"Significant Others"

[Henz]

Well there men, becasue I would say that 99% of the posters are men here, lets chat about the ladies of the house..How do they handle the stove?? I will start..Last year was the first year for the woodstove..I grew up with one, my wife of 4 years did not..So, last year was really a breaking in year for me with her..And I gotta tell you, she took to it really well..I think it really helped her when I explained to her the ins and outs of the stove, how it worked and all that..everything from how to prepare a fire from a cold start through the progression of adding wood, dampering and then re-adding wood..Anyways, she did really well last year and enjoyed the stove..She even would fill the wood ring in the house! although its right on the screened in patio off the kitchen..Nice to be able to grab wood in a snowstorm wearing your slippers..Anyways, last weekend was the first weekend that we started to burn again..I was off hunting on Sunday and she kept that fire going all day with no worries..So I guess she must ahve remembered!
The other nice thing is that she doesnt mind the time that it takes for me to cut and split the wood anymore..IT does take some time that is for sure, but she has realized that it is well worth the time and labor come mid January!


anyways, lets hear some of your stories..

 

[Corey]

Well, my wife is a great girl. Not uncommon to come home and find a fire already going. She will start the stove, stoke it, tend to it, etc. Still working on a few pointers to help get max efficiency, but she is mastering those too. As far as cutting wood, she prefers to pick up the pieces and load them, but she has had some instructional time on the chainsaw and felled a tree or two (with a little direction and reassurance). Also good at feeding me the logs when I am running the splitter and getting the splits back on the pile. Actually works out pretty good - I just pull the trigger on the chain saw and she does the leg work - then I just move the lever on the splitter and she helps out there, too.

Man, I could really use two of these girls!

Corey

 

[thephotohound]

My wife grew up with a wood stove, and I was the one that never had one in the house. My parents were into coal, then pellets. I always enjoyed going to her parents house to feel the warmth and ambience of a wood stove (they had a Woodstock Fireview, and we now have the Keystone). She helps me stack, but only if I ask. And again, she'll tend to it, but only if I ask. It is more or less "my deal"... With that said, she is in love with wood heat and if it were up to her, the house would always be 75-80!

 

[tradergordo]

My wife doesn't seem to mind helping out. She started helping me stack wood this year for the first time (last year I did everything). I made sure she learned how to start and reload the stove. The biggest problem she had last year (I should say "we") was moving wood from the woodpile to the stove - the wood is out back and even though you can take it up the stairs on the deck that is a pain, especially when you can haul so much more wood using a cart that can't go up stairs. The problem is there is a hill (which also gets slippery) going up the lawn to the garage in the front.

I solved this problem this year by building a crane to lift wood from directly behind the house to a window right next to the stove. I'll post some pictures of this contraption after I put the finishing touches on it. This will make it much easier to get wood to the stove, and will keep the "wood mess" inside the house to a minimum as well which should keep the wife happy. I was inspired by this: How to build a boom crane pully only mine is a little more high tech - I used one of these harbor freight electric hoists.

 

[ecfinn]

I posted something similar last year, but I'll glady brag about my wife again. Neither of us grew up heating with wood. I did go camping a lot as a kid and I'm an admitted pyro so heating with wood has a built-in appeal to me. My wife is a chemist by trade and grew up in a row home in the city. She'd never been camping until we met and never built a fire. We installed our insert last year (see link in my sig for install details) and burned about 3.5 cords last winter from late November through spring.

My wife adapted extremely well to wood-burning. She stays at home with our 2 kids so she's in charge of the fire and keeping the house warm while I'm at work. She did so well with that last winter she also ended up helping another stay at home mom learn how to use their wood burning stove. We have an insert, they had a top-loading stove of some type. Her friend's husband always complained that she couldn't keep the house warm during the day, so one day my wife decided to show her how easy it was. She lit the fire, got it roaring, dampered it down, and showed her the secondary burn. She also let her friend take credit for it with her husband. I was amazed (and more than a little bit proud of her!) Anyway, that's my story.

Eric

 

[carpniels]

HI Guys,

My wife has been very good too. We started lighting out little VC intrepid II in the winter once in while when it was cold. For the looks. Then oil prices started rising, I saw how cheap wood was and upgraded to a jotul Castine. In the mean time, kids arrived and we decided it was better for the upbringing of our kids that she stay home. Thus, the heat needed to be on 24/7 and oil prices kept rising. Then we added the second story to the house and we upgraded to a Quad Isle Royale. Now we have 3 sons and she is still home. Hence the OAK installation to improve indoor temps. And we are still burning 24.7 in the winter. She keeps up with it, adds splits when needed, etc. Most often, the kids take so much time she sort of forgets to maintain it perfectly, so when I come home, only coals are left. I get it going again, bring in more splits and all evening get the fire going for the night. The in the AM, I tend to it again, to get it going for the day. Then my wife takes over as well as she can.

