Split wood and wood stoves hot items this year

While many are worried about the high heating and energy bills this winter some are keeping warm with wood.

Stoves and fire places are the hot items this season as fuel prices get higher.
“A lot of people have said they’re going back to the old wood stove,” said N. E. Via, a salesman at Northwest Hardware.
   
Via is hearing the same thing over and over.

“People are trying to cut corners anyway they can and this happens to be one way they feel like they can do it,” Via said. 

Whether they’re buying the stove new or firing up the old one in the basement, Via is there to help with the inside job.
   
Outside, cold temperatures are blowing through as Eddie Artutis and his son cut wood for their new stove.

“I bought a second hand stove from my brother and it cost me about $170 to hook it up and then for the tools to cut wood, $500 to $600 and that’s still less than one trip of propane,” explained Artutis.
   
Eddie had finally had enough and called it quits this year.

“It was costing $800, $900, $1,000 dollars a trip for them to come out and give me propane and I’m using 2 or 2 ½ tanks a year, so that was completely out of my budget,” Artutis said.

Your average load of wood is about 4 feet high, 2 feet wide and about 8 feet long and it costs on average anywhere between $75 to $200.
 
Richard Artutis, Eddie’s brother, ironically sells fire wood on the side and he tells us business is good.

“The oil companies, they’re bouncing up and down, at least the wood you know it ain’t going to go up and down regardless of what’s happening in the economy,” said Richard Artutis.
   
At least for now wood sales are solid.