A wood burner knows winter has arrived when???

[elkimmeg]

you look at your once proud wood pile and realize you have already burnt a cord

or you look East and with your middle finger solute Opec

You see frequent visits of the local oil man in the neighboorhood, but no large truck tire tracks are evident in the snow in your yard

When you start looking up at your chimney to see how clean you are burning

 

[BrotherBart]

You hear the back up alarm bell ringing on the propane truck backing up your neighbor's driveway and you are grinning as you go pour another cup of coffee and put another split in the stove.

(The same neighbor that tried to get up a petition in the neighborhood to get natural gas in here when they built the house.)

 

[kd460]

No more hair on the back of your hands left to burn off.
The warehouse that gives away pallets has no more to give.
The "usual" ash dumping spots in the yard have all been used already.
The wife has finally remembered to open the damper after adding a load of wood, and understands how to close it off based on the looks of the flames.
You have to darn near kick the dog to get her to move out of the way for reloading.
You stopped trying to keep the hearth grout clean-a sweeping is good enough.
You look forward to reading the gas bill-especially the part that compares last years usage to current usage (this is my first winter with insert).

 

[Swamp Fox]

When you arrive home, get out of the car, smell the odor of burning wood, and realize you have a toasty warm house waiting for you.

 

[adrpga498]

Your current burn season supply of wood has been relocated from way in the backyard to just outside the back entry. No need to trape through the oncomming snow.

 

[wg_bent]

There are some peices of wood frozen to the ground and you work to get them up since they might rot a little in the spring.

There are empty pallets near the pile that once held 5' tall stacks of wood.

You start digging into the bigger splits of higher BTU wood for the good overnight burns.

You stop opening the windows to cool off the house when the stove is running

 

[hardwood715]

There are empty pallets near the pile that once held 5’ tall stacks of wood

Hey Warren I got a hole in my fence now!

When the cats give off a light show at night as they rub against anything in the house from the static electricity.

When same cats refuse to use the cat doors and crap outside, you find the litterbox has more activity.

When you go to empty the ash bucket that you lazily doused with water, only to find a nice hunk of cement in there, wheres the wedge and sledge.

When you sneak out at 5am to shovel your driveway before all the old ladies come out with shovels and act as though they are going to flat line right there in the snow if you dont go shovel thiers too!

 

[babalu87]

While in your treestand hunting in your back yard (Saturday AM was in the teens) you are watching the smoke from the chimney wondering what you got out of bed for.

Also, your 4 year old son asks when we are building the next nice warm toasty fire so we can warm our hands