Fire Wood (the way to go)

[Wildsky]

That's a beautiful stove! I love your tile backing.

Ours has a fan built into it also that worked pretty good, up until the moment it quit. The company is REAL proud of their fans, and wants more than it's worth to us to replace it. This Spring we'll pull the stove out, and I'll see if I can locate a replacement motor for it from another source.

Someday, when I get surprised by a previously unknown uncle passing away and leaving his vast fortune to me, I'd love to own one of the soap stone and enamel stoves. Until then, I guess we'll just stick with our cheapie.

I did all the tiling, it took a few days!

I almost bought a soap stone/cast iron stove, I found a DEAL on one but it would have taken all our money ($1500) we had budgeted for the whole job. I spent a good $200 on those dang tiles we went higher and wider than the instructions advised. If we had gotten the soapstone one it would still be standing in the garage.

 

[Beekissed]

I burn wood, was raised using an old barrel stove and a wood cook stove. The stove I have now is a small boxwood stove and it does okay and heats the house, though it isn't real air tight.

I can't begin to imagine going back to paying for gas or electric right now as a heating source...I would never be able to pay the bills. I can either buy seconds lumber bundles for $20 each that make a pretty good bunch of wood but burn pretty hot and are't good for banking up the fire. Or I can purchase truckloads, delivered or not, for anywhere from $50-$65 each. If I had my own woodlots, I would cut my own.

I usually mix the two sources of wood for a good fire and a long burn time at night. With the better wood, I can bank up the stove at 10 pm and still have nice, hot coals by 7am that are still keeping the house toasty.

I don't mind the mess and the smoke, I think it smells lovely on a crisp winter night or fall morning. I've not found any other heat source that feels as good as wood heat...there is just something about it that is almost akin to comfort foods....it just feels so doggone cozy.

 

[Wildsky]

I don't mind the mess and the smoke, I think it smells lovely on a crisp winter night or fall morning. I've not found any other heat source that feels as good as wood heat...there is just something about it that is almost akin to comfort foods....it just feels so doggone cozy.

Thats one reason I wanted one (although I've never had one before) I'm hoping that with my daily Vit d and a cozy fire, I can keep the winter blues away this year! so far so good!

 

[johnElarue]

Thanks for the welcome backs,

It seems I am by far not the best wood burner here,

Great for those of you that can get slab for about 20bucks, that is a great deal, even if you do have to "feed the dragon" more often. Seems like the way to go.

Lately I've been cooking on top with a Dutch oven. It's great for slow cooking stuff that you don't have to worry about boiling over and starting a grease fire. And we always pre-heat water for coffee,tea, cooking.

 

[Diavolicchio]

I was lucky enough last Wednesday (12/23) to get 3 cord of good seasoned hardwood dropped off at the house, mostly Ash with a bit of Cherry and Maple mixed in. I've got two wood stoves with which I heat the house in the winter and I love having both stoves stoked and crackling and popping, keeping the house toasty. Heating with wood is the way to go, especially from a Sustainability standpoint.

 

[On Our own]

We have a wood burning masonry heater with a bake oven in it.

It is beautiful - I'll post pics when I learn how! - DH designed it to draw its combustion air from outside and trap its smoke/heat within the mass and internal tunneling.

It can keep the whole house warm and I can cook most meals in it.

We get our wood from deals. Bartering. Dh did some scuba diving for a landscaper (trying to find a clogged aqueduct) in return for a dumptruck load of cut wood. Then we made a deal with the state to "take" their dropped trees within a certain radius of our house. Sometimes they'll just drop the tree and shove it off the road. Usually if they cut alot they'll dump the trees - whole - on our property. If they shove it off the road we have to pick it up within 48 hours.

Wood is expensive around here, but to the state it costs them more to haul it split it and sell it than they could make, so they were chipping all of it until we offered a better deal. Sometimes you just have to offer someone a solution to their problem in order to solve your own.

 

[old fashioned]

We have a woodstove and is our only source of heat, I love it especially when the power goes out we still have heat and a cooking source. Ever try baking a pizza in a wood stove? Made a homemade pizza and just as I was putting it in the oven our power went out, ended up moving some hot coals around put the cast iron dutch oven upside down in the woodstove and the pizza pan on top, closed the door and let it bake. Turned out pretty good, even a few ashes for flavor!