Russ Lanoie: Heating With Wood

Back in the early '70s, those of us who were heating with wood were suddenly joined by many others because of an oil crisis brought about by the Arab countries enacting an oil embargo. New airtight wood stoves showed up in hardware stores and energy centers, and new entrepreneurs started selling firewood as a sideline, myself included. I was cutting up the white birch slabs left over from the sawmill located where MB Tractor now resides. There were even a couple of Kennett teachers who called themselves “Woodpeck” to differentiate themselves from the Arab countries' OPEC. My wife and I had already been burning wood to augment the oil-fired furnace in our mobile home, though it took a couple of ill-suited wood stoves before we finally found the Baby Bear Fisher stove that we used there and still use today as backup heat in our passive solar home.

For many people, wood is the cheapest heating fuel, especially if they can process it themselves. Others burn wood in fireplaces just for the atmosphere, while many, like us, choose to burn wood because it is a renewable resource, as opposed to coal, oil or propane, which are fossil fuels. Until recently, I worked up our own firewood when I had the time to do it myself, but now I’ve given in to purchasing our firewood locally. Wood heat continues to fit the lifestyle we have chosen, trying to live lightly on the planet by gardening, producing our own electricity, and driving a plug-in hybrid car.