The smell of fall is in the air. Nights are getting cooler, leaves are turning colors, and the buzz of chainsaws fill my ears. It must be time to start cutting firewood and Lucian is super excited.

I like heating our house with wood because:

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• Wood is a renewable resource.
• The house stays warmer.
• It is less expensive than propane or natural gas.
• I have to go outside.
• You are heated twice with wood heat. Once while you cut, split, and haul it and twice when you burn the wood.

I prefer wood heat to other heat sources but there are a few disadvantages to using wood heat.

• I have to go outside.
• I have to cut, split, haul, and stack the wood.

You will notice that I have these items on both of my lists. We have an outdoor wood boiler which is a stove that heats water outside then pumps it into the house. The house is heated by the hot water and it is insurable because the wood stove is not inside the house. Insurance companies hate wood stoves inside your house, unfortunately. I both like and dislike having to go outside. It depends on the weather, fussiness of the kids, and if I just want to go to sleep rather than bundling up to fill the fire before bed. If it has been sleeting and is icy I try to convince Trenton to fill the wood stove before he goes to bed but usually we take turns.

Also there are days where I enjoy the process of cutting, splitting, hauling, and stacking firewood but there are other days where I want the job to complete itself. If it is sunny, cool and the kids are cooperative I enjoy being outside working but if it’s hot, cold or if the kids are fussy butts I just don’t feel like doing firewood that day. I guess it depends on the mood of the weather, the kids, and me.

Overall I enjoy using firewood for heat and we have already started working on our pile for the winter. I have a few blisters to show for it too. Last year I was pregnant with Penelope so Trenton did most of the work himself but I’m ready to help this year. Trenton cut a few logs for the kids and I to work on splitting and stacking during the week. After Lucian is done with school we go out there and work on it and Fiona, who is 2, likes to help load the wagon with smaller pieces of wood.

This may be a bit weird but working on firewood is Lucian’s favorite thing to do. He asks to work on firewood before and after school. He is planning to use his four wheeler to haul firewood and Trenton obligingly welded a hitch to it so he can pull the wagon. Fiona likes to help too but she does not have his enthusiasm for the work. She likes horses and wants to ride them all the time. Thank goodness our horse, Jack, is great with kids.

We have also had our first firewood related accident for the year. Lucian was putting tools away and dropped a splitting wedge on his toe. A splitting wedge is a heavy triangular shaped piece of metal used to pound into big, stubborn pieces of wood to split them. It warranted a trip to the ER but he did not need stitches and the toe is not broken. He did have to wear a medical boot for about a week so he did not bump his little toe on anything. Lucian was a bit animated about it because it was just like the one Grandma Linda is wearing. He will, hopefully, remember forever now that he has to have real shoes on when he is out working with wood. We have invested in a nice pair of workbooks for his little feet.