Why pay to heat your house?

Here we are in the freezing clutches of old man winter once again.  This winter, however, is different.  I have yet to turn on our heat!  Crazy right?  I know what you are thinking... "well, it sure must be nice to have one of those ultra-modern, high efficiency, eco-friendly, always 72 degrees, hippy houses!"  I hate to burst your bubble but my house was one of the first houses built in my neighborhood...way back in 1895!  That's right, my drafty old house has not used conventional heat all winter.

How is it even bearable to live in a old drafty house with no heat you ask?  Quite simple!  We are the proud new owners of a parlor style wood burning stove!  Our little stove was a bit pricey up front, but has totally offset our monthly heating bill.  Our stove typically keeps our house about 70-75 degrees.  Our Kitchen and bathroom are farthest away and both tile so they stay a bit cooler.

The hardest part of having a wood burning stove is feeding it.  The stove we have is one of the least efficient models due to the simplicity of it's construction.  Needless to say, we burn some wood!  Purchasing wood, even in bulk, would just shift our heating bill from the gas company to some guy who enjoys selling wood to suckers like us...  Sorry! Not going to happen.  Part of living like we do is finding mutually advantageous relationships to take part in.  One of these is with a local tree trimmer.  In order for him to make money on a job he has to pass the price of dumping the wood to the customer.  We approached him and suggested he dump his wood for free at my folks house.  He was quite glad to do so.  That's more money in his pocket, and a savings to his customers.

Next issue is hand splitting all that wood.  That is again simply overcome!  Craigslist!  We found an old log splitter for sale and with a bit of "creative bargaining" got it for a song.  Now when my dad gets a load of wood we have a family night (much like a Duck Dynasty style packing party) splitting wood and eating mama's delicious home cooking.

The installation of our stove is another example of a mutually advantageous relationship.  A friend of mine from church is an engineer and as he happily
states "enjoys cutting holes in other peoples' houses."  Luckily for me, that is exactly what I needed.  I did the prep work the night before and we had the stove in and ready for burning by the next night.

Why we do it

When I tell someone that we have a little farm they response is always the same; "Really?  Where?"  It has become a game to guess their response to my answer.  I live in a small suburb of St. Louis, Missouri.  The conversation usually goes one of two ways.  Either, "Wow! That's really cool!" or "You have a farm in the city?"  To my co-workers they lovingly refer to my place as the "city farm" and usually tell me I'm "Livin' Amish in the hood."

We find that living this way has had many advantages.  We enjoy being able to grow and raise our own food.  Growing and raising our food, while saving us money, is only one reason we do it.  I personally find that eating food we have grown tastes much better and strange as it might sound it makes you feel better.  Not only the fact that it is as close to organic as you can get without getting certified but, it keeps you busy.

Most people come home from work and eat some supper and veg out on the couch, but not me.  My days are pretty regular; work, supper, farm chores, put kids to bed, go to bed.  My days are full.  One would think all that work would make for long boring days.  False!  I love working on my little farm.  I get to see the tangible fruits of my labor!  I look forward to collecting all the veggies and milk and eggs at the end of the day and admiring it all over a big glass of mint tea from my own mint plant and sweetened with stevia from my garden.

While eating and drinking the "fruits of our labor" is nice we use the farm to teach our kids and sometimes the occasional neighborhood kid about how we get food and how much work it takes to get it to the table.  Recently we butchered some Cornish Crossover chickens we had raised from chicks and were able to have some family friends over to "partake in the festivities."  They were surprized at how much work is required to get a live chicken butchered, plucked, cleaned, and quartered.  They told me they were excited to learn and enjoyed their "time on the farm."

These, and many others, are skills that are dying off in our modern world.  Kids and adults alike are ignorant of some of the simplest skills it takes to produce food.  We believe the ability to provide ones own food is a skill and lifestyle that will pay off not only for us but for those around us.