Do you keep your woodpile warm?

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pen

There are some who call me...mod.
Staff member
Aug 2, 2007
7,968
N.E. Penna
Tonight, my 3 year old and I were splitting/stacking the wood along the holz-hausen. As we were finishing up he asked "Why do you keep that wood warm and not those?"

Took me a sec to realize he was thinking the tarp was to keep it warm like a blanket would. :lol:

Lucky to have a good little helper.

Didn't have the camera out when he was still out with me. Ended up getting the cord of wood along side the HH finished up. Not sure if I'll get into that holz-hausen wood this winter or not. I'm anxious to see what the wood in the center is going to be like.

woodpile.jpg


pen
 
Nice stacking Pen! The only time I warm my stacks is when I end up peeing on them. Cheers!
 
An HH is on my list for next year.

Good eye from the helper :)
 
Having those little helpers always makes things go better.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
Having those little helpers always makes things go better.

lol, at times better isn't the term I'd use. When he's helping slower is the first descriptor that comes to mind!

But, I do enough things at 90mph. Slowing down and hopefully giving him an appreciation of what keeps the house he lives in warm is worth the extra time spent to me. Plus I laugh my rear off w/ the stuff he comes up with.

There are a bunch of people I know who don't burn wood as an adult because their parents who burned wood made it a chore to the kids rather than fun. Chores to me in this day in age are taking care of garbage, making the bed, picking up toys, etc, etc. I think heating with wood is a luxury. I hope I can make my boys feel the same way about it. Yes it takes work, but the reward is worth the effort.

What scares me is how much he reminds me of someone I knew very well about 30 years ago :shut: The boy would have been better off with a little more of his red haired mama's genes.

pen
 
pen said:
Backwoods Savage said:
Having those little helpers always makes things go better.

lol, at times better isn't the term I'd use. When he's helping slower is the first descriptor that comes to mind!

But, I do enough things at 90mph. Slowing down and hopefully giving him an appreciation of what keeps the house he lives in warm is worth the extra time spent to me. Plus I laugh my rear off w/ the stuff he comes up with.

There are a bunch of people I know who don't burn wood as an adult because their parents who burned wood made it a chore to the kids rather than fun. Chores to me in this day in age are taking care of garbage, making the bed, picking up toys, etc, etc. I think heating with wood is a luxury. I hope I can make my boys feel the same way about it. Yes it takes work, but the reward is worth the effort.

What scares me is how much he reminds me of someone I knew very well about 30 years ago :shut: The boy would have been better off with a little more of his red haired mama's genes.

pen
Pen,
My son is grown and now burning wood. We cut together, just like we did when he was little. We always had fun, and yes, he slowed me up a lot, but it was worth every minute I spent. We have just as much fun now, and so does my grandson. Now, me and my grandson are slowing down my son....... :)
And by the way Pen, why do you warm only some of your wood? :)
 
Great looking stacks Pen, great job from your little helper. We just covered our last stack that we plan on burning this year on Sunday.

zap
 
I always liked to have my kids help me do things around the house and for the most part they enjoyed helping. Now it's my grands that have taken on the helper role and I love every minute of it. Two of my grand daughters were over this weekend (aged 3 and 7 sisters) and I announced that I was going out to bring in some wood. I built an indoor rack that holds about 3-4 days worth of wood at a time and it was very low. WELL.... you would have thought I was going on a great adventure. Can I help... can I help... both of them. I let them do most of the work offloading the stack to the wheelbarrow and we all carried it into the house. We had the best time doing such a simple 10 minute chore but what they really enjoyed was helping their Papa I think. Didn't really matter what it was we were doing.

They both love to be around the fire whether it is in the stove or on the deck in the pit.... Kids after my own heart.
 
Sounds like a cute lil bugger pen.....good thing I did not procreate....I would not wanna deal with a kid like I was.....inquisitive as hell...you know those annoying lil kids that ask questions constantly? >:-(

Now the "Snuggies" come in new colors and animal prints.....maybes you can git your wood some pen..
:lol:
 
NH_Wood said:
Nice stacking Pen! The only time I warm my stacks is when I end up peeing on them. Cheers!

Doesn't this reduce seasoning time?

Yes - love working with my kids on the woodpile. Last spring for a surprise they just started stacking when I wasn't around. They had about half a cord when I found them! Great surpise for Dad!
 
pen said:
Lucky to have a good little helper.

Indeed, kids are a blessing. One of those things that changes the way you look at the world.
 
Way to go Pen !!

On Mon night we chucked about a cord down into the basement before we did chores , I told my 7 yr old son ( my right hand man ) that we'll stack it after supper and chores . Well after chores , I was tired , but my son said , com'n Dad , lets go stack wood ! Guess what we went to do , no way was I going to dampen that kind of enthusiasm !
 
pen said:
There are a bunch of people I know who don't burn wood as an adult because their parents who burned wood made it a chore to the kids rather than fun. Chores to me in this day in age are taking care of garbage, making the bed, picking up toys, etc, etc. I think heating with wood is a luxury. I hope I can make my boys feel the same way about it. Yes it takes work, but the reward is worth the effort.

pen

That perfectly describes the situation here. It took some tough financial times to get me back into it, but there is no other way now. My sister still likes to warm her backside in front of the stove, but wants nothing to do with burning wood. My bil burns an old Defiant in his workshop, she says no way in the house. They have a Mt Vernon in the basement that rarely gets used now that my nephews are getting older and don't play down there anymore. I'm making progress in talking them into moving it upstairs.
My girls are 6 and 9, and while they try to 'help', and sometimes they actually contribute some productivity, I don't make them. I let them make that call on their own. I would rather they had fond memories of the wood heat.
 
I am going to build a holz-hausen next summer. Those things are awesome looking. I like the pictures of wood piles in Europe that I've seen. Very majestic next to 400 and 500 year old homes.
 
firecracker_77 said:
I am going to build a holz-hausen next summer. Those things are awesome looking. I like the pictures of wood piles in Europe that I've seen. Very majestic next to 400 and 500 year old homes.

And they make great dining rooms too.
 

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That's a pretty observant 3 year-old you have there, Pen. ;-)

I love the crazy questions my 4 year-old granddaughter asks me. I have to think about a lot of them because there's usually something much deeper going on inside her little brain than her words seem to say if taken at face value.
 
I don't tuck my woodpiles in to bed for the night, but I do read them an occasional bedtime story . . . well more like a horror story . . . they usually involve a woodstove and a fire at the end of the story.
 
Kids say the cutest things. Thanks for sharing that.

I think the HH with that silver tarp looks like Jiffy Pop!
 
basswidow said:
Kids say the cutest things. Thanks for sharing that.

I think the HH with that silver tarp looks like Jiffy Pop!

Dang, never thought of that. Should have used the other side of the tarp!

pen
 
Very nice looking stacks you have there.
 
firefighterjake said:
I don't tuck my woodpiles in to bed for the night, but I do read them an occasional bedtime story . . . well more like a horror story . . . they usually involve a woodstove and a fire at the end of the story.

Yeah...the wood always gets burned in the end. Technically, it has been dead for awhile, so it's not quite so horrible.
 
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