Okay, I have a wonderful cookstove out in the barn because we have some rearranging to do and piping to afford in the living room before we can bring it into the kitchen (and put it where our current wood-stove-for-heating is).

HOWEVER, I have been having problems with my gas stove for months. The pilot for the oven won't stay lit, and my husband has tried cleaning it out to no avail. I am worried about how much a service call to fix it would cost, and it is 10 years old (any suggestions on fixing it folks? it makes all oven use a pain in the butt because it will go out every time the thermostat tries to kick the temp down).

ANYWAY, I was thinking of just getting rid of the propane stove completely, and just getting a two-burner countertop type of propane stove for soups, hot water, etc., for the summer, which is what the folks who had the cookstove before us did. Problem? BAKING. I bake all our bread, and use the oven in many other obvious ways. Now, our gas stove, when the oven is one, heats up the entire kitchen pretty much close to the average of our wood-heating stove (unless we have it really blasting), so in the summer the kitchen and house get really really hot when I bake anyway. BIG QUESTION: HOW MUCH HOTTER/WORSE WOULD THE HEAT FROM A WOOD-FIRED COOKSTOVE BE WHEN BAKING IN THE SUMMER THAN THE CURRENT GAS STOVE I USE? It is an old stove, not some modern insulated one. Does anyone do this, and how does it work? We don't cook a lot in the summer in general, and it would be just ask easy for me to bake more bread on the same day to have for longer, though the oven space in the woodstove is much smaller and I would have to do two batches, I am sure. Out of curiosity, does anyone ONLY have a wood-fired cookstove out there for year round use without a back-up for boiling water on hot days, etc? I'd like to hear how it works.

The other thing I thought of was building an outdoor bread oven, and using this for summer baking, though I have a lot of projects ahead already this summer (painting the house, roofing the goat house and fencing, not to mention the usual gardening, and other chores). I am afraid I wouldn't get it done, but it is somethng to shoot for in the future.....

-- marcee (thathope@mwt.net), February 10, 2002

Answers

Due to the mass heat build up a wood burner will return heat hours after the baking is done. Not good in the summer time; a lot of older homes have a seperate cooking off from the house just for that reason. As for the gas stove, make sure the orfice is clean and is for the type of gas your useing natural or propane. The pilot flame is adjustable, it should be blue at the bottom and yellow at the top and burn steady, not flickering.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), February 10, 2002.

Hi Marcee,

As an experienced wood cookstove user, I can lend a little advice on using your woodstove in the summer. I live in Georgia and cannot use my woodstove which is located in the kitchen in the summer. even if I get up very early, as the stove retains too much heat and makes the house unbearable. Now if you have airconditioning, I would think that you would eat up all your savings that you get from using a woodstove by having the air conditioner turn on all the time trying to keep the house cool.

I have an electric stove that I use in the summertime and I used it this winter too as we didn't have a lot to time to get wood cut for the cookstove. But this is the first year I haven't used the wood cookstove during the winter. My plan is to put a wood cookstove on the porch during the summer (we have two) and keep the nice one in the kitchen for use during the winter. I have water reservoirs on both, but only heat water ocassionally.

I am afraid you'd just die of heat stroke if you tried to use your cookstove during the summer in the south. Ours heats the house even in the winter very nicely while I am cooking, so you can imagine how hot it gets during summer.

-- Cindy (colawson@mindspring.com), February 10, 2002.

Check out the Jan/Feb Countryside for a neat article on building an outdoor brick or masonary oven for baking. Now for my experience, we have a wood cookstove, but also have a gas cooktop built in the counter. I have a small wall oven as well. In all but the warmest months, I use the wood cookstove.

-- Kate henderson (kate@sheepyvalley.com), February 10, 2002.

I am itching to have a cookstove to do all my cooking on (and baking IN)... However, I hear ya about the summer temperatures!

What I am contemplating is a summer kitchen, for summer baking and canning, just a few steps away from the back door. Seems to me the old-timers knew a thing or two.

My summer kitchen is years in the future, but I have already thought a good bit of it out already... I want to build it out of cordwood, and it doesnt have to be very big, just big enough to get the cookstove out of the house. I want to make the kitchen area to have a good cross-breeze from huge screened sections. I want to build a small smokehouse on the back of it. The chimney can go up the middle, between the two sections.

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), February 10, 2002.

I would not recomend using the wood cookstove for baking in the summer. It will just be so hot for so long. There are small stove top ovens that I have seen in the past. They go on top of a regular stove. Sorry I forget what they are called. But we have had them in the past. They can go ontop of your burner and work like an oven. I believe Lehmann's sells them. We have an old gas stove that we can use in the summer so we don't start up the wood cookstove. Hope you can find the answers. RenieB

-- Irene Burt (renienorm@aol.com), February 10, 2002.

Marcee, If your gas stove has a thermal couple it is probably burnt out, it is a small probe that is secured by screw next to the flame tip on you piolet lite, the probe is conected to your main control by a heavy wire and nut. This part can be replaced for about 3 or 4 dollars. Otherwise it could be low pressure at the piolt lite which when the main burner kicks in it snuffs out your piolt,this can be adjusted with a screwdriver next to the burner control by simply turning the screw out to adjust a higher piolt flame. Good Luck, Gerry

-- Gerry (hardrock@mail.brainerd.net), February 14, 2002.