Well, the mail-order steaks are here. Thanks AE.

In 2001, Dr. Pierce sold me a woodstove for $50. It has heated my home for the past five winters (including this one). I recently found out that I could take a grill rack from an old electric grill I had and slide it on to a rack in the stove firebox. It fits very well on the ledge on either side about a foot above the wood charcoals. Salted, peppered, and wrapped in aluminum foil, the steaks cook very quickly in there. In fact, I have to remember to take them out before they overcook, because the woodstove is faster than my electric oven.

The same woodstove has been cooking my usual dish of rice-and-bean soup. The top of the stove is flat, and if I cover the pot the water stays at boiling temperature or almost. (I must cover the pot to sustain this temperature, though.)

Best fifty bucks I ever spent.

Jerry Abbott

The stove has saved me about $500 per year in home heating costs. I heated with propane in 2000.

Self reliance of burning wood you cut can't be beat! Never made more than water for hot chocolate, wife is afraid I'll go rustic on her. TOO LATE!

My ideal log for the woodstove is

* 20" long
* 5" in diameter
* still has the bark on
* high-density hardwood
* air dried for 16 months

The best hardwoods around here (Rodger's Mountain, 3 miles NNW of Hillsboro WV) are

1. Black locust
2. Hickory (mostly pignut)
3. Oak (mostly red, some white)
4. Black birch
5. Maple
6. White Ash

Certain softwoods are also common, especially

1. Yellow Poplar
2. Buckeye

The hardwoods burn better than the softwoods do. But softwoods are usually easier to get supplies of, easier to cut with chain saw, and easier to carry.

That's the perfect faggot. And the Latin word for oak is Quercus, or something like that.

I used to live on a pretty big and wooded land. I cut up fallen trees for firewood quite a bit. Lots of blow-overs and some lightening strikes. Mostly tulip and walnut. There had been plantings of these, and there was plenty of natural oak and maple too. Tulip is ideal, it's a hardwood that grows quickly of medium density. Walnut can be pretty hard and dulls chains quickly. There was also this tree with smooth bark that grew in a wet spot, and it was hard and denser than anything. May have been ironwood.

If they fell in dry areas I would let them age some where they lay so as to make it easier to haul them out without a tractor. You just cant let them sit too long or the bugs get to them.

I found generally the dryer the easier to cut too. I would split them though if any bigger than 4" diameter so they were easier to ignite.