Warmth

I guess I can't leave the wood stove out of our list of projects this winter - even if we didn't do the work ourselves.  

I almost gave up on a real fire and the toasty heat of our wood stove and I was thinking about installing gas logs instead after we got bad news about the condition of our chimney and the danger of using our old wood stove.  But Wade, the retired AA County fire fighter and sole proprietor of Smokin' Chimneys, came along and now we are back in business.

I know she's not pretty, that big 'ole black hunk of iron sitting in our fireplace opening, but she can take the chill out of the air in our house within an hour and have us parading around barefoot in our shorts when it's below freezing outside.  

With all of the available firewood in this area, it's hard to justify abandoning a functioning wood stove.  Now, all we need is some real winter weather so we can get some payback on our investment in the Black Beauty!