After our amazing run of beautiful fall weather, it's payback time.

Yesterday was probably the last truly nice day of the year, with a high of 60 and an occasional peek of the sun. Then the rains came.

We didn't get much rain here, but some places got pretty spectacular thunderstorms. We were even under a tornado watch (very rare in Minnesota in November) for a few hours.

Then the wind. And the cold. The temperature this morning is 20 degrees cooler than at this time yesterday, and you can hear a dull roar from outside as the wind whips through the bare tree branches.

We're supposed to get about 24 hours of nice weather--clear skies, less wind, but a high in the low 40's today--then the second storm arrives sometime tomorrow.

That storm will bring snow (70% chance, and some areas could see as much as six inches) and much colder weather. Lows in the teens.

Any snow we get probably won't stay long. The ground is much too warm for a sticks-until-April snowfall. But this is our annual reminder that in Minnesota, you always pay a price for nice weather.

Wood Heat Update: Still no word on the stove insert, but I'm still expecting it around the end of the month. That would be about two weeks from now. The installation can't happen before the chimney sweeps are here to do their thing, so December 7th is the earliest we could have the stove in place.

I've built a crib in the garage which can hold about 1 1/3 cords of firewood, which will allow me to get some of it out of the way of where we park the minivan, and make more space for more firewood. With the crib, there's probably capacity for about two more cords of firewood. One frustration right now is just not knowing how much is enough. On the one hand, I don't want to run out in the middle of the season, and it is much preferable to end with some left over for next season. On the other hand, the stuff takes up a lot of room, and I don't want to stock far far more than I actually need.

In a more normal season (that is, one in which we already had the stove insert), I would already be actively consuming firewood even as I keep stocking throughout the fall, so I would have at least some idea of how much inventory I need to have.