First time this season…

…I’ve lit the woodstove twice in a morning.


The only problem with a stove like this, in a very small cabin, is that it’s either too much or nothing. Keep it stoked and it’ll drive you right out of the cabin. Let it smolder and it’ll go right out. Yeah, some say stoke it high and open a window but that’s a silly waste of hard-bought firewood.

My plan, to the extent that I had a plan, has been to replace it with a blueflame heater when I go on social security and actually have money for fuel. But I’m really not sure that’ll work out in terms of hauling propane bottles plus I’ve lost faith in blueflame heaters from watching the experiences of neighbors. Probably there’s a vented furnace that would make use of the stovepipe but I haven’t done any research. I just know that as I get older, keeping the stove in wood seems to be helping me get older quicker.

Tobie’s having a nice morning…


…lounging around while dispensing justice to one of his leather bones.

About Joel

You shouldn't ask these questions of a paranoid recluse, you know.
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11 Responses to First time this season…

  1. WJW says:

    Why not a wall mounted direct vent (through the wall) heater?

  2. Joel says:

    There’s no outside wall there.

  3. TP in SC says:

    I understand the challenges of a wood stove but keep it in place, even you go to all gas heat. A wood stove is the ultimate provide for yourself heat and cooking source when all else fails.

  4. paulb says:

    94 year old mother in law still heats with wood. Son cuts it and provides it, but she still uses that to heat with. She lives in the middle of Missouri so never gets really cold.

    She also uses oak a lot of the time.

  5. Fred says:

    How tiny is your cabin? We use that same stove to heat a 264 sq ft RV. I’ll light it and burn a couple of three sticks of oak at wide open to build a bed of coals and then I’ll close the vent down and keep a stick burning on the coals all day. We live in East Texas so it’s not that cold here. It gets toasty at first but once I’ve got the layer of coals it’ll stay running all day at minimal airflow and just giving it enough fuel to keep going

  6. Fred says:

    Think of it like a diesel engine, control the heat with the fuel flow and use the air vent like an exhaust brake but DON’T close the damper, just manipulate the vent.

  7. Anonymous says:

    You know about swamp coolers…a tinkerer could make a swamp heater with the ‘free’ well water. Ha. There’s no bad ideas, right?

  8. Anonymous says:

    I find it very simple to light dry logs with a home made fire starter made from paper egg cartons and candle wax and a twist of newspaper.

  9. Douglas2 says:

    I can’t help but think that there might be better choices in woodstove for that application than that vogezang boxwood. But I’m sure you’ve investigated them.

  10. Joel says:

    I can’t help but think that there might be better choices in woodstove for that application than that vogezang boxwood. But I’m sure you’ve investigated them

    Oh, I investigated them before I bought the Vogelzang. And I bought this one because it was what I could (barely) afford at the time. On the sunny side of $200 ten years ago.

    There are certainly much more efficient woodstoves. They’re orders of magnitude more expensive. And also, to be honest, orders of magnitude more efficient which just might make them too efficient for a 200 square foot cabin. This one quickly heats my little space, and then the fire goes out. I’m really not sure a proper airtight stove wouldn’t constantly keep the Lair too hot for comfort.

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