Unplanned Perks Of Having A Wood Burning Stove

[carlo]

I got my stove to supplement my gas heat and add some ambiance, but since I have my stove what I've noticed is that my family has grown closer together. It would always be my teenage daughter was up in her room (door closed), my wife was in the kitchen, my son, when home, was up in his room (door closed) or the basement and I would be in the family room or mulling about independently.

What I have noticed now is that everyone is coming into the living room where the stove sits. Putting a TV in the room I'm sure helped a great deal too. But it's nice now to be able to talk with the kids without rush and spend some quality time in the warmth of a wood burning stove. I actually feel like the Waltons at times ....lol. We're not a close family in the sense of open emotions, except maybe for the wife, but we are no doubt a strong family unit. The stove I feel just brings us a little closer, especially as kids get older and think of their parents as uncool, or quibble when the parent has gotta draw the line in the sand.

It's amazing the unintended perks a stove gives and keeps giving. I could name more, but I'd like to hear some of your added perks.

 

[LLigetfa]

I'd like to hear some of your added perks.

Exercise, get to play with OPE.

No additional bonding here. Kids have long ago flown the coop. Wife doesn't involve herself in firewood activities.

 

[wood spliter]

That's a great perk. My family also enjoys the comfort of the stove. I find that I go in much more also even with the shows my and girls are watching. One added perk is the exercise you get from splitting wood.

 

[carlo]

^^^^^^^ Yeah ..... I found myself watching Desperate Housewives" with the girls ! Never thought that would happen ...lol

 

[summit]

Everyone here snugs right up to the thing: wife, kids, especially the dog. The most fought about seating spot in the LR is the side of the couch where the blower on the stove pushes the air toward.

 

[dispatcher101]

Get's me out of some chores...I would much rather reload the stove than do the dishes

 

[mikepinto65]

Get's me out of some chores...I would much rather reload the stove than do the dishes

+1!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

That is a good post Carlo. As you stated, it is just one of the perks, but one of the very best when it involves family.

 

[carlo]

That is a good post Carlo. As you stated, it is just one of the perks, but one of the very best when it involves family.

Especially these days. I can't help but notice the materialistic crap that is infesting our youth. Constant unnecessary communication with blackberry's or i-phones, $150 jeans, must have the newest gadget, etc. This nonsense is taking my family away from me. I don't mind technology, don't get me wrong, but the way it's marketed today is making us a more fractured society even though the lines of communication are more abundant.

I don't like this rat race I'm seeing these days. I wanna slow it down. This is all about making more and more money for the big corporations, and making more and more people debt slaves. I actually believe our technology has now exceeded human capability to a large extent. We have laptops out today that have enough memory and storage to last most people a lifetime, yet we keep buying the more advanced ones because "they" say it's cool. I'm not going there anymore. I buy what I need .... not what "they" say I need, and when trying to teach the kids this lesson a lot of friction develops in the suburbia I live in.

Since I have this stove, I feel like I'm taking a step back from the rat race. I have friends who put in heated floors in their bathrooms and kitchens and I laugh. I laugh at what they must be paying per month to maintain these ridiculous toys that society says we should have. I try to explain to my children the hype being thrown at us, but they refuse to see it. Sometimes sitting in front of the hot stove is just the right setting to engage them in conversation like this because the stove and heat seems to perform magic in opening their minds when I engage them in this dialogue.

I know many on this forum live out in very rural areas and are not as exposed to the rant I just finished. I'm very close to New York City and am in every way part of the rat race. Many of you guys and gals are lucky to be where you are. I wouldn't have said that 3 years ago, but I say it now. This stove has transformed me as a person. Of course, coming within a whisker of a 2nd Depression also factors into it ...lol. You see though the problem is that I don't believe we skirted the Depression. It just don't work like that in real life, although we'd like to believe it works like that. It's time to take a step back and prepare for more difficult times. Thank you everybody on this forum who have shown me how happy and fruitful life can be when dealing with the basics of life.

