In a recent Press Herald Op-Ed piece William Strauss, a member of the Maine Pellet Fuels Association, made a sensible argument for utilizing one of Maine's most obvious renewable resources by advocating the use of pellet - burning wood stoves.

There is no question that Maine's forest industries have declined drastically over the past decade and that jobs would be created if efforts were made to increase the use of wood-powered heating systems for homeowners and perhaps even some commercial buyers.

After facing heating oil costs of over four dollars a gallon during the heating season of 2007-2008, I bit the bullet and made the decision to install a wood stove.

Apparently, I was not alone in this approach since nearly all of the wood-heating systems dealers that I contacted were "too busy" to come to my home and conduct an onsite audit to help determine the best product for my needs.

I did finally manage to find a dealer who sent a helpful, professional, sales rep to my home. During the audit process, I learned that the newer models of wood stoves have been designed to burn more efficiently, thereby eliminating much of the smoke and odor that could annoy the neighbors. There is also less wood ash produced and with the addition of a blower to the unit a larger space can be warmed.

Pellet burning units were not a part of my plan, since I have sufficient tree growth on my property to ensure fuel for the foreseeable future. Actually, the removable of dead and diseased trees alone should produce enough firewood to meet my needs for the first few heating seasons and I estimated that the cost of purchase and installation should be recovered over the next four years.

For those of you who have ever embarked on renovation efforts involving an older home you know full well that, "The devil is in the details".

My initial speed bump resulted from the demise of a trusted, but elderly chainsaw. The new one is better engineered and more efficient, I will admit.

Then the problem surfaced of how to move felled trees from the woodlot to a position near the house where I could work up the logs and stack the split lengths to await transport to the cellar. Fortunately, a neighbor was available with a tractor to hire out - until his three-year old machine developed an undiagnosable malady. Back to the drawing board for a plan that eventually relied on an overworked ATV and small trailer.

The process of splitting five cords of firewood with a splitting maul and wedges convinced me that my aging back would benefit from the purchase and employment of a log splitter.

And hauling logs over my old woods road has necessitated ongoing repair work.

Indeed, the past winter has bolstered the old adage, "Wood heats you several times; when you cut it, when you split it, when you haul it in and when you burn it".

Still, I reduced my use of heating oil approximately sixty per cent. Since my hot water baseboard system is linked to my oil furnace I am not completely independent of fossil fuel for heating purposes.

I am fortunate in that I have the time to harvest all of my own firewood and at this point I have no plans to change to a wood pellet system. That would be a viable option, however, for anyone without the resources to support a traditional wood stove or boiler.

Over the course of my many years of employment I have found few times when I could duplicate the satisfaction gained from reviewing my pile of well-seasoned firewood. It is a tangible reminder of challenging physical work performed out-of"doors in an environment that I love.

I also find that I now have an inordinate interest in shows about logging on the Discovery Channel, logging clothes and equipment, more powerful ATV's/Utility Vehicles (and even small tractors) and such esoteric items as log skids. "Boys and their toys", to quote my wife.

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