Warming up the House

Since Sami and I bought our first home in Penryn way back in 1994, we've heated our homes with wood. We had heaters in Penryn that we never used. We have central heating and air in our current home just north of Auburn - we last used the air conditioning when Sami was pregnant with Emma in 2003; we've never used the central heat. When we moved into this house in 2001, we even replaced the propane "wood" stove with a real wood stove. We fully subscribe to the notion, as Ivan Doig says in This House of Sky, that a wood stove is the only way to heat the rivets of your Levi's!

There are several downsides to wood heat, as you might imagine. Having a live fire in our living room requires vigilance and care. Our walls are smoke-stained (although we don't notice it) and our furniture is in constant need of dusting in the wintertime. The biggest downside, however, is returning home from a few days away in the winter. One of the radio stations I listen to is running an advertisement currently that says, "You don't want to wake up to a house that's 64 degrees, do you?" We just laugh and laugh and laugh! We've returned from a winter trip to find the temperature in our bedroom (the furthest room from the wood stove) at a balmy 49F! The first chore when we arrive - even before we unload the car - is to get a fire going. And sometimes, we even sleep in the living room!

Despite these occasional chilly nights, wood heat has many benefits. We're not dependent on Pacific Gas & Electric - or anyone else, really - to keep the house warm. The wood we burn is a combination of oak (from land where we graze our sheep, mostly) and Douglas fir from our friends Allen and Nancy Edwards. All of it is "down" wood that would otherwise fuel wildfires in our community. My Dad says heating with wood warms you twice - when you cut the wood and when you burn it. I like the idea that my own labor in spring and summer is directly related to my family's warmth in fall and winter. And I like the idea that I'm directly participating in the carbon cycle. Wendell Berry talks about the choices we have - we can learn how to build a fire or how to adjust a thermostat. I choose to know how to build a fire.

If I'm honest, there's also an element of self righteousness to our decision to heat with wood. There are few things in my life as satisfying as a woodshed full of firewood - in September! And yet, I realize that our climate requires far less wood (and less work) than many places. Every time I return home to a cold house, I'm reminded of a story my friend Mark Moore told me 25 years ago. Mark and Dina ranch near Kneeland in Humbold County, California. They live in a home built by Mark's family in the late 1800's. Mark says the first year he and Dina were married, he was feeling pretty proud of the 8 cords of wood in their wood shed on Thanksgiving day (the woodshed was built to hold something like 17 cords). When they burned the last stick of wood on New Year's Eve, Mark said he realized why the wood shed was so big. For me, I think, the self righteousness comes from the sense of self sufficiency - our warmth and comfort is entirely up to us. This notion makes coming home to a cold house in December entirely worth the temporary discomfort!