Wood Stove – Page 2 – New England's Narrow Road

New Fire Brick – The Heat is On!

Last December the northeast had a horrific ice storm and the electricity was off for 8 days at my place. I had just moved in and although there was a spot in the basement for a wood stove, I didn’t have one.

So due to the kindness of my landlord and neighbors, I didn’t freeze, but I sure was cold. Inside my house the temp. hovered around 38-40 degrees. In fact one day it “warmed up” enough that I opened the windows because it was warmer outside.

So I made it my quest to find a wood stove before the next winter arrived.
I also don’t have much money, so a used one was what I hoped for and I ended up with a good size “All Nighter”, but it was missing most of the fire bricks inside.

I was told that it could be run without the bricks, but if the fire was too hot the sides could warp so I got some bricks just to be safe.

The bricks just set in along the sides and it’s not difficult to do if the bricks are the correct size and if there are not old bricks, broken off and stuck to the sides already! That was my problem.

So someone came out and put them in for me. I don’t know for sure, and information online is hard to find, but a friend bought a new stove and had to burn on a low temp for 40 hours to “cure” the bricks so I will do the same just to be safe.

I just found lots of helpful info at the UNH Cooperative Extension site, so go there if you have questions about heating with a wood stove.

The Chore of Stacking Firewood

I just finished stacking my cord of firewood. I have been limited to doing a little on each nice day we’ve had this summer- all 3 of them!

Seriously, the rain just won’t quit. My pile of wood was delivered in April after I found the cheapest price in the paper and paid $170 to a nice guy who told me it would be a “mix” after I asked what kind he had. Also, it is green wood, not seasoned, but I figured I’d have the hot, sunny summer to help dry it out. HA!

One cord of "green" wood — One cord of “green” wood

So he dumped it at the side of the house in the most shady area of the yard and it has been sitting there getting moldy and full of snails because I only got part of it moved before the rainy month of June arrived. I’m living in a rental, and the wood has to be moved down a hill and stacked near the basement door. Then I will lug it into the basement where my wood stove will be hooked up. After living through a long winter power outage right after I moved in here, I needed to think about finding an alternative heat source.

I finished moving it this past week and it’s a load off my back! In more ways than one.

I’ve read that a cord of wood is officially 4 feet wide, 4 feet high, and 8 feet long. It seems that I have at least a cord. In fact it’s a lot more than I expected. The one drawback to the wood I bought is that some of the pieces are huge! They probably should be split. I might have to learn how to do that and see if I can manage. There is no man in my life who will do it for me.

Oh, I do have one other little problem. I don’t have a wood stove yet. *Update: I bought a used wood stove. Read my story “How to Buy a Used Wood Stove“.

More sites of interest to those of you who burn firewood:
woodheat.org

Power Outages in Winter

When I first wrote this post, I was new to blogging and pretty new to life in New Hampshire. I love the state, but living alone with a child and no man to help out was tough. I had to do all the things a husband would have done. From snowplowing the driveway and shoveling out the mailbox to buying and stacking firewood for winter, everything was on me.

For the most part I did okay. It helped to keep me in good shape as long as I didn’t overdo it. I was not young at this point, but having firewood was important. This place was my second rental after losing my home due to my ex-husband’s failed business venture. Right after I moved in here, we had an ice storm and were without power, or heat, for 7 days. I never had a chance to prepare, but it was a cruel lesson that made me take action. The temperature inside my place was in the 40’s. I slept in my winter coat, inside a sleeping bag!

The following winter we lost power for a few days again, but thankfully I had my woodstove by then, and plenty of wood to burn.

Now I Need a Wood Stove

In May I found a guy who charged only $170 for a cord of “green” wood to be delivered so I ordered some. It will have to sit and dry out (fat chance with all this rain we’ve been getting) during the summer and hopefully will be ready to burn by winter.

I didn’t grow up with a wood stove, but we did have two fireplaces and I don’t know how much my parents paid for heat, but I remember always being cold as a kid.

This past winter I paid almost $1800 for oil to heat my small house and I kept the thermostat set at 64 most of the time. I also suffered through 8 days without any heat at all in December when a horrific ice storm came through. Thanks to my nice landlord and neighbors who had wood stoves, I was able to sleep on couches and heat canned soup up on the top of their stoves. I had just moved into my place in September and hadn’t had a chance to think about getting a wood stove- so of course that was when I needed it most.

I’m thinking that it’s a good thing I bought it early because most of the month of June has been too rainy to move the wood to the piles I had started. I’m hoping for sun soon to dry it out.

And now I just need to find a stove.