Now begins the great energy wasting season in the struggle to keep warm. Fall pisses me off. The women can't show as much skin (but it is good for ditching those ridiculous flip-flops), gotta dress in layers... gotta make sure you can stay warm. That's one bill you don't want to skip.
Once planting's done here on the farm, gonna try another fuel source. Not firewood, but the superheated gas that comes from wood. Once heated to about 650C, bits of firewood produce a rich combustable gas that can run a gasoline engine. I wanted to wait to find a suitable heat exchanger design (as well as an electrical co-generation adapter for the fuse-box), but time's a wastin'
Can't wait to scream eureka! If it works well enough for all you well-to-do suburbanites, I'll post my results here.
It's called an "Inverted Downdraft Gasifier" . Just need lots of woodchips or coaldust to stay off the grid.

PS - Mr. Shadling's representation of Beavis http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/the shadling/when-we-were-kings is my special guest icon this month, in honor of the season.