Wood stoves would seem to be a really good idea in many colder parts of the country, but southern California is usually fairly mild in the winter, but there are those exceptions at times. I would appreciate some opinions on this. Do any of you southern cal. GI's have a wood stove or have you elected to do without this item?

-- smfdoc (smfdoc@aol.com), July 24, 1999

Answers

Unless you're up in the high desert or the mountains you certainly can survive a Southern California winter with no wood stove. Just have extra sets of warm clothing to wear over your everyday clothes.

Now up in the desert and the mountains it can get life-threateningly cold during the winter and some sort of heating will be needed. I certainly recall that during my time out there I certainly envied the folks in the basin and along the coast. Fritz Coleman would be showing a forecast for those folks of "balmy fifties or sixties" as winter daytime highs, while we were barely going to break freezing before the windchill factor. Funny, here we really hope just for days near freezing during the winter.

The real answer may be with your local library or chamber of commerce. Just look into the local average temperatures for your location to determine if you really need more heat than something for cooking. Figure you break point as being about fifty-five degrees.

Besides, I think you'll find that even without any Y2K demand, the price of firewood on SoCal is already outrageous. I can't imagine what the costs could get to if people start panic buying that stuff.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), July 24, 1999.

smfdoc,

I live in the San Gabriel Valley. It is in the upper eighties as I type this. I've opted not to buy a wood stove. We used to have one on the farm in Iowa when I was a little tyke and it was great! But here in SoCal? No. Not unless I decide to get that little piece of property I was thinking about up in the mountains!

Grace

-- Carolyn Grace (grace17@pacbell.net), July 24, 1999.

I spent 20 years living in Southern Cal and was often glad to have heat. I had a wood stove for 7 of those years and liked it. I would hate to have no heat. I lived in a rural part of SD county and it got pretty frosty. We never got snow but the ground did freeze at least once a year. I would definitley get a wood stove in So Cal. Although the big problem with So Cal is water. Anybody planning to live in So Cal through Y2k is nuts IMHO.

-- R (riversoma@aol.com), July 24, 1999.

R -

Imagine you live in SoCal. You have elderly family members who cannot be relocated for health reasons. What do you do? Leave 'em?

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), July 24, 1999.