When I lived up north the school I taught in was heated with a wood stove. I got very good at starting a fire Monday morning and keeping it going until Friday afternoon. I note that a) I never had to clean it and b) this was the second school building, the first having burnt down due to the wood stove.

I'm very fond of wood heat for a number of reasons, but my current propane fake wood stove works just as well, with no ashes to worry about.