Good Morning

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Hello. I know Melissa usually starts this, but I've been up for a while and felt like saying "Good morning," to you all. I've been up part of the night with a sick child who is resting right now, but it's now the start of our usual day so here I am. Today I'll be baking bread and taking the well child to dance class.

The fire is burning strong already, from having enough time to build a good bed of coals, of course. That wood stove is nice-- we went without one last winter and spent about $350 dollars a month on liquid propane, and this year we've only used about $200 worth. Of course, prices were lower last year and the winter was alot colder. We'd go without propane all together if I weren't so paranoid about chimney fires. I can't get over the fear of it happening in our sleep or while we are away.

How do you deal with the possibility of a chimney fire? Other than the fire extinguishers and alarms, of course. How much wood do you expect to go through this winter, considering the weather and your size of house? Do you use wood exclusively? Are there any of us out there that use the corn burners, and how do they work for you? Also, do any of you use your wood stove to cook or bake?

Well, I'm going to go check on my little one, maybe make her some peppermint tea for that stomachace, a little honey for the throat. Strange how Mom knew how to handle everything. Have a good day, all of you, and remember to stay warm :)

-- Dawn (olsoncln@ecenet.com), December 19, 2001

Answers

We use wood exclusively. If we don't keep the fire going we freeze!! We have lived here for 12 winters now, this will be our 13th. We have always just filled our stove withwood at night. It usally goes out, unless one of us happens to get up about 2 am or so and puts wood on it. If it is REALLY cold, we will set our alarm and get up and fix it. but it has to be down in the teens before we do this. Our house is 3/4 underground and well insulated so it really doesn't get that cold even when the fire goes out. It is usually about 55-60 when we get up and cale quickely builds a fire, and it is 70 pretty fast. In bed at night you don;t really need the house to be 70 as far as I am concerned!! The kids have plenty of blankets and never complain of being cold. Their rooms are in the back of the house, they are draft free and stay warmer than the front of the house whichis exposed. We don't really worry about chimney fires. Cale checks them often and cleans thema few times a year. One thing to do is to not let your fire sit and smolder. Every once in a while, open it up and let it burn a little hard. This will keep the chimney cleaner. A hotter fire means less creosote to build up in your chimney. We have both burned wood all our lives, I have never lived anywhere that wood wasn't the main source of heat, and I have never experienced a chimney fire.

How much wood do we use? A lot!!!! We have a wood shed that is about 14 feet wide and I think 20-22 feet long. It is 9 feet high, sloping to 7 feet. We stuff this shed as full as we can get it, and we have never run out of wood in the winter. As we use one side all the way to the back, we start re-filling the empty side and using from the other side.

I hope everyone is feeling better soon!!

-- Melissa (me@home.net), December 19, 2001.


Dawn-I hope your little one feels better-its rotten being sick at the holidays-its also draining to take care of sick ones at holidays. I use peppermint tea with mine when upset tummys-it really seems to help. For sore throats I have a "fruity" herb tea that I make with lots of honey-they like that and it also seems to help. I hope you have a good day.

-- Kelly (Ksaderholm@yahoo.com), December 19, 2001.

We use wood heat almost exclusively and have for over 20 years. With about 50 acres of woods, we'd be crazy not to. We never cut down a tree. There are plenty of dead ones and limbs on the the ground. When we built this house, the electric company tried to talk us in to putting in the geothermal heat/air. It is so expensive, my husband said we would never save enough with it to recoup the cost of installing it. Course, I guess some people include it in the cost of their mortgage and don't notice it but we don't have a mortgage. We have never had a chimney fire and the only time we use our "back up" baseboard heaters is when it is chilly in the morning and warms up during the day. I can turn them on for about 1/2 hour and take the chill out and not have to turn them on anymore during the day. We can fill our stove when we go to bed at 11 and my husband refills it when he leaves for work at 5:30 and the fire never goes out. WE have kept fires going all winter before but now I let it die down sometimes to clean the stove out good. It is important to burn good seasoned dry wood. We have a fairly large house - over 2300 sq. feet but we don't burn as much as MElissa. Our house too is well insulated. We have a shed 4' by 12' and it doesn't take much more than that full to take us through the winter unless it is an exceptionally cold winter. So far this year, we've burned very little but it has been unusually warm this year. It was 26 this morning so I guess we are going to get back to a more normal pattern.

-- Barb in Ky. (bjconthefarm@yahoo.com), December 19, 2001.

I really can't tell you how much wood we go through each winter. We have one of those outside wood burning furnaces and DH takes care of that. If it is terribly cold or if he isn't home at night, I have to switch to an antique oil burning furnace in the basement. I don't feel the cold unless I'm sitting for a bit. If I'm chilly, I put on a sweater! We keep the temperature at 65. I laugh cause 10 years ago, when we lived in the city,we kept it at 70. Now when I'm somewhere where it is 70,I'm too warm. At night we have it at 61. Of course, we have an electric blanket. Since the only smoke that would go up our chimney would come from rare use of the oil furnace, we don't have to worry about a fire there.

-- Ardie /WI (ardie54965@hotmail.com), December 19, 2001.

I should clarify that we don't use all of that shed in the winter. We just keep re-filling it and it is never below half full. Our biggest wood-eater is our fire-place. It uses a lot of wood, but we generally use big, ugly, knarled, un-splittable stuff in it!!! We love the fireplace though, and have a heat-form with a blower system to make it more efficient. Our house is about 3200 sq.ft

-- Melissa (me@home.net), December 19, 2001.


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