The true joy of owning a wood stove

Good Morning All;
Wonderful clear morning on the way. Temperatures are falling rapidly.  Was +10F at 5, now at 8F and still dropping.   The sun will shine today ! At least for a while this morning anyway, after all this is the PNW...

Those folks who do not have a wood stove have no idea what they are missing.  All their doors and windows are shut... their electric meter is probably spinning fast.... or their propane tank is emptying...
Blankets , sweaters...gota keep warm...    
Here I sit 5' away from my house stove (not rmh) ……. tee shirt, bare feet and  I have my window part way open !
Fresh cold air AHH feels great with that heater chugging away ! All the cats have come over to get a breath of fresh air,  the dog of course wanted to go outside,  few minutes later she thought maybe inside wasn't so bad after all...


All those people who live in places that get cold, but do not by choice or can not use wood heat,  well they have my condolences … they just have no idea what they are missing!

Indeed, if you make your firewood on your own it has heated you already several times before even getting into the stove. Yes it is quite some work, but the heat and watching the flames is just great!

Ahhh! I do not work all the time to not get to do this as much as possible!

There is something so primally comforting about fire. No matter where I lived there has always been a wood stove in my house for 48 years.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/edit?ar=2&o=U&video_id=jsMWL-uZfJU[/youtube]

This little Morso Squirrel is our sole source of home heating and we absolutely love it. :  )

for the first time in my life I HAVE A WOOD STOVE!!! YEAAAHHHHHH!!! ;)  actually, since moving here last april...we have four wood stoves...two potbelly stoves (one in the bedroom and a smaller one in the bathroom)...has kept the whole cabin warm this winter...even upstairs...except when we ran out of wood

marty has put two in his space (one cookstove type in his cowboy cave and one big one (don't know what ya call it)  a big box looking thing...in the corner of his workshop...

i LOVE my little antique potbellies!!! after we FINALLY got them all set up, i realized how blessed we are to have them!!!  we moved in late april last year to a place we knew not any one or any thing...and we didn't get enough hardwood cut in time to season...so, we ran out of wood for a week or so and had to snuggle...:) we keep to electric heaters now...one of those fireplace insert fake things in moms room ( a fire would NOT be safe in there) and just a small little heater for her feet during the day...both can be kept off when we are burning wood but she likes watching her little 'fire' that doesnt burn in the fireplace :) so, we generally keep it on.

any way...just wanted to echo your shout out! :)  I AGREE...

oh, and our neighbors pitched in and brought us enough wood to get through this winter :)  LOVE THIS PLACE!!!

teri morgan wrote:for the first time in my life I HAVE A WOOD STOVE!!! YEAAAHHHHHH!!! ;)  actually, since moving here last april...we have four wood stoves...two potbelly stoves (one in the bedroom and a smaller one in the bathroom)...has kept the whole cabin warm this winter...even upstairs...except when we ran out of wood

marty has put two in his space (one cookstove type in his cowboy cave and one big one (don't know what ya call it)  a big box looking thing...in the corner of his workshop...

i LOVE my little antique potbellies!!! after we FINALLY got them all set up, i realized how blessed we are to have them!!!  we moved in late april last year to a place we knew not any one or any thing...and we didn't get enough hardwood cut in time to season...so, we ran out of wood for a week or so and had to snuggle...:) we keep to electric heaters now...one of those fireplace insert fake things in moms room ( a fire would NOT be safe in there) and just a small little heater for her feet during the day...both can be kept off when we are burning wood but she likes watching her little 'fire' that doesnt burn in the fireplace :) so, we generally keep it on.

any way...just wanted to echo your shout out! :)  I AGREE...

oh, and our neighbors pitched in and brought us enough wood to get through this winter :)  LOVE THIS PLACE!!!

I think the Pot Bellied Stove is so underrated, especially the antique ones as they burn so much better then the newer ones that eliminated a lot of the more expensive features of the antique ones, but which made them work so much better. For instance the Mitten Rails on the old ones so that gloves can be clipped on and dried. Or the anti-clinkers, and the like, but just the pot bellied stove alone is so efficient as a person burns half the wood with one over a tradional woodstove.


I would like to say they have their drawbacks, but I cannot think of one, as their ability to burn multiple fuels, their intense heat, low consumption of fuel, ease of operation, and longevity really make them great stoves!

This is my 1893 Woods and Bishop Pot Bellied Stove, taken in our old house which was set up to look like the 1930's, and why Katie is in 1930 attire.

teri morgan wrote:for the first time in my life I HAVE A WOOD STOVE!!! YEAAAHHHHHH!!! ;)  actually, since moving here last april...we have four wood stoves...two potbelly stoves (one in the bedroom and a smaller one in the bathroom)...has kept the whole cabin warm this winter...even upstairs...except when we ran out of wood

marty has put two in his space (one cookstove type in his cowboy cave and one big one (don't know what ya call it)  a big box looking thing...in the corner of his workshop...

i LOVE my little antique potbellies!!! after we FINALLY got them all set up, i realized how blessed we are to have them!!!  we moved in late april last year to a place we knew not any one or any thing...and we didn't get enough hardwood cut in time to season...so, we ran out of wood for a week or so and had to snuggle...:) we keep to electric heaters now...one of those fireplace insert fake things in moms room ( a fire would NOT be safe in there) and just a small little heater for her feet during the day...both can be kept off when we are burning wood but she likes watching her little 'fire' that doesnt burn in the fireplace :) so, we generally keep it on.

any way...just wanted to echo your shout out! :)  I AGREE...

oh, and our neighbors pitched in and brought us enough wood to get through this winter :)  LOVE THIS PLACE!!!

One of the wonderful things about pot bellied stoves is that they are a multiple-fuel heating appliance. If you ran out of wood, you can always burn coal.

Anthracite Stove Coal is NOT what you think, there is no dirty smoke and all that, it is hard coal. I burn wood in the shoulder seasons when it is not that cold, but switch to coal when it gets really cold like it is today. Coal is just so much hotter, burns so much longer, and is no where near as messy as firewood. It is all I would burn if I had a coal seam on my land, but since all I have is firewood, that is what I burn when I can.

But if you ran out of firewood, there is no reason you could not burn coal. It is really cheap to buy since a ton of coal is equal to (2) full (4xx8 foot) cords of firewood, and you can shovel coal out of a snowbank and it will burn. At $350 a ton (here in Maine anyway), it is the cheapest way to heat a home if a person has to buy it.

And pot bellied stoves are designed to burn coal, so they actually burn coal better than they burn firewood.

I burn whatever I can to stay warm. This is Maine after all. This year alone I have burned firewood, coal, wood pellets and corn.

we had firewood before we could even find someone who sold firewood...as folks around here have been here forever and had piled a big pile on our back porch and showed up in droves to help chop it... :)  im going to look into coal though...im from arkansas...where would i go about doing that?

I agree anthracite coal is outstanding! The softer coals are the messy ones.   Unfortunately Anthracite coal is non existent in western Montana, all we have is the broken soft stuff from coalstrip ,MT and that is shipped off to China by the train load... I did have access to several tons from a train wreck, mostly nasty dust with 2-3" chunks in it.   Dirty stuff , got all over me loading it and the left soot all over the roof of the green house!  I'll stick with wood here.  

EDIT)   Ask the neighbor's about anthracite coal, also if you have a Mercantile (general store) they may sell 50# sacks of coal.    

I really like my pacific energy with hot water coil...

Hi David.

I'm in Renfrew County.  Where a bouts are you?  If you don't mind me asking.

Cheers!  K

almost neighbours; between Bancroft and Halliburton...
Cheers, David