Baby Its Cold Outside

Our ranch is located off a remote canyon in Northern Arizona, the high desert. Yes, we have cactus. Yes, our tempters reach 105 degrees in mid-summer. Do we get cold? Yes. Do we have snow? Also, yes. And your off-grid? Most importantly, yes.
Baby its cold outside, and what do we do on the ranch to be ready for winters in Northern Arizona? We spend most of our summer weekends out camping, spending family time and woodcutting. This was a family tradition back when I was a kid. Now we involve our four boys who love the outdoors and finding cool, unique stuff out in the forests and working hard to stay warm for the winter
In Arizona, we have six national forests, and we live in the Apache-Sitgreaves national forest in which has more lakes and rivers than any forest in the southwest united states. It is home to many spices of plants and trees including Ponderosa pine, quaking aspen, fir, and spruce trees. We also have Pinyon and two types of Juniper shaggy bark and alligator.
Our family is taught to recognize the different species for many reasons. First of when you purchase a wood permit you need to know what you are allowed to cut. If a tree is dead, no green you can cut it, to a point. Alligator juniper and oak trees need a special permit to be cut and very few permits are sold only during certain times of the year. The reason for this is that oak and alligator juniper are ancient slow-growing trees. Oak trees are also endangered, and junipers are endangered in some areas.
While oak and alligator juniper grow slow and hot it is hardwood and hard to cut. For the most part, our family uses pine, shaggy bark juniper and aspen. Both shaggy bark and aspen are clean hot burning wood. While pine is a quick-burning and dirty wood; meaning you may have to your fireplace fluke more often.
Other reasons to know the differences between species include medicinal uses and cooking uses. For cooking different woods bring a different flavor to your food. Medicinally juniper berry is great for yeast infection and an internal cleanser.
Just like any house in the suburbs, we do have a furnace, but in truth, I’m not sure if it even works. We have never used it. We have two fireplaces to heat our home. One the true fireplace with hearth; is used more for ambiance and sometimes to cook on when it is too cold to cook outside, but we don’t want to use the oven. Then we have the wood stove, which can heat 1500 square feet. Unfortunately, our house is larger than that 1500 sq. ft. To stay warm Phil and I spend our winters in the living room or guest room in the main part of our home, and to allow movement of air to heat the kid’s rooms the doors are cut in half. On average we use six quards of wood per year on the ranch. The wood is used for heating, bonfires, and cooking.
After winter has ended in Northern Arizona, we on the ranch start all over with preparing for the next year. Summer months are for checking for leaks, wholes in the stovepipe, and cleaning the fluke. Thankfully both Phil and I have worked with stoves for a long time, so we are able to save money and do most of the upkeep our self’s but on occasion, we have had to call the local stove dealer for inspection. So, while it may be cold outside, we stay nice and cozy throughout the year.