You Know You Are A Real Wood Burner When...

Yes to that... certainly by February, and often by the middle of January here. Those damned coal stokers just look so appealing sometimes...

-- Mike

when you get down to a cord of wood in late feb and start to worry about having to use the wood you had cut for next year and has only seasoned for a year
when you burn with an old stove and put out less smoke than your neighbor with his new EPA stove and you are tempted to go over their and ebrol him in wood burning 101

When the heater in your pick up doesn't work well and you wish there was some way you could hook up a wood stove in the cab.

When you consider your wood piles an aesthetic feature of your yard.

you've got a woodburner in your tent AND your deer stand

When you grab one piece of wood out off of the stack...and you remember splitting and stacking that one piece. (damn thing didn't split like I wanted it to which made it hard to stack....I showed it who was the boss last night!)

Your biggest thrill when driving in the country is seeing other people's wood piles.

you spend your lunch time at work rolling today's newspaper into knots.

the thought of a tree falling over in the woods brings a smile to your face and you think at least I won't have to fell that one
you walk thru the woods when hunting and pay more attention to which trees would be best canidates for fire wood than what you are hunting

...when you don't have a thermostat in the house.
...when you pick up chips and splinters in the snow around your chopping block for kindling...no matter how small.
...when the guy you buy wood from saves the larges diameter pieces for you because he knows how you love busting 'em up. (I got some 3-4 footers last year, woo hooo...)
...when the worst inconvenience associated with the power going out is having to reset your clocks.
...when guests gasp at your bringing a dual-wheel wheel barrow full of freshly split, snow covered wood right through the kitchen into the great room to stack near the hearth.
...when you wife thinks it is funny that your side of the bed contains bark and wood chips you've brought back to bed with you after checking the fire in your bare feet.
...when your wife brags to her friends about how 'hot' you are when you're swinging a splitting wedge.
...when you look forward to splitting wood every day regardless of the weather for 9 months of the year.
...when you can guess the date within a day or two just by the size of your remaining wood pile.
...when you can carry more wood in the crook of your left arm than any of your friends can carry in 3 loads.
...when you can split a 2 inch diameter branch with a 16# wedge and never worry about missing it.

Finally, you know you are a wood burner when the guy at the county fair with the Ring-the-Bell-with-the-Mallet attraction just hands you a bear when you show up.

Jahfre Fire Eater

-- when both of your childerens first words were "hot"
-- When you buy a brand new quad5700 for the new house and still look at the classifieds for new stoves
-- when you have 4 chimneys in your house and are making plans for the 4th
-- when the kids use the wood droppings in your stove room as a sand box
-- when you don't have to look for the cats and dogs. they are by the fire.
-- when the fuel oil tank is reading "0" and you still don't know what the oil companies name is
-- When your favorite words to hear are "sure cut as much as you like"

When you drive to cut wood and the chainsaw is in the front seat and the wife is in the back
Mike

I'd be divorced, wife loves the heat but not that much : )

when you read five pages of "you know you are a real wood burner when..." posts and can relate to just about everyone.

I can imagine someone driving by and seeing your wood pile Eric... :bug:

Yeah what is it like 40+ cord

It's true when they say great minds think alike....wood, wood and more wood!

Got you beat when you set down your chainsaw and pick up your rifle to shoot the 6x6 muley that just stepped into the clearing.

Just finished designing and building Our dream home on 20 acres,
And all I can think is, it's to big to heat with one stove, and am now secretly looking for more land to build a new "smaller" house on.

- When you are routinely late for events because you mis-timed your stove loading and it wasn't up to temperature before you had to leave for 5 hours. And rather then let the oil heat kick on you wait till its dampered down and getting good secondary burn before you feel comfortable leaving the house.

LOL Do that all the time! Just did it Saturday night