Wood Stove, Insulating, Squashes, Bisphenol A

[helwen]

We finally bought a woodstove. It will be ready for pickup, along with the floor protector to go under it, next week. Would have been less expensive if we'd done this at the beginning of summer, but life got busy. But at least we're getting one. When we talked to the stove guy today he was telling us about a conversation with his supplier... by the time the Big E starts up next month, the supplier is figuring that they'll primarily be exhibiting and taking orders -- for next year.

We're getting a Dutchwest (small) by Vermont Castings. Low emission, efficient, should be just right for the apartment.

Meantime, more cleaning and making space both for the stove (easy) and for some indoor wood storage (less easy). And more work on insulating, of course. Got stalled on my plans for Southwest because I can't find some of the stuff I know I have around here somewhere... will have to improvise because I don't want to go shopping. And of course the more we insulate, the less fuel we'll need.

***

Got a piece of gardening junk mail today, but it was handy because it had a photo of different types of squash on the front, including acorn and delicata. So since I already know the correct size for the acorn squash, I now know the correct size for the delicata. And both area ready for picking! Which means....

***

(From Treehugger.com):
The Federal Drug Administration, responsible for determining the safety of what Americans put in their bodies, has looked at the dangers of Bisphenol A and concluded that "adequate margin of safety exists for BPA at current levels of exposure from food contact uses.” Their study acknowledges that the stuff gets into our bodies: "FDA estimates that BPA exposure from use in food contact materials in infants and adults is 2.42 µg/kg bw/day and 0.185 µg/kg bw/day, respectively." but also states that the "FDA has determined the appropriate no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) for its assessment of BPA to be the NOAEL for systemic toxicity of 5 mg/kg bw/day (5000 µg/kg bw/day) derived from two multigenerational rodent studies."

The 5 mg/kg bw/day standard was set by the EPA and is questioned by many groups as being way too high. The two multigenerational rodent studies that so impressed the FDA were sponsored by the American Plastics Council.

Comments

[harpnfiddle.livejournal.com]

I love Vermont Castings stoves. Can't wait to see yours. I bet it's really cute. I would love the thought of going back to heating with wood, but I tried it as a single adult (after the divorce) and it was really hard to do. The boys helped, sort-of. (in between trying to burn down the house)And I did love cooking on our 1980 Defiant.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

I haven't had a woodstove in the house since my mom's when I was a kid, so it should be interesting. I had my hesitations about it because we live on the 2nd floor, but I think with some upstairs storage and just regularly moving an armful up the stairs now and then it should be manageable. I'm definitely looking forward to doing some slow cooking on it of soups and such :)

[loosecanon.livejournal.com]

Lovely stove! BPA = politics as usual.