It's nice to have dry wood

Thursday, 3:34 pm

By Kate

Nov

02

2006

Last weekend we had quite the weather event with pounding rain and high winds. The unexpected part, however, was the direction the temperatures took. I’d planned ahead and dragged a large supply of wood into the house to be ready for the colder temps we’d been promised. But instead of the temperatures dropping, they kept going up. I had a small fire in the stove on Friday night for a couple of hours to take the chill off, but it was too warm outside to keep it going. I’m up with that. I’ve used *way* less wood this year than I had by this time last year.

But, beginning tonight, we’re going to have an icy blast out of Canada (thankyew Canada) and I anticipate having a fire going for the better part of the next three days. All that wood I dragged in the house last weekend is nice and dry. Any moisture from previous rains is well and truly gone from this batch. It sounds like a minor thing, but you have no idea how happy that makes me. The sound of wood sizzling just makes me cringe. Even though I keep my wood piles covered, they still absorb moisture and when I’m burning wood non-stop, the residual moisture never has a chance to completely evaporate. On those occasions when I have a sizzle-free burn, it is simply luxurious.

We’re all going to be toasty warm in this house tonight. Prepaid, delicious heat. More bang for the heating buck than my gas furnace has ever delivered. And if it gets too hot, opening the door a crack is a totally guilt free exercise. I love my wood stove. Oh, I really do.