Basic To mankind has been using wood as a heating fuel. We carry on the tradition by providing most of the information needed to use wood in these changing times. In emergency times, it is the fuel of last resort nad the importance of knowing how to use it wisely only increases.

No apologies to the wood burning nay-sayers who live in their titcky-taky homes, fueled with sources that are non-renewable and pollute all the same.

All That's Practical About Wood: Stoves, As A Fuel, Heating.
by Ralph W. Ritchie

   There is still a large portion of the country where Wood is the available, renewable, heating fuel. The problem is to use wood in the most efficient, least polluting manner.

Other important considerations are the choice of wood species, woodstove cleaning and maintenance, and safety. We put all of the information about wood in one book.












Wood Burners

Have you seen the Anti-woodburning website? They are almost violently against ANY wood burning. I don't know where they live, but there are still a lot of people out there who depend upon wood for heating. I was one of them for over thrity years; even grew my own wood. Now I live in the city, on the fringes, and finally gave up the work of cutting hauling, splitting, stacking and burning wood. I want to share that experience with you. There's a lot more in there that just burning wood.
About now, some old woodburning hand is going to sneer, "What can HE teach me about wood burning? I have done it all my life, just the way my daddy did it."  Sorry, Charlie, but times change. There's a lot in the book that even your daddy didn't know.

What do you do when a woodstove fire gets out of hand?
What do you do if you must extinguish that merry blaze, NOW?
Ever try to extinguish a fire in a wood stove?
Flue fires are dealt with, too.
So is stove and chimney maintenance.
Are the materials, that are near the stove, in the carpet, curtains, upholstery, fireproof? Or do they go up in flames with a single spark? There's a way you can test them. . . safely.
These's a Buyer's Guide in there, too.

I'm going to
buy my first woodstove.
But I don't know what the salesperson is talking about.
Will the size wood I can fit into that stove?
Can I lift the pieces?
What's a cord?
How much wood does it take to keep my house warm?
Where do I store the wood?
Who carries the wood in to the stove?
What about bringing in woodpile bugs?
Should I let a guest tend my woodstove?
There are laws regulating wood stoves. What should I know?

Pellet stoves have principal advantage in that a high heat content fuel has become available that's also ecologically sound. But what are the advantages and what are the disadvantages?  our second Wood book, Wood Pellet Handbook, deals exclusively with wood pellets, stoves, and heating. This book only introduces  wood pellets.

Excerpts From The Book

ISBN: 0-939656-23-X, $19.95.