Living in the Country in the Midwest

So winter has hit most of America, however here in Michigan it happens to be REALLY cold. We live in the country across from a couple of fields where you can see the wind blowing through the fields. You can see the snow masking itself as a cloudy fog. At night the moon shines down so bright across the fields and houses near by and into our bedroom window light a night light. It can be so pretty. I cant imagine living anywhere else.

We live in a house that does not have a furnace we burn wood and turn on a couple base electric heaters mostly in the bedrooms. The wood burner is centrally located in our family room/kitchen its basically one huge room - all open and pretty much does a good job on keeping most of the house warm. We start preparing for these days actually in the summer months. We have to cut down trees or find trees to cut, and then split them with a log splitter. Some say it burns twice, since we burn a sweat from all the preparation before actually burning it! However I have to say I owe that all to my husband and son! I do help stack and of course bring the wood in the house. It can be a pain having to go out in the morning if you did not prepare for ensuring that there is enough wood to burn throughout the evening and through the night. However it can be so refreshing with the cold air against your face in your pjs grabbing wood! It really makes you think about years ago when this was done to keep houses warm and we are still doing it!

When we first were looking at houses in the country we saw some houses with wood burners and I said to Bruce "That's what I want! A wood burner, that would be so awesome".  Little did I know all the work it entailed to have one that has to actually heat your house, I was so naive! I am constantly cleaning up around the wood burner as the wood breaks off and leaves a mess. We used to stack the wood in a metal frame made for fireplaces however quickly learned that it does not hold enough for what we need. So we now place the wood in a big Rubbermaid bin and use the metal frame for the small stuff. 

You can see we are low and I need to go get more wood!

Bringing the wood in tracks a mess on the floor because I do not expect one to take there shoes/boots off when bringing wood in, therefore I wash on a regular basis! As much work it brings us I would not change it for a thing! The smell of wood burning when you open the door to place more wood in is awesome! Every fall when the temp drops we get excited to start it and cozy up in a blanket. The dog loves it as the hearth rug in front of the wood burner is her favorite place to lay. 

Its a little messy! 

So to all those that wake up and need to turn the furnace up a notch think of me as I place a piece of wood in the woodburner! :-)

Stay Warm!