So, all in all it has been very good. She understands that the $2-3K we save from oil heat allow her to stay home, which is what she really enjoys. She also understands that that takes work and she does it as well as she can.

Carpniels

 

[BrotherBart]

The little brown haired girl had never burned a fire until we moved here. For the first ten years until she got sick she was a natural born wood burner. Sometimes I would be gone for a couple of weeks on business and the stove kept rockin the whole time.

Now she regrets not being able to give the new stove a go but loves watching the fire in the bigger glass in its door and enjoys a whiff of the wood smoke when I open the door a little too fast.

 

[jpl1nh]

Ahhh My wife used an old smoke dragon for a few winters in Maine about 15 years ago as a supplemental heat source. They basically crammed it with wood and shut it down. :snake: Anyhow, she thinks I'm totally over the edge with all the detail about the stove and I haven't been able to get her to read about wood and stoves or let me teach her how to use it. She says she knows how to use a wood stove. NOT!! The other day I came home, it was 73 in the house which she and I are both comfortable with, it was 60 outside. There was smoke billowing out the chimney. There were just a few coals in the stove and she had put 2 medium size splits on them and somewhat shut down the air... I opened the air, put in a few small pieces of kindling and a couple more small splits to make as small a burnable load as possible and got it going so it wasn't just smoldering. Even with that minimal load the house got up to 77, too warm. Anyhow, I need to gently find a way to get her to learn the stuff she needs to know. Haven't been able to get passed the "I know how to run a wood stove!" yet. She can be very head strong (which most of the time I love about her) but at a weak moment she'll come around

 

[kwburn]

we both loved burning our fireplaces but i was the one to push for our first wood stove about 8 years ago. i bought a used piece of crap for $50.
i knew nothing about them at that time and paid a chimney sweep to install it in our fireplace. my wife was totally against the whole thing. first fire i tried to make i knew nothing about reversing the draft in the flue easily with a piece of newspaper stuck up the pipe a bit and proceeded to fill the house with smoke. she got on my case about how this was all a mistake and i walked out of the house cussing up a storm. after i cooled off and walked back into the house 15 minutes later she said "it's all set" and i went back into the room with the stove and she had it going fine. too funny.

after that the tension was broken over the whole thing and we fell in love with it all. have slowly upgraded and changed stoves several times and burn two stoves, one in each fireplace. she can get them started and maintain them just as easily as me.

it's definitely something we share a love for now. (for me it's more of an obsession) great topic.

 

[slowzuki]

My wife is great with the stove except we burn softwood whereas she grew up with hardwood so the fire often goes out, and she is in love with packing cardboard on top of the fire to get it lit hehe. I'm hoping to have my boiler running soon so she can just burn some slabs when she has a chill during the day.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

My wife grew up in Houston and never had to worry about heat...

Up here I had to show her how to handle the fire.

The first stove we had was a Dutchwest cat stove and was complicated with opening and closing dampers, ash doors, etc.

I took advantage of the Lowes 50% off clearance last year and picked up a Century. She likes this stove much better. She had mo problem feeding it to the point where I would come into the back room and it was 90 degrees in it! She was under a blanket probably to keep some heat off her!

I was shocked last week when I came home to a lit fire. She likes being warm... I think her comfort zone is 74 to 76 degrees.

She will help me stack, if I ask.

Overall she has been a good sport. She's had a lot of adjusting to do moving from TX to NY. She's coming right along.

Matt

 

[n6crv]

If we refer to our Wife as the Significant Other, does she refer to us as the Insignificant other? Always wonder when they are the better half, does that makes us the worse half? Just sticking up for us men.
Don

 

[rhetoric]

Neither my wife nor I had wood stoves growing up, though my family had a fireplace. We burned it on Sundays.

When gender roles were clearly proscribed, men used to define their masculinity by clearing land, plowing with Belgians, building post and beam barns, and whittling.

These days men define masculinity by grilling, maintaining control of the remote, and cleaning out the garage. Not alot of testosterone there. Before the woodstove, my primary purpose as husband and father of 5 (besides grilling, etc.), involved walking around the house and turning off lights and turning down the thermostat. My family's purpose is, of course, to turn on the lights (then leave the room), turn on the stereo (then go outside), and turn up the thermostat (and wear shorts and a tank top).

