Stove Day?

Life has so many little challenges . When we were young and first married we both came from homes that had coal for heat in the winter. But the new great thing was an oil furnace in our little trailer. After our first month enjoying it , with memories of carrying coal to feed a stove -we vowed we would never do that again. LOL

Then we moved to our house in the country where we are now and we had an all electric home and we thought we had done a wonderful thing - until we got our first "cold-weather" electric bill and the next 3 months just got steadily worse. We were trying to survive on a disability check where DH was burnt in a terrible chemical explosion at a plant that made tires.

So, that summer we invested in a nice Wood stove for indoors and we cut and carried wood from our own land. That was such a wonderful change. It saved us enough money to raise our kids on and the heat was wonderful -plus each winter when we would lose our electricity -we still had heat and a way to cook our food. I actually enjoyed losing our electricity due to storms because I could haul out my Mama's kerosene lanterns and pretend it was a much simpler time in history. It brought back memories of when I was a very little girl around 5 and people did not have electricity . They did not have televisions either and people actually talked to each other at night by lantern light or played games -like checkers.

Well time moved on and 3 years ago DH installed hardwood floors and they had to take our monster wood stove outdoors while the work was being done. The floors looked so beautiful I could not bear to drag the 4 men heavy stove back to the living room-fear of scaring the floor and if not that way -then carrying heavy wood might damage it - plus the dirt. That first winter we got lucky and kept our electricity all winter -I think that was a first time.

But, the second winter we were not so lucky and when it went off  we were at a loss. The house got colder and colder and I really missed out wood stove. I got cold and my pups got cold -so I curled up in my chair and all 4 of my chihuahuas crawled up with me and I covered us in a blanket and we shivered together. We were so lucky because it came on within a day that time (not like the week when we had a monster storm one other time)

So , that summer we went in debt for a nice generator that was suppose to power the house and keep the outdoor woodstove running. We used it one time that winter and learned that it 1.-It burned a LOT of fuel
and 2. the electic company jumped on us for hooking it to the electic box when we lost our heat. We did not have the knowledge to set it up correctly.

That brings us to face the upcoming winter and my fears of freezing to death again. Added to that is DH's health -is starting to not be so good. He is due for tests this upcoming week and they suspect that his cancer is showing its ugly face once again. I HATE CANCER!He is in a lot of pain and also weaker . So, today we went to look at gas vent free stoves :

Both the white one and the red one were over a thousand dollars. That red one was really a nice stove because they turned it on and the flames were beautiful and you could really feel the heat a good five feet away from it and the building it was in was a REALLY big building with HIGH ceilings.

This one was a cast iron stove and it was a nice heat also -but still around a thousand dollars.

Yes this is another thousand dollar enamel stove. I really did admire these pretty colors. But right now our pockets are not that deep and you have to consider that these are just called "Supplemental heat sources." They are not for full time heat because of the higher cost to operate them and he did say something about the danger of fumes from long time use if your house is too air tight.

 This was the cheaper model at 399.00 and it was pretty when it was lite. The heat does not come out from the top so you could not cook on it -like you could a couple of those thousand dollar models.This one is also very light weight a nice feature for two older folks with not so great backs.

It was a very educational visit -they also sell the tanks and they will sell you one all filled and ready to go . For both the stove and the filled tank - this one here would be 650.00 and it could last you for about 5 days -depending on how high you ran it all the time?

If I had a pocketful of money I would probably grab the red one (which I did not like to start with) because it just seemed to throw out so much more heat-plus when that metal got hot it also gave off heat for while.

Coming home I was torn between being sad and also being amazed at how times change. It seems that there have been LOTS of improvements in so many things-but not so with electricity ?It is nice to have and we do take it for granted when it works - but with the toss of a coin and you lose it due to a storm and it leaves your life in danger.