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DutchWest Cast Iron Non-Catalytic Wood Stove

As promised (almost), I drove down to the wood stove store today to check out the scene. I was having a little trouble with the price of the wood stove insert that I wanted and needed to see if there was anything less expensive. I also wanted to see what the free standing wood stoves looked like. We can easily put one of them in the fireplace.

When I got there, I did my typical “guy” stroll around to browse all the stoves and inserts. I see it every time. The guys walk in with their hands in the pockets making grunts and noises, like “hmmm” and “hmmph.” It’s so funny because I do it too. There is kind of a lot to take in. Good thing the sales guy walks out to put things in perspective. I must say, I really love wood stoves and stuff like that.

I saw the “Hampton HI300 Wood Insert” that I wanted. It’s just as nice as I thought it would be. If money wasn’t an issue, I would tell them to pack it up and bring it over. Since I really don’t want to drop that kind of coin, I am becoming more and more interested in a smaller free standing wood stove. Remember, we already have the pellet stove, so we don’t really need that much more heat. Just something to keep my toes warm, something that doesn’t use electricity and something that will burn all the wood I am cutting down so I don’t have to watch it rot in the woods.

The sales guy introduced me to the more “economical” line of DutchWest wood burning stoves. They are pretty good looking and don’t have a lot of frills. Here is a picture I just took from the brochure.

DutchWest free standing wood stove

It’s cute, isn’t it? It’s also about $1000 less than the other one. A large part of the expense comes from the lining of the chimney and the installation. Heck, if all I needed was the stove, I could just run over there with the trailer and pick it up. That’s not the way it works anymore. Now, you need to have a 35 foot piece of insulated lining stuffed down the entire length of the very tall chimney and attached to the stove. All of that extra stuff actually costs more than the stove itself. At least I managed to drop the price somewhat.

I am hoping to have the stove stand on the stone outside the fireplace. The stove is 17 1/2 inches from front to back and the slab of stone is about 20 1/2. If we can do this, I can still access the side door to put longer (up to 19″) pieces of wood. That would be good. Otherwise, I will have to load shorter pieces through the front and cut about two inches off the stove legs so it fits inside the fireplace.

Anyway, I’ll get into all that stuff later if I decide to get this stove. I’ll make my decision by Saturday.

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It’s Shaping Up To Be A Very Colorful Autumn

I must say, it really is.

I was driving up to Manchester this afternoon when I noticed how brilliant the trees looked. It’s mostly the Maples, Birches and Hickorys. Their leaves are really getting bright. I see mostly orange, red and yellow. The Oaks are still green.

After I got back, I took a little stroll up the driveway. I even took a few pictures for you.

Looking up driveway

Colorful trees across the street

Colorful trees in the woods

Now, those are some pretty leaves, right?

Ok, I will admit the nice leaves aren’t the only reason I am writing this post. The new pile of fire wood is.

For the past few days, I have been working to build a new pile of fire wood. I took three piles out from under the porch and moved them next to my other pile, out in the sunshine. Having the wood stacked under the porch wasn’t doing it any favors in the way of drying out. I compared the older fire wood that was under the porch to the newer (greener) fire wood that was stacked outside and the outside wood was much dryer. I also took down an Oak tree to add to the pile.

Fire wood piles

I know, I know, I did a lousy job at stacking the right side, but it was a bit tricky. Part of the tree wasn’t available to go right up against because the other pile was there. I did my best.

I really like the wood when it’s split, no matter how small it is. It dries faster and burns better. The only problem is my ax. It is too big. It’s more like a maul than an ax. It is quite heavy and better for splitting larger pieces of wood with a full swing.

With this in mind, I went out and grabbed a thinner ax. Something that will slice right through the smaller pieces of Maple, Hickory, Birch and Oak. Here is my new ax…

Ax with fiberglass handle

You might notice that I have already used it a few times. These things get beat up pretty fast.

Well, there you have it…my morning events.

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