Warm and Toasty

Gil is the master researcher. You can give him a topic and he will look into from every angle possible. This skill came in handy when we needed to find a cheaper alternative to heating our house. Filling our oil tank multiple times over the course of a winter gets super expensive, so we knew wanted to go another route.

Through his research, we learned about pellet stoves. For those that don't know about them, like us... pellet stoves are similar to wood stoves in that they burn wood, make a room so cozy and comfortable, and are hard to decorate around. But the difference comes in what they burn. Little pellets...that look similar to the food you get at petting zoos to feed the giraffes...are poured into the hopper, then auger fed into a flame. The fire is super hot. The pellets are cheaper than oil and made from recycled wood, making it a "green" source of heat.

So when you combine buying an old house with installing a pellet stove in your living room, the math adds up to needed some new fire and smoke detectors. Did you know that October is fire prevention month? I didn't either. How convenient!

Coincidentally (or not), someone from First Alert mailed me a First Alert Fire Alarm to try out and said they would send one of my blog readers one for free too! Anyone need a updated smoke alarm?

My new friend, Shannon, will happily mail one of my readers a new First Alert Fire Alarm too. All you need to do is leave a comment below.... tell me about your favorite time around a fire. Was it a camp fire? Did you spend a night without electricity, but bundled warm by the wood stove as a kid (I did!)? Do you have a gas fireplace you switch on?

After you share your stories, I'll put your names in a hat and let my researching husband pick out a reader to win the smoke alarm! Contest is open to anyone and you can enter multiple times -with different stories- until Sunday (10/28/12) at midnight.