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Hello Hot Box

October 26th, 2013

Well, it’s that time of the year again to fire up the hot box. Dexter is happy as a clam, he spends his days and nights worshipping its warmth.
woodburner (1)
woodburner
I can’t say that I blame him, in the mornings you’ll find me with a dining room chair pulled up in front of it as well. Wood heat is so cozy and you certainly can’t beat the radiant heat of a wood burner. I love coming in and warming my hands by it after spending time in the garden.

Do you heat with wood?

18 Comments to “Hello Hot Box”
  1. kristin @ going country on October 26, 2013 at 6:09 am

    I’m sitting by the wood-burning beast as I type this. We haven’t had to use the oil furnace yet, thanks to the woodstove.

    Reply to kristin @ going country's comment

  2. Adelina Anderson on October 26, 2013 at 7:42 am

    We use a propane fireplace to take the chill out of the air. The cats love to clean themselves in front of it and nap. However we have thought about getting a pellet stove if and when the fireplace decides it needs to be repaired again.

    Reply to Adelina Anderson's comment

  3. Jaye on October 26, 2013 at 7:44 am

    No, but I’m familiar with them and you’re right, there’s something comforting about them, no substitute. And they’re efficient!

    Reply to Jaye's comment

  4. Nebraska Dave on October 26, 2013 at 8:07 am

    Susy, no wood heat here. I do remember the big pot bellied coal burning heating stove that warmed my grand parents house and the oil burning stove that warmed my uncle’s house. Jumping out of a warm bed and scampering out to the stove in an attempt to stay warm was different living than today’s central heating. There’s not allot of sustaining wood sources in Nebraska so the cost of buying wood to burn is not so economical. There are pellet stoves but still the cost of buying the pellets puts a damper on the economics of it. It takes allot of wood to get through a cold Winter when heating with wood. Most true fire places here in Nebraska are just for ambiance with designs to attempt to save some of the heat for one room. When not in use they lose heat. Even the rural areas now are mostly propane gas for heating. Wooden heat stoves are great for flash back memories but I’m not so sure I’d really want to make that cold morning scamper to the stove any more. (big sigh) Yeah, just getting too old for that stuff. :0) ***** Have a great sitting by the warm stove day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  5. Joan on October 26, 2013 at 8:11 am

    We love our woodstove! It’s our sole source of heat, other than a radiant floor in the basement (which is also my husbands’ office) and which we only have to run for a few months in the middle of winter.

    I’ve fired up our woodstove a few times this year. I was very tempted to over the past few nights, but was feeling lazy and wrapped up in a warm blanket instead.

    We’re doing some work to an unused part of our house, and plan to find a used woodstove to put out there as well. We’ll soon be a ‘two-woodstove’ family!

    Reply to Joan's comment

  6. Ann on October 26, 2013 at 8:11 am

    We started heating with wood 3 years ago and I completely agree with your thoughts on how comfy it is. I often find all 3 cats and my dogs in front of it. It is the only real neutral territory where they can lay close!

    Wood here in central Tennessee is quite cheap. Often we can even get it free. Our only other option is propane which is quite expensive. The way our house was built is perfect for wood heat. It has a large central living space with bedrooms on both ends, that we can close off during the day. That way, no matter how warm the living space gets we can retreat to a cool bedroom for sleeping. But every once in a while we get it too warm in the house and have to open bedroom doors early to buffer the temps!!

    Reply to Ann's comment

  7. Natasha on October 26, 2013 at 8:37 am

    My parents home was heated with a wood stove. It is a large modern house, but central heating was very inefficient. The wood stove kept the kitchen and family room toasty warm. They use it less now, as they have a heated floor in the kitchen now, but I still remember the warm and toasty wood stove!

    Reply to Natasha's comment

  8. amy svob on October 26, 2013 at 8:55 am

    Yes we too have wood heat and love it as well. We both grew up heating with wood and froze for 11 years in our first home. Luckily we were able to put in a wood burner when we built the house.

    Reply to amy svob's comment

  9. Sam on October 26, 2013 at 9:40 am

    No… sadly, our fireplace has a crack (and is poorly designed so it draws heat rather than puts it off). But when we build a house on our farm, we are definitely planning on heating with wood!

    Wondering- are those eggshells in the last picture? Also, do you cook on your wood stove?

    Reply to Sam's comment

  10. DebbieB on October 26, 2013 at 9:52 am

    Not here – we have a natural gas forced air heater. We won’t even turn it on until the end of November/beginning of December. It’s currently only dipping into the mid-50’s at night and upper 60’s during the day (and it’ll be back up into the upper 70’s this coming week).

    I love Dex all curled up in the basket of firestarter (I’m presuming that’s what it is, since I see newspaper). Just like our cats – put a box or basket of anything on the floor, it magically grows a cat (whether there’s room for said cat or not!)

    Reply to DebbieB's comment

  11. Jennifer Fisk on October 26, 2013 at 9:55 am

    I have wood stove with glass front in which I burn about 2 cords a winter. I also have oil back up and for the upstairs but my friendly woodstove provides most of the heat for the downstairs.

    Reply to Jennifer Fisk's comment

  12. Misti on October 26, 2013 at 10:14 am

    That’s the nice thing about living in the south, only really in Jan or Feb do we turn the heat on. No wood here but I could see the allure.

    Reply to Misti's comment

  13. Jessica Clark on October 26, 2013 at 5:02 pm

    I wish. There are good reasons why we’re not changing much in the house we are in right now – one of them being that we don’t intend to be here for much longer – but our next, and hopefully final, house will have a wood stove, either upon arrival or shortly after. :-)

    Reply to Jessica Clark's comment

  14. Tom Wolfe on October 27, 2013 at 1:24 am

    We heat with wood! But this past spring I installed 11 panel radiators throughout the house and so this year the wood heating will be supplemented with hydronic. But today we did fire up the wood stove for the first time. I’m just a few feet from it in the cozy basement of our house in Canmore, AB. Today was our last day of Indian Summer. Winter’s coming as I type.

    Reply to Tom Wolfe's comment

  15. Mike on October 27, 2013 at 8:55 am

    Yes, we definitely enjoy our pellet stove. When we got it we had considered a regular wood stove. They are both great but we opted for the ability to control the temperature. Your stove looks very nice.

    Reply to Mike's comment

  16. Colleen on October 27, 2013 at 3:03 pm

    Yes, we heat about 75% with wood. It’s the best souce of heat when the NE winds start to blow through in the winter. It’s also cheerful, the fire seems to add another dimension to the house.

    Dexter looks completely contented.

    Reply to Colleen's comment

  17. KimH on October 28, 2013 at 4:08 pm

    No wood heat here.. but I had a sorta boyfriend who lived in his grandmothers turn of the century ramshackle farmhouse that did… There could be 3 feet of snow on the ground & he’d throw some logs in the stove & we’d be opening doors next thing you knew.. haha.. Good memories, those..
    Enjoy that cozy fire..

    Reply to KimH's comment

  18. Myra S. on October 28, 2013 at 6:45 pm

    We have a nearly 30 year old Yotul woodstove that keeps us toasty. We’ve hauled it with us everywhere we’ve lived. Our beagle curls up beneath it on the hearth to warm her old bones. We also have a propane fireplace that warms nicely too, and we can see the flame, but it’s not the cozy warmth of the woodstove. Bring on winter!

    Reply to Myra S.'s comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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