This has been a fun thread, and I've enjoyed reading all the replies in here. Since no one else mentioned it, I'll throw this one in, too. So I'm gearing up for my mid-week indoor woodrack fill-up, swept and reconfigured the rack (it flops apart sometime, a summer project to paint it and nail it together), sitting here w/my bunnies on and about to head out and do it, but stopped to post. Two more things that make it good to keep burning. First, after I've got some work done, sitting down to relax feels like an earned reward, not mere sluggishness. Here's another cool thing about burning wood: this forum, you'all.
I know that even if I don't brag about it, heading out there to do-what-must-be-done gives me braggin' rights, room at the fire (or at least if that's not the case, no one's been rude enough to pitch me out yet). This forum is part of the fun of heating with wood. I mean, could you imagine a forum where the posts ran like this?:
"S'up?"
"I turned up the thermostat to 70."
"Wow. LOL. WTG."
"Good times."
"I'm thinking about turning mine up."
"+1"
"No way, man. I'm leaving mine at 67. That was how my dad did it, and that's how he brought me up. I still have his thermostat from when he was a kid."
"Pix or it didn't happen."
Okay, sending myself out to the woodpile now . . .