How involved is your other?

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guess when our first was born :)
 

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If I have ever seen anything as funny as that picture I'll be damned if I can remember what it was.
 
I do eveytthing with our stove. The wife once stopped by tractor supply and got some pellets but thats it. We have thermostat wars much of the time. The 16 year old doesn't give a damn about the price of heat and her mother just complains about the mess. Of course neither one wants to put some more clothes on. It goes on and on. I need to invent a blonde proof thermostat. Maby with 2 switches that have to be turned at the same time. They wouldn't figure that out for decades.
 
My Mrs. doesn't want anything to do with it.

The chainsaw is too loud and scary.
Cutting, bucking, splitting and stacking is waaay too much work.
Logs and splits are dirty and messy and harbor bugs.
The smell of a crackling fire is just an irritating smokey stench.
If a log 'pops' - forget it, run for the hills and call the fire dept.
Ash gets everywhere and the drapes smell like charcoal.
Despite a hearth extension, there are still little black dots on the carpet.

She says "...but if you want to light a fire, honey, go ahead."
 
My wife is pretty helpful. She stocks the wood rack in the house about half the time, loads the stove frequently and helps me when I score a pickup load somewhere. Sometimes helps with stacking, but hasn't gotten into splitting or chainsawing - at 5' and 115 lbs, she's got an uphill battle swinging the 8lb maul against a big split.

For the install, she designed the interlocking tile pattern on powerpoint and helped do all the tile install and grouting prior to the stove coming.

Her most valuable wood related skill is chimney sweeping - I am not good at heights but she likes going up there so I just hold the ladder and watch from ground level!

-Colin
 
Originally when I wrote this post ,it came after a post that went a bit south. I thought a light hearted post was due,so that both male and females alike would enjoy
I noticed more and more female participation in stove purchases and opperations, and wondered about joint participation. I have enjoyed the responses especially. MSG's picture. Almost spilled my corn chex on the key board after that one.. MSG congrats again
 
NY Soapstone said:
Her most valuable wood related skill is chimney sweeping - I am not good at heights but she likes going up there so I just hold the ladder and watch from ground level!

Oh baby!

Where was this women's mother 30 years ago?
 
In case you're looking for that special gift for ladies who want to split - here's my tool of choice: The Ames 4 lb. Super Splitter!! ;)
 

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I will normally take the initiative and do all the work related to keeping the house warm by burning wood.

There have been a couple occasions where when I have not been able to start a fire or tend to a fire, she has stepped right up and (without any training or hand holding) and either built or maintained an already built fire.

There have also been times where I will come home (late) and the house will freezing ass cold and there she will be all bundled up with a hat and all.......but no fire. She doesn't complain, but just bundles up and rides it out.

I guess it could be worse!!
 
My wife is catching on quickly. At first she thought this was just another one of my crazy ideas. Now that the insert is in and burning she has fallen in love with it. She keeps telling me how much she loves the heat and the way the new insert looks in the basement.

She has taken to loading it when I'm not here and is actually starting to ask questions about burning. She hasn't even said a word about the 'mess' of the ash and loading wood, etc...

A week or so ago I was out in the yard splitting and stacking some rounds that I had laying around. She came out and was loading splits into the trailer to take up to the rack by the house. She starts watching me run the splitter and before you know it, she takes over an I'm the one loading and stacking splits.

I always knew I loved her for a ton of great reasons, now I can add to the list.
 
My wife has been a good sport for many years. She may not fully understand the principles of combustion, but given a good stove, some basic instruction and a good supply of burning materials, she can start and keep a good fire going. She did very well with the 602, the F3CB and the pellet stove and kept the homefires alive while I was away. The Castine is new, and she still tends to build small fires with small pieces instead of piling it on once the stove is going well. I had problems at first too. Both of us are learning the new stove and sharing experiences.
 
