New Toys For Christmas ????

[Wade E]

I hear ya there Appleman as I would love to get a fireplace but the price to have 1 done is expensive. I can get so much cut off wood from work that its not funny and I know thats a lot of small stuff but it would help quite a bit as 2 other guys use 2 full loads of oil a winter with all the wood they grab and they are lazy. We throw so much burnable wood in the dumpster that I just cry. I go through a full 330 gallon tank every 1 1/2 last year and have cut the thermostat back a few degrees this year and will only get another 2 weeks out of it by the looks of it, maybe 3.

 

[chevyguy65]

We are hoping for a floor corker

. And for the Public to behave themselves for one day so I don't have to work on Christmas!!!!!!!


As far as the cost of heating... We keep the heat around 67during the day and 65 at night . The colder it is in the house the better for keeping warm by snuggling withMrs Chevy!!

 

[Wade E]

I have mine set at 63-64 during the day and 61-62 at night.

 

[NorthernWinos]

We burn wood...Have an old antique coal furnace that we brought with us when we moved from our old place...have had it in 3 houses now....it's all cast iron...Put 3 oak sticks in there at a time, updated it to forced air and runs through air ducts throughout the house.....It's above zero tonight..+5*F...[what a heat wave]...It's so hot in here tonight, the dogs are going to be panting unless I open the window more....


Insulation and good windows are a big help to hold your heat inside...worth the money to take care of that first...a tight house is most important.


Jim went to town and got some #1 fuel oil to add to the tractor so it will run in the cold...think it was $3.82 a gallon...ouch!!! Not sure what heating oil and propane is around here...an arm and a leg, maybe.

 

[chevyguy65]

Wade were you "cold stabilized" when you were young and aging?

....... when I was deer hunting this year and came home each night even 65 felt hot! After sitting all day in a tree stand at 20* you kinda get used to the cold.


Im just wishing for things to go right with my kids the next year.My Oldest had a car accident this week.were she was rear ended and then pushed into another car so her first car she bought by herself is all banged up. She came out of it with a pretty sore neck, but shell be fine .My middle daughter is who normally is a 4.0+ student has her gradesslipping (plans to attend MIAD in Milwaukee), and the second youngest boy is having trouble LISTENING in school and at home!!!


If things for them could get better thats all we want for Christmas.

 

[grapeman]

I have mine set at 63-64 during the day and 61-62 at night.

Turn that heat down at night Wade! Keep it under 60 for best results unless you sleep in twin beds

 

[OilnH2O]

NW -- I lived in Alaska along the Yukon River for 5 years back in the early 80's -- and heated with wood for two of them. I was single at the time, and had to let the fire go out when I'd have to head to town and always came back with an extra jar of mayonaisse because I just knew the odds were, even in the root celler, if it got cold enough it would freeze and separate. One time I came home to a dozen bottles of wine with the corks pushed up through the foil! THAT is cold!

I went through a lot of jars of mayo before I got oil, and even that was pretty sluggish at -50* below! Oh, and it was 15 cords the first winter, 11 the second, all through a Vermont Castings Defiant. Now it's 68* in the daytime and 62* at night on the programmable thermostat. I figure I've earned it!

(

Oh -- and the two fireplaces in the house are gas!)

 

[grapeman]

And I assume those were full cords OilnH20? As you aged you got softer and had to move to the warmer climate of the Rockies! Did the deer leave your vines alone or have they helped prune them?

 

[Waldo]

Some of my fondest memories as a child was our family gathered around the fireplace in the winter. Dad had an old iron skillett that he had attached a hickory handle to that was about 2-3 ft long and we would roast peanuts, pecans and even walnuts. Sing songs, Dad would tell us scary ghost stories and then it was off to the cold bedrooms where every shadow was animaginary monster hell bent on eating me alive.

 

[NorthernWinos]

We brought in firewood today to the wood/furnace room.


This is the old relic furnace that came in the old farmhouse where we use to live....We put it in a new house that we built down there and when we moved out the new owners said we could have it because it was so ugly and they didn't want to cut firewood....we love it...it has been keeping us warm since 1971.


We have a new gas furnace beside it that we can't afford to run...plus the heat isn't as nice and continuous as wood heat. We also have electric baseboard heat throughout the house and electric hot water heat in some of the floors, only turned on out in the sun porch now....our electric heat bill for last month was $7.52...but spent over $200 blowing air on the grain bins.

This much firewood should last till March...then we will bring in some more.


It was +17*F today [balmy] but I think that firewood was still -24*F from the other morning. Jim brings it up from the pile with the loader on the tractor, throws it through a door onto the floor and I stacked it....That room is a lot cooler now till that wood thaws out and warms up...it really cools off the room.

When we get rich and can afford gas heat...or get too decrepit to cut wood...I think that room would make a good wine making area...