail. 

Mims, Luke, and the Boys

During Christmas Eve at the Venskus home, Guido had a chance to play with Little Luke and Sebino chatted with Connie's 97-year-old mom. Then, the chicken pie came out!

Little Luke with Guido

Connie's mom, Mims, with Sebino

Pre-ski Bedhead

Our morning ritual before skiing is sandwich making with Bailey guarding the floor for any food drops. Sebino had a particularly good bedhead this morning after being away at a wrestling meet for two days. His helmet will straighten out that head of hair.

Celebrating Christmas... and Connie & Ben

GUIDO, RICH, AND SEBINO

On Boxing Day, we celebrated with Connie and Ben. Here are a series of photos that include what may be the first with Sebino, Guido, and me as well as Connie and Ben!

The boys did a fabulous job of celebrating Connie, Ben, and me with presents and kind words. We had a great evening and thank everyone for kind words and gifts!

Connie and Ben and the boys

Add Bailey Tuckerman

More gifts

Dinner table... note Guido's eyes... Bad Guido. :-( 

Someone got a toy. 

Guido and Bailey searching for Bailey's snowball toy.

Christmas!

Merry Christmas! 

By 10:30am this morning, we were in Sugar Comas from the various sweets we had consumed. But, we persevered. Gifts from neighbors, friends, and family kept us busy for a good part of the morning. After the festivities and fooooooooood... I went for hike up Black Mountain ski area and Sebino went for a bike around town. Guido chatted with friends.

Starting a puzzle. 

Gifts around the good old Christmas Book Tree. It's a writer's home. 

A gift from Spain. 

Back to the puzzle. 

Gifts from our neighbors, The Sullivans 

Gifts from Santa.... 

Guido and Bailey searching for his new snowman ball from Spain. 

Cold hard cash from Fred and Pam, my brother and sister-in-law

Bailey and Tommy the Turtle 

Before the boys came down, Bailey started sniffing out the
gifts for him. One gift, sad I know, was a dinner plate
smeared with a special dog treat. He loved it. Another, was a
wrapped carrot. :-) 

Sebino's Christmas breakfast--he made one for Guido too.
I'd already had my granola!

Christmas morning. 

Book Tree for the 9th time. :-) 

Santa Bailey

More book tree pictures. 

Guess what? 

Santa's Watch Patrol. 

Trying a new pasta recipe that I saw on TV.  

 

Christmas Eve

The boys enjoyed the church service with the Venskus family. Afterwards, they sat down to a feast of Connie's famous chicken pie. The most fun may have been giving Luke his gifts... one was a skateboard that he may use as a sit-down ride for a while. Tonight, before they changed out of their church clothes, I grabbed a picture of them.

Note The Grinch in the background. :-) 

Someone is on duty tonight (and he's not pleased about it.) 

While everyone was at church, I found my own sermon at the mountainside cathedral. 

To each his own... 

Living with a Writer...

LIVING WITH A WRITER

There are always words
Spread far and wide
To help the boys
Make meaning of their lives–
To study, learn, and look beyond–
Or when to eat a banana.

"Eat me first."

Cover Boys at Black Mountain

Hey, this is fun. The boys and their friend, Egan, were captured on the ski lift this weekend by the Black Mountain marketing person.

Guido, Sebino, and Egan 

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Black Mountain of Maine

Sunday River trip

Guido and Sebino at Sunday River

The boys had a blast at Sunday River. The snow held up well and warm air and sunshine made the day extra special. They're exhausted from nearly 7 hours of skiing with 2 short breaks. Here are a few of their photos with their friend, Josh Hudson. At home we enjoyed h'orderves and pasta... then we selected chocolates from a huge tower of chocolate my younger brother sent from California. OhMyGoodness. We're going to get quite big eating these treats.

Josh

Western Mountains of Maine

The snow-covered mountains in the background at The White Mountains
of New Hampshire, including Mount Washington. My brothers and
I used to work on that mountain in the q960s and 1970s. My grandfather
wrote the mountain's history, and his father and grandfather published
a newspaper on the summit called Among the Clouds.   

I took this picture of the tower of chocolate off the company's
website so you'd know what we are attempting to eat!