Home Fires

It's a cold weekend here in Wisconsin, one in which you truly recognize that winter has arrived.  Between doing outside chores, I'll be inside keeping warm with a steadily burning fire in my trusty woodstove.

It was a huge financial investment to get it installed--I needed a chimney installed, as well as a new woodstove--but it was the best $3000 I have ever spent.  Not only do I have a crazy efficient stove made by Canadians (it's an Enerzone model), but I now have a supply of heat that is independent of electricity or fossil fuels.  I just need to either purchase or barter for wood, and that is a commodity which can be found in bulk around here and isn't a problem to locate.  Heck, if I wasn't so limpy, I'm fairly sure someone with a woodlot would let me wander in on foot and gather some storm-blown trees that are just laying around, languishing amongst the fungi.

One of the best things about my little stove is that it heats up my entire house.  Now, I do have a very small house--my cottage is maybe 900 square feet, 400 of which are an unheated upstairs loft--but it is such a pleasure to wander from room to room in blissful warmth.  The other wonderful thing about my stove is that, after loading it up with a few large chunks of good solid maple or oak, I can close the damper nearly all the way and it will burn slowly all night long.  When I get up in the morning, all I need to do is open the damper, stir up the coals, and pop in a nice dry piece of birch.  Et voila, within moments I have a cheery blaze going once again.  My memories of childhood woodstoves was that come morning, they were out, colder than a icicle on Christmas morning, and needed the whole works to get going once again.  Oh, those long moments shivering and shuddering until the stove caught enough to give a teeny bit of feral warmth to the room...brr.

Hopefully your weekend is filled with warm and cozy moments, preferably next to a nice blazing fire.  It definitely makes a winter day a little brighter!