Using a wood burning stove to cook and heat with would be a great skill to know if you were planning to go off grid. Heating with one would be good if there were a power outage in cold weather. Mother Earth news once again teaches us about a skill that has been almost forgotten.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Modern-Homesteading/2004-12-01/The-Art-of-the-Wood-Cookstove.aspx
