We are having the nastiest winter in southern Wisconsin that I can recall in my 62&7/8 years on this planet! I really love the wood burner this year more than ever & if a political, whatever, walked up to me and said "you can't use it anymore" I would make sure he gets off my property in several pieces, (just kidding of course). Grandfather laws definitely have clout! My stove is a 20 year old Vermont Castings, Consolidated Dutchwest, Federal Airtight, (quite a name ain't it), that uses the catalytic combustor technology. I generally replace the combustor every 5 years. This one is on it's 3rd year and the recess in the plate above the combustor where the thermometer goes is glowing cherry red and the temperature is 1,600 degrees. It's spitting heat like crazy and it's not costing me dime one! I havenÂt heard the furnace turn on all day and itÂs only 14 degrees outside as IÂm typing this! Another benefit is that I keep a kettle of water on top to add moisture to the house and even the ashes are great for traction on ice! I have my own wood source from dead trees and fallen limbs in my woods. As long as you maintain this type of stove, I think it ought to be considered a green fuel burner just like pellet stoves are. They have no problem with pellet stoves, so why not a clean, well maintained, efficient wood burner? Most of the time I see no smoke coming from the chimney except for some steam on really cold days. I do see some smoke if the combustor temperature falls below 500 degrees like in the morning when the fire dies down and I re-stoke it to get it back up again. The fire I have going now is about 1-1/2 months old because the airtight feature allows the wood to just smolder. Ironically the dirtier the fire the better the combustor works because it consumes the smoke from this type of fire. I have a pellet stove in a 400 sq/ft room and although I like it, it definitely is costly to run. $3.50 a bag every day for pellets not to mention the higher electric bill for the blowers. My wood burner has one blower so that does affect the electric bill, but not by that much. Jim

My pictures should finally show up today due to the fact my Photobucket bandwidth overturn date is today. The striped pillowcases are mostly beige with a bit if green and red from what I remember. I will look at the comforter again today when I get to my pt job at Dillards today. Thanks. Eileen glad to be in AZ today

Thanks for sharing this sad news, Ed.... it was so good of you to go visit her. I'm sending many prayers of comfort to her and strength for her loved ones.

For me, 40 was great, 50 not so much. Same thing here with hypothyroid and menopause. I work out, do weights, got a Fitbit, have a treadmil desk (which I am using now), and it is very frustrating. DH and I are doing a few vegetarian meals per week, and that seems to be helping to get the calories down. I am also very conscious of chronic disease. This year I had a nuclear stress test, a concussion, and I got called back on my yearly mammogram when I never had been before. I had a screening colonoscopy at 50 and wound up having a large precancerous polyp removed. Thank goodness everything turned out OK but I may eventually run out of luck. Hence, the need to get weight off but exercise does have its own independent effects--yay. Debra, we went with my family to the Rolling Stones show at the Ralph,so, yes, it was quite a range. We had this hoochie-mama in the row in front of us with her thong hanging out of her pants and then her big implants and she was probably in our age range. There was a young teen boy and the father moved him from being next to her since the woman her friends came late.