We've been heating with wood for 8 years now.  We used to trade chickens for oak saw-mill slabs, but our guy has quit the saw-mill business.

This last January, southern MO had a horrendous ice-storm.  The ice took out electricity to hundreds of thousands of people.  It paralyzed the cities and put thousands of people in shelters because they couldn't heat their homes.  The ice broke so many trees, that this part of the country will never be the same in our lifetimes.  Now, in November, in some of the more rural areas there is still evidence of mounds of limbs that haven't been burned or chipped up.

The ice-storm was a hardship on many people, including our family.  Particularly because we have our elderly parents in our home.  We were without electricity for 15 days.  Our family was able to make do and get by, but the old folks are on oxygen machines that take electricity.  Had to dig out the generators.  But everyone made out okay.

It is starting to get quite cold (as I'm sure it is across the country).  Guess what we're using for firewood?  My husband and sons have been cleaning up our forests and bringing in dead wood.  My husband even purchased a "girl sized" chain saw and our 19 y/o daughter has been helping cut up wood!

God is so good, even through those difficult times.  We re now burning broken limbs of dead wood to heat our home!  None of it is going to waste.  Praise HIS name!