Does Your Wife like to Feed the Stove!

[Ratherbfishin]

Mine will load the stove but she is in her "learning curve" about when and how to set the Cruise control (air). I have discussed the secondary tubes and what to look for but not sure if she understands it all yet. Cannot complain...I come home to a toasty warm house.

 

[Fi-Q]

My wife love it. We're living on the road most of the year, mostly in a rv. So she'S use to chill morning and cold night. She moved in our new house 2 weeks ago (I'm still on the road) and she'S telling me that she's keeping the house in the 80's.... and she's all proud to call me in the morning to told me that she was able to start again with red coal from the night before.....

I'm just wondering how's this gonna be if I ever put a boiler in the garage.......

 

[Danno77]

I haven't trained her well enough. I say to her to make sure she throws some wood in there throughout the day. i come home at 4 and the stove is cold and there are barely any coals left to start a new fire.

"how much wood did you put in there today?" I asked. "about three pieces," she replies.

yeah, ok. At least she doesn't complain about it being cold (although I know it bothers her). Pieces? seriously? we need to work on our wood burning lingo. let's try "splits" or something. oh well.

 

[Dix]

I haven't trained her well enough. I say to her to make sure she throws some wood in there throughout the day. i come home at 4 and the stove is cold and there are barely any coals left to start a new fire.

"how much wood did you put in there today?" I asked. "about three pieces," she replies.

yeah, ok. At least she doesn't complain about it being cold (although I know it bothers her). Pieces? seriously? we need to work on our wood burning lingo. let's try "splits" or something. oh well.

Would "It's like adding egg whites & tartar to meringue" work?

 

[Tony H]

The wood duties from cutting to cleaning out the ashes is all mine, she has never touched a piece of wood and never been inside the boiler shed just stood outside the door.
She does have a reason for not loading or tending the boiler she got burned fairly bad a few years back when the old old furnace she had flashed as she was trying to restart it. The only other operation she takes care of is when the furnace starts to blow cold air she switches off the boiler thermo and turns up the gas thermo.
I have a six year old daughter that will be learning to carry and stack wood in the coming years.

Maybe I should buy the wife a nice MS 360 for Christmas. :cheese:

 

[chad3]

Days when I didn't start the stove, I come home to a very well heated house. Wife not only stokes it, but starts it if she feels it is getting cold. 3 year old daughter now helps me building a fire if we need to restart. She knows: paper, kindling, good wood and then only adults use matches.
Life is good.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Very simple here. When I am around, normally it is me who puts wood in. If I'm gone then she does it willingly.

My wife also brings in wood at night to fill for the night and the next morning. She does all of the ash cleanout too. She used to help a lot in the woods but the last few years she has stopped due to some physical problems. She also picks up all the chips after I split wood in the spring.

 

[bsruther]

No, my wife never feeds the stove. Even if she wanted to, I probably wouldn't let her for fear that she'd get burned and then I'd never hear the end of it.

 

[Cutter]

No problems here. The wife is willing and able. Sometimes too willing. I swear she burns that stuff like it grows on trees.

 

[firefighterjake]

I was thinking.... maybe the title of this thread should be "Does your husband feed the woodstove" In this house the answer would be no.

Shari

HehHeh . . . made me giggle a bit . . . like a schoolgirl . . . I mean a schoolboy.

 

[firefighterjake]

My wife "lets" me run the woodstove . . . but says she does it better . . . I don't know if she does it "better" . . . but I do know she does a fantastic job of running it.

I tend to take care of the cutting, splitting, stacking, hauling the wood inside and taking care of the ashes . . . but she will often pitch in to help on occasion and on those occasions I sincerely appreciate it . . . but then again we both approach work in the same way -- we both work equally, on occasion it may not be the same type of work, but it equals out in the end.

In loading the stove she has in the past fed it a bit too often (something I also have been guilty of on occasion), but this year things seem a bit better . . . besides I would rather her feed the stove more often than not feed it at all.

Due to our work schedules we actually can keep the house heated at a pretty steady level most of the week. She works the overnights two nights a week so most nights she is either sleeping through the night at home or up at home as she is working on switching over . . . which is very convenient on that night since she keeps the fire going through the night and in the morning there is always a large bed of coals or even actual flames.

