Wood Heat... Working for our Comfort

We have an outdoor wood furnace.  It works by housing a fire in the very center of the furnace which heats water contained in a tank surrounding the whole outside of the furnace.  That heated water is ran underground to the furnace in our basement.  Once it reaches our regular indoor furnace, the hot water goes through a radiator-type setup with air blowing across it.  That air is heated by the hot radiator and is the air that is blown through the ducts to heat our house. 

Simple, really.

And quite cost efficient!  By burning wood, we don't have to pay for LP (the gas that heats your home).  It's also quite safer.  The fire is completely outside so no risk of a house fire commonly associated with indoor fireplaces and none of the risks associated with using gas.  (Someday, though, I'll have to tell you about the time this past winter when a stray ember landed on a rack of corn stalk bales.  For now, let's just say that I had my first experience calling 911 and discovered that it takes 30+ minutes for the fire department to show up way out here.  If the house ever does catch, its a goner. The kids had the thrill of watching several fire trucks in action, live and in person, allbeit at the loss of our bales and hayrack.  But that's a story for a different day...)

Now, after that bunny trail, back to having an outdoor wood furnace...

It does mean, however, that we have to work for our heat!  And by work, I mean gather wood.  Josh is mostly the one that gathers the wood, sometimes with the help of his dad.  But here lately, he has enlisted the help of me and the kids.  Sometimes he'll gather enough for months at a time, sometimes he'll gather enough for just a few weeks and sometimes he'll gather enough for just a few days.  It really depends on how much time he has to work. 

One Sunday afternoon, we were to the point of having to have wood; it was either get wood or be cold. We try really hard to plan on Sundays being a day of rest and family time, but sometimes even the best laid plans don't work out.  Between calving and spring planting preparations going on, the six working days just seem to not have enough hours in them for Josh to get everything done despite the longer days.  So this particular Sunday afternoon rolled around and the family time planned activity was gathering wood....

First, you've got to take a  Jeep ride to get the tractor to take to wherever the wood is.  Jeep rides make for a happy Sarah!

Josh is pretty knowledgeable about the whereabouts of fallen trees that are good and dry, perfect for burning.  Many times the trees will be in ditches or along creek banks, so he drags them up hill to a safer place for cutting up.  This particular day, we were in the pasture where cows who have already had their calves are kept.

See the cattle in the background and the beautiful blue sky?  Love it out there, even when having to dodge cow patties!

 

Josh is the master of chain saws!  While he saws, the kids find a safe place to hang out...

Sarah found an old stump and took a rest.  Look in the background.  That black lump is a calf sleeping soundly and soaking up the sunshine!

Caleb climbed up and down and all around a different tree than the one that Josh was cutting up.  This tree was cut up next, with a bit of disappointment from the kids who had made quite the game out of climbing it.

 

The kids help, too!  While I throw the bigger wood chunks into the loader, I save the smaller limbs for the kids to do.  Gotta teach 'em how to work, you know!

 

This is a smaller load that'll last several days.  When given enough time, we get a much bigger load.  But we didn't want to take the entire Sunday afternoon to do so this go around. 



This is the furnace. Where you see the fire is the middle of the whole "building". Built around the fiery middle is a "tank" that holds the water to allow it to be heated.  The water is recirculated from furnace to house back to furnace. The furnace has a thermostat that allows the water temperature to be adjusted depending on the weather and how warm we want the air to be blowing into the house and to make sure we don't end of with boiling water in the pipes! There are too many details about this thing to get too involved explaining it, but I'll suffice it to say that I feel very blessed to have this setup! I can keep this big ol' farmhouse as warm as I want without feeling guilty about burning gas!