Wood stoves......My favorite part of having a "cottage"......

[Runs With Scissors]

As a "city slicker" , I have lived my entire life with "natural gas" heat.

Just walk over and push the button, and about 10 seconds later, you hear a "whoosh" as the furnace kicks in.

And thats good.

But I remember when my grandparents "retired" and moved "up north", they added on a room and it had a "wood stove" for that room/area........I was infatuated with that damn thing.....loved it.

Well when we bought this place, although it was nice, and has "propane heat" .....I craved a wood stove.

After about 2 years, my memories of 'Grandpa's wood stove" got the better of me, and I said......."F' it...I'm getting one"

A little research, and about $6K later I had one......

after much research, I installed it myself and I can honestly say, it is my favorite part of having a cottage.

It is some work, and I have to "tend to it", but I love it.

When I am up here in the cool months; ........every night, I fall asleep by it's warmth.................then my drink falls over into my lap, and my pecker gets a "cold shower" and I jump up and yell "DAMN IT!!!!"

Good times.........

 

[Mitjam]

As a "city slicker" , I have lived my entire life with "natural gas" heat.

Just walk over and push the button, and about 10 seconds later, you hear a "whoosh" as the furnace kicks in.

And thats good.

But I remember when my grandparents "retired" and moved "up north", they added on a room and it had a "wood stove" for that room/area........I was infatuated with that damn thing.....loved it.

Well when we bought this place, although it was nice, and has "propane heat" .....I craved a wood stove.

After about 2 years, my memories of 'Grandpa's wood stove" got the better of me, and I said......."F' it...I'm getting one"

A little research, and about $6K later I had one......

after much research, I installed it myself and I can honestly say, it is my favorite part of having a cottage.

View attachment 141604

It is some work, and I have to "tend to it", but I love it.

When I am up here in the cool months; ........every night, I fall asleep by it's warmth.................then my drink falls over into my lap, and my pecker gets a "cold shower" and I jump up and yell "DAMN IT!!!!"

Good times.........

You are right there is nothing better than feeling of wood heat. We used to have a boiler outside and that heated the house, garage and 30x40 shop it would take up to 4ft long logs. By friggin march though I was so sick of cutting firewood and keeping that SOB going. But I survived, and now have a wood fireplace downstairs that I can sit by and watch the Edmonton oilers lose on tv

 

[rc51stierhoff]

Right on.

Whether at home or place up North, I like waking up and still having enough coals that I can just reload the box (no matches) and go get the coffee started. By the time the coffee is ready I can hear the stove heating up (ticking noise / thermal expansion).

The one below has two tier cook top and we use that a lot in cool months. We pre make chili and casseroles and it’s real easy then to set on there to warm it up. It’s really nice on a cold evening in the treestand to come in load stove and set dinner on top. Takes patience though…sometimes it could take one if not two before the chili is bubbling.

 

[skeets]

I grew up with a coal furnace, and when I got married we had gas forced hot air heat,, and that sucked I mean turn up the dial and you got heat, never a nice warm heat just hot then off and back and fort, not like the coal furnace I grew up with. So when we got our second home on the ridge, I put a wood stove in, against much distain from the other half. You know dirt, dust, bugs,, the whole thing. The unit had a fan and I made a filter box for it and tied the heat in to the air ducts. And low and behold that winter, she said why are these floors so warm,, duhhhhh. But now, 50 some years later I still have a wood stove but cant cut wood any more, and when you ask your (FRIENDS) to help cut wood,,, its kinda like when you ask them to help bailing hay. Maybe I can buy a ton of coal ?

 

[mikester]

Building a fire in October is enjoyable but by March it has become a chore to keep it going!

 

[bbxlr8]

I love mine! I also never had one until moving to PA 14 years ago, and I'm a convert. Coincidentally, the L2501 & grapple makes easy work out of my clean property clean-up, which becomes a two-fer cutting the oil bill down to misc. It was a stretch moving here & WS was a game-changer in reducing costs - Now it's just fun, but I do agree that it gets old by March!

 

[Pawnee]

I love everything about wood heat, felling, bucking, splitting, stacking, carrying in a load in the snow, lighting the fire, and the smile on my wife's face.

Almost all of that was split with the above axe, I do need diesel assist at times though.

 

[JimmyJazz]

As a "city slicker" , I have lived my entire life with "natural gas" heat.

Just walk over and push the button, and about 10 seconds later, you hear a "whoosh" as the furnace kicks in.

And thats good.

But I remember when my grandparents "retired" and moved "up north", they added on a room and it had a "wood stove" for that room/area........I was infatuated with that damn thing.....loved it.

Well when we bought this place, although it was nice, and has "propane heat" .....I craved a wood stove.

After about 2 years, my memories of 'Grandpa's wood stove" got the better of me, and I said......."F' it...I'm getting one"

A little research, and about $6K later I had one......

after much research, I installed it myself and I can honestly say, it is my favorite part of having a cottage.

View attachment 141604

It is some work, and I have to "tend to it", but I love it.

When I am up here in the cool months; ........every night, I fall asleep by it's warmth.................then my drink falls over into my lap, and my pecker gets a "cold shower" and I jump up and yell "DAMN IT!!!!"

Good times.........

