Halfway there. How's your wood pile?

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Backwoods Savage

Minister of Fire
Feb 14, 2007
27,811
Michigan
We should be about half way through the burning season so how is everyone's wood pile holding out?

We had been putting 3 cord of wood in the barn for the winter burning but never have burned that much since we started doing this. So this year we put in less than 3 cord. Right now I figure we've burned about a cord. Man, that insulation really helps a lot.
 
Not bad zap. You are a lot colder than we are.
 
We should be about half way through the burning season so how is everyone's wood pile holding out?

We had been putting 3 cord of wood in the barn for the winter burning but never have burned that much since we started doing this. So this year we put in less than 3 cord. Right now I figure we've burned about a cord. Man, that insulation really helps a lot.
Go ahead, rub it in.;)
I plan to tear everything out of the Stove room and re-insulate. Took down some of the T&G boards and have found lots of air infiltration.:mad:
I think the kitchen is next.
Oh, forgot to answer the ?.
I think we've used a bit more than 2 cord so far>>, but I have a plan.;)
 
Dave, I can hardly wait for next year when you get the new stove. Methinks you will be a very happy man.
 
I'd REALLY like to get the attic insulated better to help hold in the heat we're losing right now.
Woke up this morning and the house was 58. Got colder than was being called for.
These forecasters are just about killing me.;)
 
I'm wearing my long johns right now.
 
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A colder than normal November and December has bitten my stacks. By the end of this week I will finish off cord two. Usually we burn three in a winter. I figure my fingers will get stuck into cord four before it is over this year.
 
I believe in about 1.75 cord into the winter. As a first year burner I'm struggling to find seasoned wood. My parents have a old smoke dragon that they use for ambiance. I have been cleaning up their property for years cutting and stacking, but they never use everything I cut. As such I'm taking his seasoned and plan on refilling his stacks this summer.
 
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I started with about 5 cord and have used about 1 1/4 cord.
 
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I'd say about 1.5 cord here so far. I have cut and hauled home about 5 cord. So, feeling ok about the winter to this point. I was able to wrap up a little early today and cut and hauled a nice load.......perfect cutting weather about 15 degrees....had a good sweat on and plenty of ice hangin off my mustache. Yahoo !!!!!
 
Looking at our stack, we've burned close to 3 cord, give or take. Most of that was silver maple and ash, we've just started getting into the main part of the locust/red oak/elm. I still have a TON of three year seasoned ash, silver maple, locust and oak out there for this year (around 3 to 4 cord), as we go through 7 cord on a 'real' winter (mid October to late April). We're below useage this year which is fine by me. But I've only just started to crank the stove up. It hasn't been really cold yet this season.
 
Yesterday I was thinking to myself "when is someone gonna make that thread". Well today I look and here it is!

I've gone through about a cord of oak/ash, a little pine and a third cord of a cherry/elm mix. Less than a cord and half total.
 
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I didn't expect to be able to be burning wood at this point... certain things fell together to get me out from under the boot of K1... fortunately I did have a cord+ of a birch/ash/maple/locust C/S/S 2 years + from my last rental with a wood burner in it. I've got a half a cord left +/- :(

fortunately a coworker of mine burns about 3 cord a year... and has 30 cord stacked... so we've come to an agreement which will get me through until my dead locust stand is ready to go...
 
Sav, I forgot the shoulder season wood, about one cord of hemlock & pine. For the next year we have 1.8 cord of shoulder season wood ready.

what is shoulder season?
 
We were not even CLOSE to guessing what we needed. We burnt through about a cord last year but the stove wasn't installed until January and I was still trying to work out the process.
We are almost through 2 cords now, 1 cord of 10 mth css ash is left plus we have a full cord left of kiln dried stuff we scored but I'm using sparingly We also have about 3 cords of "community wood" my neighbor and I split and stacked as our back up in a barn (the weekend NYers come and take some splits when they want to look at their ambient fireplaces) We both think will we be into that pile by next month! We figured 2-3 cords a season but with me being home all day, pretty much burning 24/7, we need to double that stash for next season. Already in the works......

Woke up this morning and the house was 58. Got colder than was being called for.
These forecasters are just about killing me.;)
You ain't kidding. I set the alarm 40 minutes early expecting snow making it a mess for the hubby to get to work. It was cold, colder than predicted and way windy, but never snowed. Ended up making a "sunday morning" breakfast instead since we were up. Our stove barely does a 7 hr burn so the oil furnace is set at 62 and usually kicks on about 4am. We get up at 5:30 so it doesn't run for long!
 
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what is shoulder season?
It starts in September up here. It's when the weather is not real cold but you still need a fire to take the chill off so you use your lower BTU woods.
 
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It starts in September up here. It's when the weather is not real cold but you still need a fire to take the chill off so you use your lower BTU woods.

Oh... we call that "suck-it-up season"... lol..

When I was running those God-forsaken Monitors... I would tell my kids to put a sweatshirt on...

Now, even with a smokedragon.. I'll probably warm the stove and let it die...
 
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The current year's wood is stored under a lean-to and inside a woodshed, with equal amounts in each place, so the halfway test is pretty easy. We still have about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cord in the lean-to and haven't started into the main woodshed, so all is well. About 3.5 cord burned to date this season.

I keep eyeballing the 2013-2014 stacks and worrying - they seem a little short to me. Shooting to add another full year's supply of CSS this winter (2014/15 and 2015/16), but lack of snow on my skid roads is slowing me down.
 
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Not really sure because I've been grabbing off different stacks as the mood strikes me, not working off one main stack where I can easily tell how much I've burned. I'd guess we're still under a cord burned. I will say that so far I've been burning a fair amount of Red Elm and medium-heat woods like soft Maple and Cherry, and a bit of Ash, Red Oak, hard Maple, but not much of my primo stuff.
I've taken several carloads of wood over to feed the Buck 91, and just took a half cord over in the trailer Sunday. It may only require three cords a season, when I originally guessed four...we'll see. I really should keep better track of the amounts burned, but I'm not trying to stay just ahead of what I need, I'm going for Scotty-type overkill in my wood supply. I want to have so much wood on hand that I could build recreations of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria out of it, then fill 'em with dry wood. ==c If I bought wood, I guess I would need a better idea of what was required for a year...
Took down some of the T&G boards and have found lots of air infiltration.:mad:
.......I think we've used a bit more than 2 cord so far>>, but I have a plan.;)....Woke up this morning and the house was 58.
You don't need any precious warm air escaping with your climate. Your house needs to be 'in the mitten.' ;) On the plus side, maybe your heat was blowing towards the neighbors...you can feel good that you were able to help them out. ;lol It's bad enough here if ya got leaks....yeah, yeah I'm workin' on it. ==c
A plan is good to have. I got back this AM to a 64-degree house because I didn't 'plan' on all that heat being sucked out by 10* overnight low. Shoulda tossed a couple extra splits on earlier.

Wow, that's a buttload of smilies in that quote and post...is that a record? ;?
 
Up till last night's 5 degrees the winter has been kinda' mild. I'm only down 1.5 cord and that's because most of that was burned in an open fireplace. No more of that now that the new Buck 80 is up and running. Still have about 6 cord stacked for future use.
 
Not bad zap. You are a lot colder than we are.
The good thing Sav, some guy on some website is always pushing the members to get ahead on your wood supply, we could burn 6 cord an still have plenty left.

Can't remember his name but they say he still roams the board pounding (ghost like) out that same message, if you see him say thanks!;)
 
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