Does it have a flattish surface anywhere?
#1 use it to cook foil wrapped potatoes!!!
#2 Use it to heat up igneous rocks that you can cautiously apply/utilize for heat therapy
I use my wood stove to preheat my strike and sparge water. When I get home from work or wake up on a Saturday morning my strike water usually just needs some cool water to adjust the temperature and I’m mashin’! Place my uninsulated mash tun next to the stove and the temperature holds steady. On really cold winter days I can even stoke the fire enough to boil.
Have I mentioned I love wood heat? ;D Seven species stashed for the winter. ???
I have had alot of interest in rocket mass heaters lately. Would be awesome… If only I didn’t live in a condo lol.
I’ve been playing around with the idea of a three tier gravity fed rocket mass brew stand. Heat strike water at the top, directly above but a distance away from the fire box. Step down and away from the fire box/heat path to the mashtun where residual heat can be used to maintain temps. Then back towards the fire box/heat path right up close to hit a full boil. It would be ideal for double brew days because you could heat your second strike water on the burn you would need to get your boil up.
It might only work for single step infusion mash though.
I love in a fairly small house and have a huge, 40 year old wood stove. Unless it’s under 10F outside (which it seldom is) I have to open the windows when I use it to keep the house under 90F so it doesn’t get used too often. But during our frequent power outages, it’s a lifesaver.
We sometimes get to do the same thing Denny, glad that the thing
does not require electricity to produce heat…a real life saver when
it is 35 below zero and the power goes off…
35 below? No thanks!
Wow…I forgot where you live…
We a gas fireplace and propane lightpost style heater. Plenty of hest in the cold months.
Yeah, those old school wood stoves are great. Man I miss having wood heat when I want it. Growing up my main daily chore was to split wood & kindling , fill the wood box and make sure a fire was going strong by the time Dad got home.
We have one of those soapstone wood stoves, I have a couple hours left with the log splitter to finish off the fire wood for winter.
Man, I love our fireplace for those nights when it gets down to 45F.
What? 
Wait, must be natural gas in your neck of the woods. Or do they let you burn wood with an indoors fireplace?
Edit - 3 face cords ( or one full cord) of hardwood delivered tomorrow.
We’ve got a Hearthstone Phoenix soapstone stove in our main house in town.
…and a 30-something year old monster at our place in the mountains…
Wood is completely kosher. My fireplace was built in 1925 and while a lot of folks confuse it for a Batchelder tile fireplace, it’s actually from a competitor that was called Claycraft that exist in the 20’s and 30’s here in LA. The three little mural tiles are worth about $200-6000 a piece. (You can see one vertical on the right hand side)
Welcome to Southern California where in the 20’s-40’s, there was a really strong style movement for these hand crafted tile fireplaces with hand painted mural blocks. Move into the 50’s and the crimes happened where folks would just paint over it with white paint.
These days original tiles are so coveted that tile shops around SoCal will come in and for free - pull the tiles, clean up the mess and build you a new surround - just so they can get the tiles. Sometimes you have unknowing owners and flippers who buy a place with an original Batchelder or Claycraft fireplace and they destroy the tiles when they remove the fireplace. Crying shame. (Interestingly, Batchelder was Cal Tech’s Pottery instructor. I live about ~12 blocks from Cal Tech)
Here’s the fireplace
It has a really short firebox, so it reflects a lot of heat back into the room. And yes, that is a fat chihuahua roasting his belly.
We’ve got 3 fireplaces and we never use them, they suck the heat out of the rest of the house and make it cold! I really need an insert.
Had to ask, as friends in OC explained the outdoor grill and fireplace had to be natural gas, sparks causing fire was what they said. They are from the Midwest though, may not be the true reason?
In the “D” Pewabic Pottery is still in business. One of the few left in the country from the craftsman, art tile era. If a craftsman home in my village is for sale, Pewabic tiles are always listed as a feature.
Depending upon where they live, it’s entirely possible that they have outdoor fire restrictions. Some folks are so backed into the “wilderness” that they could easily spark a bad blaze. Half of SoCal is perpetually ready to go “whoompf” and catch on fire. I do know where I’m at there is a restriction on open chimneys. (Aka, my chimney has to have a spark arrestor on it)
Looking online - it seems like the Pewabic tiles are way more colorful than the bog standard Batchelder and Claycraft’s, which are almost always dominated by a chocolate brown tile scheme (like what you see in my photo). I do love these old fashionedhand crafted bits.