The strip wood is no substitute for regular firewood, because it burns much too hot and too fast; however, it makes excellent kindling. Lisa cut it down to burnable lengths and stored it in a metal trash can we bought a few years ago for this purpose.
This is pretty much an entire year's worth of kindling wood. We have a whole bunch more than this, which we will burn, albeit fairly quickly. Still, free is good. Oh, and it's not painted or varnished, so it's safe to burn.
Note the bits of snow around the kindling can in the photo above. We've been getting an odd sort of snow off and on today. Most snowstorms here move west to east, coming off the Pacific and through California and the Sierra Nevada before making it to us. Today's storm is what a local TV station called "an inside slider" moving north to south, bringing snow to the eastern slope of the Sierra but not the west. Furthermore, it has generated "lake effect" snow off of Pyramid Lake. No, it's not the massive lake-effect snow places like Buffalo NY get, but it does seem to have an odd texture to it. We've had brief flurries off and on throughout the day. It wasn't until late in the afternoon that any of the snow stuck, and then not much of it. We swept the sidewalks for the exercise.
There might be a two-day break in the string of storms tomorrow and Saturday, and I briefly considered popping down to Sacramento to see my sister (we're very much overdue for a visit). However, even if it isn't snowing and thus no chain controls, the roads will probably be icy, and I do not want to run the risk of getting stuck on the wrong side of the mountains.
It's been a very snowy February, and I'm happy that the snowpack is heavy this winter. I just hope that it's enough water to recharge aquifers on both sides of the moutains.
