As others have said, Welcome to the Forum! Unbelievably knowlegable and helpful folks here - I've learned an immense amount about wood burning from this site in the last several months. My 2 cents: in case you don't know, there is a 30% tax credit up to $1500 for new wood burning stoves this year (and last year) from the feds. So.....since you've indicated that you do plan to purchase a new stove - whatever your budget turns out to be, you can bump that budget up (assuming you can wait for the credit to come back!) and get a bit of a better stove. Think about your house in terms of insulation, size, etc., and be sure to consider a stove that is bigger than what you need. For example, if your house is 1500sqft, get a stove rated for heating around 2000sqft. The square footage ratings provided by the stove manufacturers are for ideal situations. Having a somewhat oversized stove will give you flexiblity and you won't be trying to run a smaller stove full tilt and running a risk of overfiring. If you budget allows, definately think about following the advice of the poster who recommend buying a couple years of wood right now. Could buy one years worth of 'seasoned wood' - should be ready for next year, and one green (unseasoned) load for the 2011/2012 season, which should be well seasoned by the time you need the wood. Then, keep ordering wood for burn seasons two years ahead - you'll love having a constant supply of well seasoned wood. Of course, budgets matter! Also - having seasoned wood is good as gold - if you eventually decide against burning, you can recoup all of the costs of the wood by selling the well-seasoned stuff - typically goes about as fast as any commodity can! Best of luck to you and I'm sorry to hear about your husband. Cheers!
