Done with fire wood

[ole fred]

Yes, the blizzard of 1978 taught me a life lesson. Nobody alive had seen it so cold for so long. Lots didn't have power for weeks. Very few but the dairy farms had a generator set We were lucky and didn't lose our power but all the neighbors did. The oil furnace ran for 2 weeks and never shut off. All we had beside that was a fireplace and no firewood. I've always felt very lucky that mom and I survived that mostly unscathed. The next summer we installed a wood burner in the living room and I've heated 99% with wood since. I guess this would be 46 years now,, not 48 as I posted in error earlier.

Ahhh, the blizzard of 78. I remember it well. We were burning only wood then with two stoves in a rickety old farm house with no insulation and single pane windows that rattled in the wind. We had plenty of wood, but it got covered up with snow. I had to dig it out.

I remember Indianapolis saying that we went 9 days and the temperature never got above zero and 30 some days it never got above freezing. It was windy also. My thermometer showed minus 26 one morning - with wind. That is the coldest I've ever seen. We had one thing in our favor. The snow was piled as high as the eves on the west side of the house, so the wind didn't bother us at all.

1979 was a bad one also, but not like 78 was.

I'm sure a lot of you guys in the northern plains see this quite often and just deal with it. Such is life. The older I get, the more the cold weather bothers me. We still have one wood stove that goes most of the winter with a propane furnace. I don't know whether the furnace would heat the house in the coldest part of the winter and don't intend to find out.

 

[BillET]

After 45 or so years of cutting, hauling splitting, stacking, dragging wood in the house. I am going to miss it. I am removing my antique Round Oak wood stove, and installing a natural gas stove. I can still work with my wood, but at 83, things can't go on forever, I have to stop sometime. I will probably stop my weed mowing business in a couple years also, depending on my health. So far so good. Been doing that a long time also. I will post a picture of my new stove when it's installed. Stan

I just fired up our old Sierra fireplace insert. It can heat our whole house when needed. It sure feels a lot better than our heat pump output. I'm also at 83 so all that wood prep does seem to take a bit more effort but moving more will likely keeps us around longer. (this is my first post .

 

[Geo-TH,In]

After 45 or so years of cutting, hauling splitting, stacking, dragging wood in the house. I am going to miss it. I am removing my antique Round Oak wood stove, and installing a natural gas stove. I can still work with my wood, but at 83, things can't go on forever, I have to stop sometime. I will probably stop my weed mowing business in a couple years also, depending on my health. So far so good. Been doing that a long time also. I will post a picture of my new stove when it's installed. Stan

Chief, i hear you.gettin olf sucks but the alternative sucks more.i have to hire some things I use to do.

 

[buickanddeere]

I have changed my values somewhat recently . Enjoy that retirement now instead of working . Life can change in a hurry . Leaving yourself either buried 6ft deep . A heathy body and a deteriorated mind . Or worst a heathy mind trapped in a ruined body .