“It feels different, a warmer warm,” said Lee Gumfory, as warm air flowed from a vent above his wood-burning fireplace. THE GUMFORYS always have been ones to watch their money — a product of growing up during the Great Depression — and when natural gas prices began to soar in the 1980s, they decided to add a fireplace. Its cost was a touch over $3,000, or just $500 less than the whole house cost to build in the mid-1950s.
Gumfory, 83, and wife Colleen, 82, spend much of their time during cold-weather months near the fireplace, taking advantage of its warmth and being comfortable in knowing that what it costs to heat their three-bedroom home at 412 E. Douglas is less than using natural gas.
“It hasn’t made a great difference this year,” Gumfory said. “Gas prices aren’t too high, but it sure has helped in previous years.”
Over the years the Gumforys have had just two utility bills that totaled — for all services — more than $200. If they depended on gas alone for heating, they likely would have paid that much or more in a month for fuel in past years when gas spiked into double figures for 1,000 cubic feet (mcf). Burning 20 mcf isn’t unusual to heat a house of any size when the weather turns frigid.
The Gumforys built their home on two lots near the Zero Packing plant when it was a going business at 409 N. Cottonwood. Dale Stalnaker, who owned the custom butchering business and locker, urged them to take up residence next door in 1954, three years after Gumfory started work at Zero.
“We were living in east Iola and it made sense to be close to work,” he said.
Originally, it was a frame wood house. In the mid-1970s, when rural water districts laid lines throughout Allen County, the Gumforys took advantage of limestone slabs left from the construction and added a rock facade.
“We did it all,” Gumfory said. “It’s a mighty tight house. We didn’t have a crack anywhere until last summer,” when the ongoing drought caused more of a shift than the rock walls could stand.
Gumfory by then owned the packing plant, and he became fast friends with many area farmers. That opened a door to make heating with wood economical.
“I can go just about anywhere in the country and find a farmer who will let me cut wood,” he said. “If you had to buy wood, especially this year with cheaper gas, the fireplace wouldn’t save us any money.
“And there are expenses,” he added. “You have to have a chainsaw and you have to haul it.”
Of late, Gumfory has had help the chore.
“My grandsons have helped out a lot, especially Eric (Miller) and Mitch (Phillips),” he said.
Gumfory goes for wood that has fallen from trees or trees that have died and toppled over. He also stays away from hedge — it produces too many sparks that could lead to an accidental fire.
“With dry wood, I don’t have to worry about flue fires like you do when you burn green wood,” he observed.
Wood dried naturally also ignites easily and burns with a steady flame.
A couple of smaller logs, two to three inches in diameter and 18 inches long, will last at least two hours, he said. Ones a little larger will keep a nice flame going for three to four hours.
The Gumforys have a backup gas furnace, which comes on when the temperature drops below 68 degrees, but “even on the coldest nights it seldom comes on for more than a couple of cycles,” Gumfory said.
Burning wood a cost-cutting measure for Iolans
