Getting Re-Acquainted With an Old Friend

With the rising cost of propane and electricity we have been thinking about adding a gas heating stove to our living room hearth. The kind of gas stove that looks like a wood stove and you can see the fire and logs burning. The thinking was that if we had that stove in the living room we could turn down the thermostat for the rest of the house, especially now that we are empty nesters.

Years ago we had a wood stove in there but that stove was a bugger about smoke spillage and it didn’t heat very well. We installed hot water baseboard heat in the house with a outdoor wood boiler. Pat especially was glad to see that stinking stove get out of the house. Since then we’ve done some remodeling and it was a definite no vote to put a wood stove back in the living room.

The more I thought about it the more I thought about all the scrapes of red oak wood I get in the shop each season that just gets hauled away with the saw dust and planer shavings. Also we have all kinds of wood to cut here in the woodlot and down at the hunting camp as well. It wouldn’t take too much time in the spring to cut and split one or two cords of stove wood…and I do very much enjoy making firewood in the springtime when the entire world is coming back to life…Hmmm?

I spent about a month looking at new stoves and systems for wood burning that are out there…and started a campaign to win approval to put a wood stove back in the house.

Alas, the decision was made and on New Years Eve we lit the first fire in our living room. It is a wonderful stove made in Canada. It is a small high efficiency stove with outdoor air intake, there isn’t any smoke spillage into the room. Unlike stoves with glass doors of yesteryear this has draft technology that keeps the glass clear for a beautiful fire. It has a quite variable speed blower and the heat is wonderful.

When Pat and I started out it was in a cabin without running water or electricity. The cabin had two rooms, one with a parlor wood stove and the other with a wood cook stove. Our next home was on a small farm with electric power and water but still the two stoves. Part of my year was logging and I had a sawmill operation as well…so fuel for the stoves was easy and abundant. There are many fond memories of those days and the kids running downstairs on cold mornings warming there little behinds next to the cracking fire with cheerful smiles on their faces. I guess for most of our married life we have burned wood.

It has been most enjoyable to have the fire in the house again and the technology in this modern stove is impressive. The outside temps have been -25 to -35 at night this past week and our home is cozier than it’s ever been. Now we keep the propane furnace thermostat turned down to 65 degrees when the stove is burning.  In those temps we used to have the thermostat set at 70 or 72 and sat in the living room with blankets! We are burning a lot less propane, enjoying the fire, and warming our older bones like only wood heat can. Most welcome old friend!