 

[begreen]

Sounds like you are ready downsize to a smaller home in the country. I grew up in the NY suburbs, but fortunately before they really developed. The moment I left high school I headed for the Berkshires and never looked back. I am just not a suburb kind of guy. However, life has not slowed down for me. That's more of an internal clock sort of thing. Keeping up our 2 acres, collecting wood, stacking it, tilling, planting, weeding gardens etc. has me hopping most every day.

Pick up some good board games that are universal in appeal. Play some Scrabble or a card game for some good one on one time. We just started playing Sequence. Or have everyone pick up an instrument and jam. It's fun!

 

[jharkin]

Perks...

Physical Health - I think I lost 5lb splitting a cord by hand in Nov.

Mental health - I find more often now I will choose to sit in the LR near the stove and read a book or listen to a record (the real 12" kind ) rather than rot my brain in front of the TV.

Psych health- more time with family... showing friends and family that there IS another way to life... knowing that in the event of an emergency we can be (slightly) more self sufficient than average.


Carlo-
I hear you big time. Wife and I use to live right outside Boston in an apartment... now we live 25 miles out in a house on a half acre... we dream of the day we can move a couple hundred miles out and buy a farm. We are very different from most 30somethings. sadly.

-Jeremy

 

[gyrfalcon]

Carlo, what you just described is the reason I worked 20 years to finally be able to get out of the suburbs.

 

[North of 60]

Carlo, what you just described is the reason I worked 20 years to finally be able to get out of the suburbs.

One of my dreams was to keep life simpler when moving up north. The wood stove has played a big part of it. My two young boys are always collecting wood for me when they are playing outside. They both keep their piles separate and fight about who,s is bigger. So far they will not let me burn any of it. :lol: When they turn 16 I am sure that it will not matter as much anymore. By then it will be surely seasoned. :lol: One is 3.5yrs and the other is 6.5yrs. To cool!
Great post Carlo.

 

[carlo]

Perks...

Physical Health - I think I lost 5lb splitting a cord by hand in Nov.

Mental health - I find more often now I will choose to sit in the LR near the stove and read a book or listen to a record (the real 12" kind ) rather than rot my brain in front of the TV.

Psych health- more time with family... showing friends and family that there IS another way to life... knowing that in the event of an emergency we can be (slightly) more self sufficient than average.


Carlo-
I hear you big time. Wife and I use to live right outside Boston in an apartment... now we live 25 miles out in a house on a half acre... we dream of the day we can move a couple hundred miles out and buy a farm. We are very different from most 30somethings. sadly.

-Jeremy

Sadly ? ... I think not. Don't let the marketing wizards make you think you're anything less than what you are, or they win the game of stealing your wealth.

I'd love to split wood, but it's not practical because I don't have a pick up truck to transport the wood, nor can I cut down a tree locally (and wheel barrel it) w/o someone calling the cops on me. But what I do enjoy doing is moving wood from one of my three 8' racks in my backyard to my smaller rack in my gazebo for quick access from the house. Although I don't do it often (once a month), it's physical work and kills some time on cold weekends.

I also purposely keep very few splits in the house (2 or 3). I prefer to go outside with the dog every time I need more wood. She (the dog) loves it and I get fresh air more so then just vegging out in the house. Also, when i'm outside smelling the wood burning always makes me feel content...... i just love that smell. Only one other home in my 32 home development burns wood, so I've missed that smell and never really realized it. Most people have gas fireplaces by me.

 

[skinnykid]

Alot of times I have to go to bed before the G/F because I have to wake up early to work. A lot of night the G/F just falls asleep on the soft leather couch from the heat of the stove. Giving me the entire bed to myself!! She calls it the black hole!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

That is a good post Carlo. As you stated, it is just one of the perks, but one of the very best when it involves family.

Especially these days. I can't help but notice the materialistic crap that is infesting our youth. Constant unnecessary communication with blackberry's or i-phones, $150 jeans, must have the newest gadget, etc. This nonsense is taking my family away from me. I don't mind technology, don't get me wrong, but the way it's marketed today is making us a more fractured society even though the lines of communication are more abundant.

