Who Stokes the fire

[Big Dave]

Now yall have cut wood and the house is toasty. Who cleans out the ashes and stokes the fire around 3:00AM?

[Humburger]

My beloved.

[mammabooh]

I keep the fire going during the day, but my husband ususlly takes over when he gets home from work. We don't stoke it during the night unless one of us has to get up to go to the bathroom. He gets up a bit before 5:00 to go to work, so he adds some wood then. I don't usually check it again until 1:00 or so in the afternoon.

Ohhh...he cleans out the ashes.

[chickenista]

We spent a $100 and got a Fisher off Craigslist so no one has to get up early and do it anymore. Whew.
But as far as during the day.. tender subject around here.. but I defer to DH when he is here, but I feel that I am the queen of fire.

[Oldcountryboy]

I don't clean the ashes out, I just stoke the fire and put on another log or two. I usually wake up somewhere around 3 to 3:30 a.m. to use the bathroom and stoke the fire too. Then go back to sleep.

[big rockpile]

I usually have to get up at that time to step outside,so I usually do it.

big rockpile

[FoghornLeghorn]

During the day it's whoever happens to be in the house when it needs stoking. In the evening it's whoever is sitting closest. In the middle of night whoever happens to wake up (which is definitely not me!) and in the morning hubby cleans out the ashes.

[southerngurl]

Ours stays going until morning. :P

[simplegirl]

If we had a wood stove (which I would love) I am absolutely positive it would be me doing all the work........

[ChristieAcres]

The wood stove in our Shop is tended by DH. The wood stove in our home is tended by us both (him early in the morning, me in the afternoon, him in the evening). The wood stove in my home office is tended only by me. DH usually stocks the firewood in the shop & our home (much larger firewood). I stock my office.

El Nino is causing warmer temps, so the main wood stove we have going is the one in our home. That is because it heats our water, dries our laundry, and keeps out the moisture.

[hunter63]

Who ever has to go first in the nite/morning.
I thought that was in the stove instructions, somewhere.........?

[hunter63]

LOL, I get the "WE" thing when it comes to rose bushes......I know what you you mean.

So it works to get the ashes cleaned..........Oh, Honey, guess what I just read on the interweb, so it must be true......, Oh, Honey....come back here...Never mind.

[FlagWaver]

I feed the fire all day (the coals stay well all night) my partner will add wood when he gets up at 4 am for work. He brings the wood in from the barn I bring it from the porch to the wood bins he cleans the ashes (once a week) and cleans the stove doors whenever they are cool enough. We work as a team.

[WisJim]

With a quality efficient wood furnace and stove, we only need to check it and maybe put in wood 2 or 3 times a day, and 90% of the time that is me that does it. No one else makes a fire to my satisfaction. So I put some wood in at 6am, check after lunch, put in wood around 3 or 4pm, and maybe again at 9pm before going to bed. If it is 20 degrees or warmer, it needs wood once or twice, morning and late night.

[gilberte]

I cut the wood, stack it, put it in the barn. Every morning I start the fire, and clean out the ashes if necessary. The only thing I ask, 'She Who Is Loved ' is to check the temp on the stove top when she gets up and walks by it, to see if the new fire is gettin' too high. You wouldn't think I would have to remind her every day after 35 years

[Farmerwilly2]

Stoke the fire? At three in the morning? That's why they invented down comforters and open winders. I collect the wood, cut the wood, split the wood, carry the wood inside, and quite often light the wood. Given all that it's no surprise that I'm also an ash man.

[Ravenlost]

We're always up at 3 a.m. so whoever walks by tends the fire.

[Homesteadwi5]

Whoevers home or awake.we only build one fire a year in october then we let it go out in late april or so.I carry out all the ashes etc.though

[countrysunshine]

Whoever is home or going to the basement first.

When I lived at home we had a very inefficient wood burner w/ a blower on it. It was supposed to be hooked into the duct work like a furnace. My step-father was convinced that if the blower kicked off we were letting the fire go out. So, I got up every two hours all night long to feed that darn stove. Just as sure as I didn't it would cool down enough the blower would kick off and he would be up raising cain and waking up the other kids.

My mom worked night shift is why it fell to me. When I married we lived in an older house trailer and built our own stove building outside that worked on the same principle. It took quite a bit of wood because of the inefficiency. If it got down in the single digits that thing had to be fed a couple times a night. It was like babysitting the grain drier - easier to do it myself than work to wake him up to do it.

Okay, that was a long answer, but the short answer is in my world the woman always took care of the things that have to happen in the middle of the night.

However, I don't carry the ashes out. I remove them from the stove but he carries 'em out.

I am so glad I have a well insulated home and don't have to feed that darn stove every two hours anymore. I hated it 30 years ago!

[tamsam]

Well here the tending the fire is shared by both of us. DW does bring in the wood and coal and helps with maintaining the fire. Most of the tending and ash removal is done by me and DW takes the ash outside and dumps it. As far as 3am usually one of us is up late and load the heater before going to bed and we check it whenever we get up as we have a gas heater that comes on if it cools down. That is how it is done here. Sam