The Hearth Effect

Sometimes because of early Choir practice, we give a neighbor gal, "C" a ride to school. One morning, she was a bit early and noticed we had installed a new wood pellet hearth and we droned on how happy we were with it. Her home is heated with a wood furnace, so they had been natural gas independent for some time.

I explained that in "olden times" like the 1930's (my mother in law told me so) young kids would awake in the morn and run down to stand around the wood stove to get warm. And also, in the cold winter evenings, families would gather around the fire to stay warm and play games. They did not have cd players or i-pods in those days. It was really a way of keeping families close.

"C" thought for a moment. Then she said, "Well, it seems it was really just a choice between staying warm with the family or freezing to death in the bedrooms? That doesn't seem like a very fair choice."

"Yes," I said, "that was the choice."

Such a wonderful way to keep families together. And as more and more families are switching away from natural gas to alternative, the closer we may all become.

It's just freeze or stay warm together.

I will leave it up to you. You make the call.