I don't like this rat race I'm seeing these days. I wanna slow it down. This is all about making more and more money for the big corporations, and making more and more people debt slaves. I actually believe our technology has now exceeded human capability to a large extent. We have laptops out today that have enough memory and storage to last most people a lifetime, yet we keep buying the more advanced ones because "they" say it's cool. I'm not going there anymore. I buy what I need .... not what "they" say I need, and when trying to teach the kids this lesson a lot of friction develops in the suburbia I live in.

Since I have this stove, I feel like I'm taking a step back from the rat race. I have friends who put in heated floors in their bathrooms and kitchens and I laugh. I laugh at what they must be paying per month to maintain these ridiculous toys that society says we should have. I try to explain to my children the hype being thrown at us, but they refuse to see it. Sometimes sitting in front of the hot stove is just the right setting to engage them in conversation like this because the stove and heat seems to perform magic in opening their minds when I engage them in this dialogue.

I know many on this forum live out in very rural areas and are not as exposed to the rant I just finished. I'm very close to New York City and am in every way part of the rat race. Many of you guys and gals are lucky to be where you are. I wouldn't have said that 3 years ago, but I say it now. This stove has transformed me as a person. Of course, coming within a whisker of a 2nd Depression also factors into it ...lol. You see though the problem is that I don't believe we skirted the Depression. It just don't work like that in real life, although we'd like to believe it works like that. It's time to take a step back and prepare for more difficult times. Thank you everybody on this forum who have shown me how happy and fruitful life can be when dealing with the basics of life.

I recall many years ago when our children were still young but growing fast. I was usually working long hours so it was good when I got to spend time with them. However, I recall one day when I suddenly realized that except for sleeping, every time I was in the house the television was on. It didn't seem to make any difference if anyone was watching or not.

Naturally, if nobody was watching then I would turn it off. Soon I began telling my wife and kids to do the same. Then a week or two later I was observing on a weekend that my kids were doing school homework...and the tv was on. I turned it off and got yelled at! It stayed off but the kids had a difficult time finishing the homework. I kept observing from time to time and to make a long story short, the tv went off and stayed off.

We began to do things as a family. We played cards a lot at night. Walked or went cross country skiing together. Summer weekends were spent outdoors in the yard. I could not see where there was any reason we had to go somewhere to spend time together and this really worked. We all really started looking forward to weekends together....at home. We did many things as a family and as the kids grew we even hunted together. It was fun teaching the boys how to shoot rifle and bow. Yes, my wife also hunted. We took picnic lunches with us to the woods and met at an agreed time at an agreed place. We'd build bon fires and cook our dinners.

But as time went on work became more and more demanding. In management I ended up managing 2 areas and one was 160 miles away which meant I had to spend time away. I foolishly started heading to the other area quite often on Sunday afternoons so I could be there on Monday morning. As we grew I finally was at the point where I had enough with just the area where we lived so the travel time went away which was great.

However, in my zeal, being used to leaving on Sunday afternoon, I began working at my desk (at home) on Sunday afternoons. I felt this gave me a big head start on the week and things went well at work.

Then one Sunday afternoon, it was time for me to head to my office. We had been out in our yard spending quality family time but work called. About that time my oldest son, who had been having fun, asked me to do something else. I looked at my watch and told him I had to start some work at the desk. Suddenly a bomb dropped on me! My son sadly looked at me and asked, "Dad. How come you never seem to have time to spend with us anymore?" Bang! Crash! My heart sank.

Needless to say, no work got done that afternoon as the rest of the day was spent with my family. Yes, it took one of my kids to bring be back to reality. What was I actually working for? Why did I need the dollars? What did I really want in life?

That was the day my world turned around and we changed our goals in life.

Now the kids are grown, the grandkids are grown and it is just my wife and I. We planned on building our dream home but an unfortunate accident happened and that went out the window. But we do count our blessings. We have a little over 40 acres (paid for) which is mostly wooded. We live on a dead end road and have few neighbors but the neighbors that we do have are wonderful. We have no debt. Retirement is nice.