Consider building yourself a Finnish Sauna. Look up Kuuma sauna stove. I use mine weekly and love it. Thats an old milk house that I built it in, about 10 years ago. I too am a city slicker and share
your love of wood heat at the cabin.

 

[Sawburner]

We used to have a wood stove, it was great, get home from work and sit close to it till I warmed up then just move away till you're comfortable. Then the wife said it's dirty so we got an outside wood furnace, oh boy you like to cut wood get one of them. We were cutting three 10 wheeler loads a year to heat the house and detached shop. The house has hot water baseboard the shop has one of those radiator type with a fan. We now burn rice coal with the furnace in a separate building. Don't miss spending our weekends cutting wood, retired and too old to do it now, my back can't take it.

 

[hedgerow]

I heated with two wood stoves actual three one in the shop for twenty years and loved the wood heat. In 2003 we remodeled this three story farm house and moved in. In 2005 installed a Garn wood boiler in the pole barn to heat the shop and house and domestic water. Burned between 10-15 cord of hedge a year. Its a lot of work. Had to repair it twice and in Aug 2024 it was completely done. It needed a total rebuild. Took it out and I guess this year we are using propane. Not for sure if I am going to spend another twenty or thirty grand to burn wood again. I need to buy another propane tank so I have heat in my shop this winter.

 

[GeoHorn]

A wood stove is nice indeed. I have a large stone fireplace and it’s one of the joys of winter.

 

[Moose7060]

A wood stove is nice indeed. I have a large stone fireplace and it’s one of the joys of winter. View attachment 141672

I agree completely! One our cabins has a stone fireplace. Our dogs always like them, I bet yours does as well.

 

[Mark_BX25D]

Building a fire in October is enjoyable but by March it has become a chore to keep it going!

Building a fire in October is enjoyable and by March it's very sad that I have to shut it down for the summer.

I LOVE heating with my old Fisher wood stove. It was in the house when I bought it, but if I were building a brand new house with an unlimited budget, I would have a difficult internal debate between buying a new-fangled wood stove with a window, and shopping around for a used Fisher. They generally go for around $800-1200 for the Grandpa Bear, in my area.

If I ever get to build my dream shop, it's probably going to get a Grandpa Bear.

 

[Botamon]

I heated with a wood stove most of my life. And would still be doing so but finding firewood is a problem here in northern Nevada. The last few years I used my stove I was driving 240 miles (480 miles round trip) into Oregon to pick up loads of firewood but then that source began drying up. I see on Facebook Marketplace someone around here is selling firewood...for $250 a half-cord!

Heating with a pellet stove now. Its OK but after several years I still can't get used to the noise of the stove - several electric motors, a couple fans working to produce heat. And the heat is cyclical - when the stove shuts off I can feel the room get cold. Whereas the wood stove put out constant heat that I loved to vegetate next to. If I could just get access to good firewood at a decent price I'd go right back to heating with wood.

 

[KKBL]

We heated a large house for 30+ years with a Jensen wood furnace. Used about 5 to 6 cord of wood per year. It is a lot of work, but provides nice even heat compared to the oil furnace. Have the trees and equipment, but starting to run out of steam to do it.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

I like having the combination of propane and wood.

If it was the "only" source of heat, it might not be as appealing due to the constant work. (not to mention that the pipes would freeze when we are not here)

My neighbors have an outside boiler and they like it, but I am not sure I would.

There is something about watching the fire that is memorizing so having the glass door is awesome and you lose that with the outside boilers.

The "inner prepper" in me also likes that if the SHTF, I could heat the place reasonably well without electricity.

 

[Sidekick]

That's all we use. Love our Jotul Oslo. Free heat from EAB killed ash for years. Just lit her up to take this mornings chill out of the house.

Sun is up, better pic. Get one of the eco fans for good circulation

 

[JimmyJazz]

Building a fire in October is enjoyable and by March it's very sad that I have to shut it down for the summer.

I LOVE heating with my old Fisher wood stove. It was in the house when I bought it, but if I were building a brand new house with an unlimited budget, I would have a difficult internal debate between buying a new-fangled wood stove with a window, and shopping around for a used Fisher. They generally go for around $800-1200 for the Grandpa Bear, in my area.

If I ever get to build my dream shop, it's probably going to get a Grandpa Bear.

View attachment 141682

Make it happen, its later than you think.

 

[L35]

I’ve been heating my main living area 24/7 during cold months since 2010 with wood and I do enjoy it. I’ve been running a Blaze King, King Ultra. I keep 3 years worth on hand and burn about 4 cord a year. Getting ahead on wood is key so it is actually seasoned and less than 20% moisture content by the time its burned. Most sellers (around me at least) have wood in log form sitting for a year, maybe less. Then they split it in the fall and call that seasoned. Wood burners buy this inferior product and it smokes, sizzles and self extinguishes then they get frustrated and throw in the towel. Another key to having 3 years worth is if you have an off year due to injury, etc you are still able to burn confidently the following winter.

 

[mcmxi]

My house came with a Canadian wood burning stove in the form of a Pacific Energy Super 27 and I use it all winter long to the heat the house. I keep the thermostat at 50F and the 25ft tall flue does a great job of bringing the house up to 65F.

The first thing I do in the morning is let my dog out, then I turn on the espresso machine, then I get a fire going. My Great Pyrenees loved the fire, as does my Heeler mix.