My girlfriend makes kindling from the pallet I scrounge & cut up. LOL
Better than nothing I guess.
They should give out new women with the new stoves ;) Kinda like an update program ;)
Just kidding, hangin low fer a while ;)
 
I try to make it easy on my fiance. I cut a bunch of logs shorter and split them nice and small so she doesn't have to fuss with "Shoving" them into the stove. Plus, with the BioBricks she just tosses a few bricks in, and she's good to go. Eventually I will teach her how to pack a stove for overnight, as when I get home at 4:30 a.m. it can be kinda chilly and the stove usually doesn't have that much left to relight.

It's all about small steps :)

We both do enjoy our new stove, this being the first winter with it. Why just this past weekend it was low teens here and the inside temps never fell below 70!! We can finally tell the Electric Co. to shove it!! :coolsmile:
 
Hogwildz said:
My girlfriend makes kindling from the pallet I scrounge & cut up. LOL
Better than nothing I guess.
They should give out new women with the new stoves ;) Kinda like an update program ;)
Just kidding, hangin low fer a while ;)

Hey Hog,

You may want to remove any cast iron pans or pots from the kitchen!!!!
 
it is sometimes an argument...who gets to carry in wood, use the log splitter..I wont let her use the chainsaw...she wants to desperately..it's just that she has broken both legs on a skateboard..and then again broke an arm a year later on a skateboard..she has stuck an axe in her foot..she just always puts 110% into everything and sometimes leaves caution to the wind

I do not exxagerate when I say she can work side by side with me..doing almost anything..earlier this year we cut down a large maple..trunk sections easily 2 feet across..some more..probably 18-22 inches long..carrying them around and handing them off to my brother who just looked at her in amazement

thats my baby..and that goes for any type of work

I am a lucky man
 
Hogwildz - 12 December 2006 01:28 AM
My girlfriend makes kindling from the pallet I scrounge & cut up. LOL
Better than nothing I guess.
They should give out new women with the new stoves Kinda like an update program
Just kidding, hangin low fer a while

This could be an addition to the stove donor program...

"Got Wood? Need Help? Call..."

"Have a great stove? Need someone to share in the work? Call..."
 
Hey, I thought us women were suppose to "tend to the hearth"! LOL :lol: JUST KIDDING!! My husband and I tend to the stove together. No big deal. We both gather & stack the wood, feed the fire, clean the ashes, whatever needs to be done to keep us warm.
 
I do all the cutting, splitting, stacking, hauling and get burned the most. For some reason she doesn't get burned reloading.
When we were young back in 86 I bought a small monster maul, She was not interested in wood splitting. Funny thing, it is my favorite tool now. When scrounging she does get out and help load the van.
 
I do the cutting, splitting and stacking. I load the woodburner at night, in the morning and she loads it when I'm away from work. She enjoys the heat, and now 72 is cold to us, but its a good thing to have. I can tell she enjoys it, when I give her crap about her loading the woodfurnace, she gets defensive. Thought she didn't like it that much?? She will tell me im doing it wrong, and she looks at everyones chimney and knows everybody who burns wood on her way home from work. LOL
 
Vintage 181 said:
Hogwildz said:
My girlfriend makes kindling from the pallet I scrounge & cut up. LOL
Better than nothing I guess.
They should give out new women with the new stoves ;) Kinda like an update program ;)
Just kidding, hangin low fer a while ;)

Hey Hog,

You may want to remove any cast iron pans or pots from the kitchen!!!!

HAHA, thats why I bought the cheap light weight set. Always thinking one step ahead ;)
A guy can dream can't he? LOL
 
MrGriz said:
Hogwildz - 12 December 2006 01:28 AM
My girlfriend makes kindling from the pallet I scrounge & cut up. LOL
Better than nothing I guess.
They should give out new women with the new stoves Kinda like an update program
Just kidding, hangin low fer a while

This could be an addition to the stove donor program...

"Got Wood? Need Help? Call..."

"Have a great stove? Need someone to share in the work? Call..."
Sign me up, I request the rotating schedule, say every other month. It would ber nice to keep the stock varied & circulating ;)
 
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