READY FOR SPRING?

What to do? What to forget to do? On purpose! The windows need cleaning, inside and out. The 70-plus long cedar deck deserves a good staining this year. So too the railing.

The wood stove in the solarium is crying for us, this close to spring, to stop dumping split logs in it several times a day. Plus one good load to burn all night.

It isn't a ‘stove’ in a sense of cooking, though the lid on top is meant for it. For us it delivers a wonderful heat and pleasant wood scent throughout the house during the colder months.

Even to see the glow that comes from it warms the heart. And the body.

We added the solarium on the north side of the cedar log home. It cried out for a stove in one corner. We settled for one made of cast iron with a special double glass built into the front of it.

It weighs 400 pounds, much heavier than you'd expect. It’s covered in thick blue enamel and burns wood around the clock in the colder months. Two bush cords of split wood carries us through the winter.

AUTHOR'S COMMENT: It doesn't need to be fired up to be enjoyed. One look at it at other times and it has a personality all of its own.

WORTH THE EFFORT

There was a time some years ago when we decided what our cedar-log home

needed a glassed-in solarium. off the open kitchen.

It wasn’t long before Rosanne and I decided, living somewhat

in the country, why not have a good old fashioned metal stove? And burn wood.

We chose a hefty, blue colored cast iron stove with a sort of old-fashioned look. It weighed four hundred pounds and took three burly guys to carry it into the house.

They installed the matching metal chimney rising up through a small wood

opening in the wood portion of the ceiling.

Author’s comment: Looking back we couldn’t have made a better choice.

We pick up two bush cords of hardwood each autumn. It lasts us througuntil spring.

Our intrepid son Nathaniel and a friend come without being asked to split and pile the wood

close to the house. It burns around the clock giving off a wonderful subtle woody smell along

with the heat.