This is a great post. I was going to add another post about stoves so I am so glad you did.
Our house is 98 years old and the wood heat is far more efficient than the fuel oil heat. We couldn't afford the fuel oil to heat this house. We would go broke trying.
We have 2 wood burning stoves.
One is a Quadra fire 4100i fireplace insert. It is in the livingroom and we use it every day in the cooler months to heat the main room of our house. Ignore the dog. She lives in that spot from the first time we start up in the late fall until I shut it down in the spring.
The second stove is a Fischer baby bear. It is in my kitchen. The back addition to the house doesn't have heating and the wood stove is required. This stove will run you out of the house when it gets to going. It took me the first winter to learn to regulate it so that the heat was constant and not a boiling rage. I cook on this one in the late fall right through until we stop using it in early spring. I figure why waste the energy to run my oven and stove top when I already have dual purpose energy at my finger tips.
I have learned to cook many things on this stove and I love it. The above photo is of my kids most favorite winter pancakes - pumpkin. They are like eating great pumpkin pie. They are so good for the fall season. I'll have to share the recipe.
I don't think any thing can match the heat of wood. When you are chilled to the bone it is wood heat that soaks in and warms you up.
Having come from Ga to Va I tell you the first year we almost froze to death up here. My husband makes fun of me all the time but he has always lived here and he doesn't comprehend the adjustments our bodies had to make to come from there to a land of snow and ice and freezing cold weather.
If you get a chance to have a woodstove don't pass it up. Also take precautions and have your chimneys and stove pipes inspected and cleaned at least once a year by a licensed chimney sweep. I had both of mine done last week.
Southern - you should have taken the stove! They don't go bad you could have saved it for later when you have your 20 acre farm.
