Speaking of burning wood, I have gone through more this season than any other year I have lived here.
Steel liner on my wood burning stove, usually spotless but since most of the wood i have been burning in the past month was only cut and split (dead standing most of it) in October and November it was a bit wetter than I planned to burn so I can now see the sooty drippings on the exterior of the chimney stack cap and some on the roof under it. A few days ago I removed the cap and ran a 6" chimney brush down it for about 20 minutes and it looks much better but not really clean.
Now I need to find next seasons wood that is really dry and enough for the following year so it can be split and dry by then as I will be completely out in another week or two depending on what the weather does. I still have to heat for atleast another 4-6 weeks but average high is now 40, so it does not require quite as much wood as when it was only getting to zero or single digits.
I hate being behind on the supply it makes for a bit too much urgency and haste
Since December 1st we have only had 6 days at or above "normal" temps, everything else been below normal and lots of high temps for the day have been less than the normal overnight lows
Something like 20 days where the temperature never got above zero degrees, I am sure looking forward to warth and riding winter has blown.