Autumn and winter are my two favorite seasons of the year and burning wood to heat our home is a big reason why.
I thoroughly enjoy building fires in our stoves and watching the fires burn. I grew up in northern Ohio and we lived in a rural area where most folks burned their trash in a barrel out back. As a kid this was one of my daily chores. We had a 50 gallon metal barrel with holes poked in the bottom and sides with the pointed end of a pickax. The barrel sat up on a couple of cinder blocks to promote air flow up through the bottom. I can still recall the feeling standing out there on a crisp autumn afternoon just before dusk tending the burn barrel. Maybe this is where my joy of making fire began.
Here in western NC where my wife and I now live we're getting awfully close to the end of our burning season. During the past couple of weeks I've only built a few small fires to take the chill off things every few days or so. Like a lot of members up north and along the east coast we are in the midst of a cold blast that brought us below freezing temperatures last night and tonight they are predicting it will get down to around 25 F. So, last night I was able to once more build a "real" fire in the living room stove and spend a couple hours lying on the sofa after my final reload watching the fire burn. I do this nearly every night during the burning season and enjoy it immensely. I put some quiet music on the stereo and settle back with a glass of wine and let the day's events wash away in front of the wood stove.
I know the winter has been a harsh one for a great many folks and I suppose the majority of the members here at the forum are ready for spring and some warm weather. For me, I wouldn't mind having another month or two of burning each year, except I wouldn't enjoy having to work up the extra wood all that much. I'm already thinking about next October when the leaves start changing color and I'm hauling wood inside to get a fire going!
I thoroughly enjoy building fires in our stoves and watching the fires burn. I grew up in northern Ohio and we lived in a rural area where most folks burned their trash in a barrel out back. As a kid this was one of my daily chores. We had a 50 gallon metal barrel with holes poked in the bottom and sides with the pointed end of a pickax. The barrel sat up on a couple of cinder blocks to promote air flow up through the bottom. I can still recall the feeling standing out there on a crisp autumn afternoon just before dusk tending the burn barrel. Maybe this is where my joy of making fire began.
Here in western NC where my wife and I now live we're getting awfully close to the end of our burning season. During the past couple of weeks I've only built a few small fires to take the chill off things every few days or so. Like a lot of members up north and along the east coast we are in the midst of a cold blast that brought us below freezing temperatures last night and tonight they are predicting it will get down to around 25 F. So, last night I was able to once more build a "real" fire in the living room stove and spend a couple hours lying on the sofa after my final reload watching the fire burn. I do this nearly every night during the burning season and enjoy it immensely. I put some quiet music on the stereo and settle back with a glass of wine and let the day's events wash away in front of the wood stove.
I know the winter has been a harsh one for a great many folks and I suppose the majority of the members here at the forum are ready for spring and some warm weather. For me, I wouldn't mind having another month or two of burning each year, except I wouldn't enjoy having to work up the extra wood all that much. I'm already thinking about next October when the leaves start changing color and I'm hauling wood inside to get a fire going!
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(that's point eight) according to the digital thermometer! We'll just round up and call it 1 above zero! I guess I will go snowmobiling after work these upcoming weekdays; no sense in even trying to trout fish...
