New Wood Stove and Fireside Dogs

"Heap logs and let the blaze laugh out."
                             Paracelsus

Temperature overnight got down to -24 degrees c; this is straight standing still reading.  The kitchen gauge read 11 degrees this morning, one of our coldest readings ever.  It took quite a while for our wood stove to get the temperature up to a comfortable level ( a relative feeling, I'm understanding).  As I write this, it is now 16.  We are applying the usual antidotes...decked out in layers of fleece, down booties on our feet, only venturing outside to get the paper, sipping hot chocolate. We are stopping just short of wearing ear muffs. Even the dogs are cuddled as close to the stove as they can get.



Fireside are our dogs, Rex and Murphy

 Our brand new wood stove is getting a good work out today.  We had a Vermont Castings Vigilente model for several decades. When it was removed last spring, it was like saying good bye to an old friend.  Our new stove, a Pacific Energy Spectrum Classic, features a beautiful window.  We had long lost the glass window feature in our old stove.  To now be able to watch the beauty of rolling flames over a full, glowing bed of coals is a real treat and certainly adds to the enjoyment of a wood fire experience.  We are burning mixed hardwood, a combination of beech, ash and oak and it is proving to be great firewood.

 Seems like winter has started hard and fast this year; it looks like we are sure going to need our reliable stove and lots and lots of wood.