Nestor Martin Oil Stove

This time last week we were comfortably settled in at the cottage. The wood stove cranked up with a wonderful crackling fire, making the cottage warm and cozy, enjoying the company of our friends, and having a relaxing few days. I'd love to be back there tonight. That's the only trouble with going to the cottage in the winter, when you come home, it leaves you longing to go back.

We actually discussed going back this weekend earlier this week, but the weather has been sooo cold, and quite frankly, there isn't a lot to do there at night in the winter. At least not when the temps have been so far below zero, doesn't really make for a fun night to have an outdoor campfire. Plus, it means we would be burning through our wood supply, which isn't bad, but it's not like it is endless, and in a couple of months or less, we will be going in earnest, and will need it.

So we decided to stay home, where we have 50 channels on the television, lots of heat from the hot air furnace and oil stove, which by the way, is an excellent source of continuous heat. Ours is a Nestor Martin, supplied by Ultramar. It's a wondeful appliance, giving more heat to our downstairs than we know what to do with, running steady, with little or no maintenance. Nestor Martin  is a company out of the United Kingdom, but their products are available in North America through various suppliers. Ours came from our local oil supplier, Ultramar.

There are few things in life that I can say have been as trouble free and as satisfying as our Nestor Martin oil stove. It burns regular furnace oil, and we have a 200 gallon tank for it alone. The little stove is efficient, and clean, as a check of the chimney shows, it doesn't create a lot of smoke, something I find amazing. What it does create is a lot of heat, as well as a comfortable, ambience in our family room, that keeps us comfortable all winter long. Ours has a glass in the door to allow us to see the flame, which adds to the atmosphere in the room.

I've been a fan of oil stoves since we had our first Kemac oil burner stove at the camp when I was a kid. We still have one today, a old Enterprise stove that is built on the Kemac style, only this one has an electric range on one side, and an oil burner on the other. We don't use the oil burner side, mainly because of our proximity to the lake. I am not keen on the chance of an oil leak sometime when we are not at the cottage. Therefore, I disconnected the oil supply a few years ago although the chimney is still in place.

But for home it is great. And...if we do eventually move to the cottage, I will likely replace our woodstove with an oil stove such as the one we have in our house. I love how it burns continually, no wood to mess around with, no worrying that the fire will go out during the night. These days, with the chance of power outages caused by snowstorms, hurricanes and the like, it is a comfort to know that we don't need power for heat, and our stove, as long as we have oil, will provide us warmth, hot water and if we had too, we could even cook on it, or at least boil water, heat up canned food etc.

During a massive snowstorm in the 1990's known locally as White Juan, we lost power for a day or two, and the pellet stove we had at the time was useless as it required power to run the auger. Today I think they have backup batteries to keep them going in a power outage. However, pellet stoves and me do not agree, so I recommend an oil burning stove anytime I get a chance. It's no wonder we have become so dependent on oil. Let's face it, the convenience, warmth, dependability, all make good reasons to burn oil. I know the environmentalists may not agree, but....until someone comes up with something better.......

And now for something completely different.....a whitetail deer pic for no reason other than I like it!