Basically, the woodstove allows guilt-free heat. I'm "frugal." My wife was always turning up the temperature, I was always turning it down (65) and my kids were always going outside and leaving the door open for penguins and I was always yelling at them.

After one year of a woodstove (last year -- new home) I could realize my dream to be a tightwad, and simultaneously my wife could be warm in her bare feet, my kids could be irresponsible and leave the door open, and I didn't have to yell at anybody. Plus, I get to chop down trees, run a chain saw, split and stack, and do other manly things, like grunt and spit. I even get a little buff doing all this work.

Once we started burning though, my wife saw what central heat does; makes us waste hundreds of dollars and, more importantly, disperses the family. Now we sit around the fire in the great room reading, playing music, and enjoying each other (put your TV in the cold basement and you watch way less). I'm happy because it's so cheap and she's happy because she's so warm.

Proof that she's converted? This fall she said, "I think it's important that we get a new stove so we're not burning our wood so fast."

 

[Rich M]

We both came from fireplace families. The house we bought together has a huge, very cool fireplace and we burned a lot of wood in it for many years. I always hinted about installing an insert but she didn't like the aesthetics. With fuel oil climbing she finally gave in and we picked out a style we both like. She agrees it has been one of the best improvements we've done to the house. It looks quite good really and reduced our fuel oil by 90%.

She's always helped with processing the firewood and takes pride in having a hand in it. She also likes starting and maintaining the stove, in fact she often gets better results than I do as she doesn't mess with it as much ;^)

 

[WILDSOURDOUGH]

My wife has always been an equal partner- though she doesen't cut with a chainsaw, she will stack, haul and tend a fire.
We are finishing up building our home and she has been better than any two guys I could not have hired. Give her the mesurement- and she uses the 12" chopsaw to give me a nice, correctly cut board. She nailed in ALL of the 250+ floor joist brackets and all the hurricane clips. She was my partner in standing all the SIP walls and Log siding. She stained every board-twice.A Real Trouper !
Have noticed that women like the house very warm- warmer that men would.

 

[elkimmeg]

My wife always complained about the stove never took any interest in it at all just Bit-h that if one little bit of smoke dirtied the entire house Never helped with wood gathering or stacking thinks I have too much wood. Thinks wood piles are ugly. She is always offering my wood to her friends a saying I have enough. Thinks I wasting my time here. But every now and then she will brag at work that we use so little oil. This went on this way for about 26 years then I got a smokeless top loader Now I get the suggestion are you going to fire the stove. All wife's are great at telling you how to do things I was replacing the kitchen window and she asked if I know what I was doing and can I make it look ok. I said No and that only other people pay me to do this. work When I bought my first backhoe which I still own she asked who would fix it so far I still have the same answer no one but me buttt butt you never fixed one before 1977 JD 500Cc still working as good as the day I bought it..

Call her skeptical After all I was good enough to build the home but not to replace a window?

Well I made a decision to purchase the cat Encore after 2 years of a new Resolute Acclaim Naturally if I consulted her she would have nix the deal but there are times when you have to
make your own decisions. Well she was not happy when I sold the stove for more than the replacement that helped Not getting up in the night for re-loads that helped having the home warner than before that helped leaving some easy splits for her to reload in the morning that helped Bragging to her friends she can run a stove more participation telling me how to run it is acceptance as all wifes tell you how to run your life. Saving over 25,000 gallons of oil not burnt priceless. I love my wife after 31 years it is no freak we are still together dispite all she is my best friend in the world everything evolves around her and hopefully the same for her Being carbon neutral and never paying for wood again priceless. She sometimes follows me around just to learn what I do to keep the home running incase I may not be around now she can opperate the wood stove I still do the cutting stacking and hauling it inside.

 

[BrotherBart]

Sign in a Texas barbecue joint: "Never criticize your wife's judgment. Remember, she married you."

 

[glassmanjpf]

This will be our third season with the stove. My wife is great she'll carry the wood in from the porch and keep it going all day when needed. She has no trouble starting a fire she has packed it out a little too much at times. Helps out with the splitting and even the stacking. A real keeper, can't beat it.

 

[jpl1nh]

Sign in a Texas barbecue joint: "Never criticize your wife's judgment. Remember, she married you."

Oh MY God is that priceless!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[CountryGal]

Sign in my kitchen:

All men are jerks and I married their king!

Present company excluded & he has a great sense of humor. He married me.