Winter Warm!

Close-up of firebox

Top-down fire

I have really been perfecting my wood stove fire building technique, thanks to Hearth dot com. This is a top-down fire and I use it to start my morning fire if last night's fire is completely out.

It's so darn easy compared to how I was buiding fires in the past.

Our new stove has a smaller fire box than Old Smokey, and it's an EPA stove with secondary burn, so I had to learn from scratch when we bought the new stove.

A top-down fire is exactly what it sounds like: you build it upside down from the normal procedure. Big logs on the bottom, then kindling, then fire starters (I use fatwood), then newspaper. It's fast and easy.