 

[Big Al]

An unintentional benefit? Spending hours of time enjoying the good clean fun with the fine folks here in the Hearth Room on Hearth.com Of course my PC is in the basement so I use the wife's laptop in the living room when I've got a fire going, like right now. I'm gonna miss this in the summer as I'm almost never indoors except to eat and sleep!! Maybe I'll bring the laptop out to the fire pit in the backyard this summer.....

 

[jharkin]

Sadly ? ... I think not.

By sadly I meant sad that more people don't say no to the rate race and materialistic lifestyle... I'm proud to be different than the McMansion crowd.

 

[snowtime]

Hard to see the unintended consequences out here. We have been solely living on wood stove and cookstove for over 40 years. The thing i do notice is our culture shock when we go to the city. We use to drive the 16 hours south to Vancouver, BC every other year to visit the kids. The boys both grew up out here and come home every summer [mainly to fish] but married city girls so thats that. When we get to the city we are both shocked at the lack ot time taken to experience life. Both my DW and I try to say hello to everyone we see, that has been interesting! It seems everyone is in a hurry and if you stop the rush to note something the grandkids will try to hurry you on. Driving is heart attack time for us. I drive a truck and am use to not seeing anyone for hours on the road. Technically our truck is illegal in the south, lots of driving lights etc. Cops who stop us always give us old folks a warning to take that stuff off. Luckily we never see that cop again. You would all probably laugh but when we pull out onto a busy street both my DW and I are involved in finding a hole to jump into.
We do not go south any more so the benefit for us is the kids all come here every year. Grandpa will not drive the 16 hours anymore.

 

[carlo]

Sadly ? ... I think not.

By sadly I meant sad that more people don't say no to the rate race and materialistic lifestyle... I'm proud to be different than the McMansion crowd.

atta boy ... ;-) As a 55 yr old guy, It's good to see some folks from your generation not spending every nickel you have on materialistic junk. Of course I speak in generalities of your generation .... nothing personal.

 

[thinkxingu]

I like playing with chainsaws, tractors, trucks, and tools--I get to do all these things if I burn wood.
Oh, yeah--and I like the 'family' thing, too. Except that my first little boy ain't due 'til June!

S

 

[Troutchaser]

Good post.
Wife just told me over the weekend that she felt like we lived in the Little House on the Prairie with the view of stacked firewood from the kitchen window.
I carry my six yr. old son to the stove every weekday morning so that he can feel the heat and wake up.
My fifteen yr. old daughter hovers over the top of a 600deg. stove top.
And momma is happy knowing she can finally feel real heat.

 

[NH_Wood]

Major perks:

1) at least 3 cord free per year from work property = $ benefit.
2) love being outdoors, in the woods, working on wood
3) the exercise of #2
4) love the looks of wood stacks on the property
5) wood heat in winter storm/electricity loss country is nearly a must!
6) controlling my own heating fuel source - from gathering to consumption
7) playing/working with tools/toys (atv, chainsaw, splitter, etc.)
8) stove coming soon - but being with the wife and 3 kids around the fire is a big expected benefit!
on and on!

P.S. My wife and I got rid of the tv in 1998 - rarely miss it! We rent movies and watch on computer, but.....never left with the temptation of vegging for hours and hours in front of the tube! And believe me.....I could veg for hours in front of the tv - as evidenced by what happens to me in hotels when away on work!

Cheers!

 

[Wood Duck]

Especially these days. I can't help but notice the materialistic crap that is infesting our youth. Constant unnecessary communication with blackberry's or i-phones,...

...or internet forums. Except, of course, this one.

 

[DawgDoc]

I also purposely keep very few splits in the house (2 or 3). I prefer to go outside with the dog every time I need more wood. She (the dog) loves it and I get fresh air more so then just vegging out in the house.

Not a bad idea !! http://likethedew.com/2010/01/14/copperhead-in-the-kitchen/