On days/nights when we both are working I will typically load the fire up in the morning around 6 a.m. When she comes home she will putz around the house for a bit and load up the stove before falling asleep around 9 . . . and reload or restart the fire when she wakes at 4 or 5 p.m . . . at which point I take over in the evening while she works. On days when she is not working she is around during the day to keep the fire going.

 

[Gator eye]

My wife is like the furnace tender on a steam locomotive. She keeps chunkin wood in the furnace door every couple of hours......I tell her she's got to let it burn down a little and let the coals do the work...nope she just keeps throwin wood in the furnace while I keep cuttin and splittin. :ahhh:

In her world anything under 80 degrees in the house is cold. :kiss: Should of never shown her how to open the door. :grrr:

 

[basswidow]

Enjoying the responses.

I tend to the stove in the morning and at night and remove any ash and weekends. She feeds it during the daytime weekdays.

I guess it's because I know how much I put into processing each and every split - that I notice the wood consumption. I like a slow burn and she likes to burn the barn down! But I can't say a thing to her without making her mad. She's doing an excellent job and is better at the stove then me - so she says. She definately puts more heat out and is happy and that's what counts. When we leave for a run to the store - she will pack the box full. Maybe she fears it will run out - yet I know it will go 8 - 10 hours. I'd rather not waste the wood if we are not there to enjoy it. Let the coals do their job.

I'll just have to cut and have more wood on hand. It's cheaper then propane and we both love burning wood.

We have a bin I fill in the morning which is usually enough to get through the day. I got home the other night and noticed an empty bin and another row lower on the pile and thought - man she burned alot today. I looked at the stove and it was fully dampered - yet the flame was dancing-flickering and there was a draft causing a draw on the logs. So I pointed this out to her and we discovered that the screw came lose on the top door latch - causing the door seal to be open - thus causing the consumption. I fixed the problem - but just pointing this out - was an insult to her ! We have a new gasket to install at some point and time. Little things like this can really affect the performance.

I need to be smarter and when I come home from work - compliment her on keeping the house warm and doing a great job on the stove! She does do a good job and I need to get off her back and not nag her over the wood!

 

[drewboy]

My wife was home today and she insisted I start a fire. I was strapped for time but I got one going before heading back to work (she is 7 months pregnant and I know better than to argue). I went over a couple of stove-running/loading things that she may have "forgotten" since last heating season.
As I was talking, she was rolling her eyes saying blah, blah, blah...
I came home to a 75 degree house. ;-)

 

[PapaDave]

To answer the OP, no.
I was gone today from 10 am, 'til about 5. She had obviously put some wood in the stove, since the wood bin was less full than when I left. I expected to be home by about 2-3, and had a nice coal bed with 3 decent sized splits in there to keep things warm enough.
When I walked in the door, the house was still about 67*, but she had loaded 2 splits e/w, and 2 more n/s on top. The only problem was that there weren't enough coals left to make the fire get going. She shut the door, and left it. No fire for you!
Hate to think how she burned the rest of the day. More wood than I would have used, but for someone who has just about ZERO interest in this stuff, I think she did ok. I'm glad she stayed warm.
I sincerely expected to walk into a 60* house, since it was no more than 12*F today, with a pretty tough wind.

 

[Spikem]

My girlfriend doesn't mind loading or starting the boiler. If she wakes up in the middle of the night, she'll occasionally go out and put a few splits on so it'll be nice and warm in the morning.

She used to help me get the firewood from the wood shed, until last spring when she got her foot caught under a broken pallet and broke two bones in the top of her foot.

She still tells everyone that I pushed her down the stairs.

She sounds cool - a keeper!

 

[waynek]

I was thinking.... maybe the title of this thread should be "Does your husband feed the woodstove" In this house the answer would be no.

Shari

This post and many of the other statements in this thread remind me of a farmer neighbor of mine. He never takes on anymore work than what his wife can handle. In addition, there is a nice willing couple over in the next valley. She is willing to do the work and he is willing to let her.
jackpine

 

[OpenWater]

We've got a weekender, wife and kids went up last night - very cold - and she did a great job firing up the stove. It was her first time. She even sent me a picture of her fire. She called this morning after raking the coals and adding two splits to say the house was nice and toasty. After nine years of marriage, it was great to add new words and phrases like splits, coals, and air supply to our conversation!

 

[raybonz]

I leave the house around 4:45am and get home around 7pm on workdays and it was 75 degrees and the heat does not run need I say more?

Ray