me5100 said:
Thank you..I just went online and ordered the magnetic thermometers. Also wood is dry it is inside
Hello, and welcome.
When we talk about "dry" wood, we're not talking about whether it's been rained on, but whether it's dried out of sap moisture on the inside. That can only happen when it's cut and split and stacked outside, preferably in a sunny and windy spot, for a year or so. Very, very few wood suppliers actually do this, and those that do can and usually do charge an arm and a leg for it in most areas. Same for "kiln-dried" wood.
So the wood supply is the fly in the ointment, so to speak, of using a woodstove since you mostly can't buy actually properly seasoned wood. Whether you buy it cut, split and delivered (c/d/s for short here) or cut it yourself like a lot of the guys here, you'll need a place to stack it for a year before you try to burn it. Less dry, or less "seasoned," wood won't burn properly and will end up putting a lot of creosote into your chimney, which can give you a chimney fire eventually.
If you can buy a couple of cords of wood as soon as you lose this big snowfall and get it stacked outside right away, you'll have reasonably burnable wood by next winter. Better if you can get two years ahead, and then you'll really be good to go after next year.
There aren't too many of us single gals living in the country and heating with wood, but there are a few of us, so it can be done! It does save a lot of money on heating costs, but there's a trade-off in the amount of hassle and just plain physical work involved with managing the firewood supply properly. If your kids are old enough to help out, that'll make it easier. Good idea to start them early, actually. The farms around here, the kids are expected to pitch in and help pretty much as soon as they can walk, even if they can only carry one split at a time, so they grow up understanding that wrangling the firewood is simply what you do as a member of the family.