Maybe...

we weren't supposed to spend our tax return money on a new wood stove...?

I come to this conclusion because...

we figure there should be a book out called "Starting Fires for Dummies" as apparently we need to read up on this subject as a simple task of starting a fire in the firebox has taken us hours before (no joke), until Tony's brother gave us these fire starters and now things have gotten easier (but I have a problem with paying for something that should be able to be done without the fire starters). Extra newspapers anyone...?

we are now on our 2nd chainsaw for the actual cutting of the wood. The first one was purchased at Home Depot and was a cheap one (comparatively speaking) and made cutting wood seem like we were trying to cut thru Parmesan cheese with a knife, and we thought if this is how hard it is going to be how will we ever cut enough wood to get thru the winter...then we learned we need a professional grade saw, so we returned the first, and spent more money and now have this EXPENSIVE saw and now we let it run out of fuel, and then we flooded it, and now the air filter is clogged...so needless to say we are still NOT cutting wood!! Although if we were it would be an easier task witht he new saw...

at lastly, but MOST importantly (as I am walking around the house cleaning up bird shit), we have a problem with birds coming down the chimney and getting into the fire box...not once, not twice but almost daily at this point (which normally would not be a huge deal) as the cat looks thru the glass at them as though it is some sort of cat TV and if they die in there then they certainly deserved it for coming down MY chimney. But TODAY the bird somehow got the firebox door to come open and had been flying around inside my house all day (unbeknowst to me) and I come home to find the cat chasing it around, and everywhere it landed it apparently pooped!!

I FINALLY got it trapped in my bathroom and got myself a pair of gloves and caught it, gave a REAL good talking to and threw it outside!

So what do you think...should we go back to propane...or just caulk it up to beginners luck...? Maybe one day we can even laugh about this....