What Is In Your Stove Right Now?
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The reason I have so much softwood is that the tree guy I am set up with delivers it to me in log lengths for free, while I may need to split and stack more, I prefer to do that over having to chase wood down all over, buck the logs, deal with brush. I think I have a pretty nice deal going, while pine is 40% less btu compared to oak I figure I am doing 50% less work.
CentralVAWoodHeat
Minister of Fire
Sounds like a great deal to me. I would take that deal any day even though we have lots of property full of trees. I would be very grateful for a truckload of logs dumped in one of my fields so I could cut them to length and stack them and avoid having to fell, limb, and move them out of the woods. The species wouldn't really matter much at that point.
Firefighter938
Feeling the Heat
That's what I figure, I have plenty of trees I could take down, now all I do is just try to keep my woods clean and that gives me my hardwood. I should be truthful I do give him a 12 pack or a nice bottle of wine when I do catch him dropping some logs off.
Tonight in the tundra its once again pine with maple splits and a walnut round.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
lol... that wasn't a strong negative response!
But I do wonder about anyone who lives in the mid-Atlantic region, heats with wood, and can find time for pine. We have more oak and ash trees laying on the ground from the last five years of big storms (2011 Irene, 2011 Halloween snow, 2012 Sandy, 2013 and 2015 ice storms, etc.), than the entire wood-burning population of eastern PA can burn before it rots. So, why would you ever waste a second splitting pine?
CentralVAWoodHeat
Minister of Fire
I see where you're coming from. We have lots of room to store wood so space isn't an issue. I also own the road into and out of our property which routinely has pine trees down across it from storms. When they fall, I cut them up and stack them for firewood. I can definitely see how you wouldn't want to make room for too much pine if space/time were a serious concern.lol... that wasn't a strong negative response!
That sounds like a nice gourmet mix.
A winter pleasure mix. Like cranberries and balsam.
Lakeside
Minister of Fire
How did that crap apple split ? I ran some thru my supersplit a while back and it required 3 or more hits to split tough stuff.
Firefighter938
Feeling the Heat
I split it with my Fiskars and it had sat for over a year in the round. It was tough stuff. Next time I will try it green.
Yesterday I split some black cherry that was standing dead for several years. That was hard as a dickens too.
Almost 50 in Indiana. No fire tonight.
Pennsyltucky Chris
Minister of Fire
It's 32 here. Mid 40s today, so I started the fire this evening, pine, poplar and elm. Just taking the chill out for now, and I'll pack it up with more elm before bed. Going up to like 47 tomorrow, so I'll probably be able to avoid burning again until tomorrow night. It's amazing that Im only down about 3/4 a cord this season. I put aside 4-4.5 cords a year. It's looking promising that I can stretch my supply and burn less than anticipated.
Pennsyltucky Chris
Minister of Fire
lol... that wasn't a strong negative response!
I get a ton of free pine. It does split faster than oak. It is so much lighter than oak, it is more manageable on the splitter. Oak is heavy, especially a 28" round that is 16' long. Those things way 200+ lbs.The same round of Scotch pine is like maybe 50lbs. I use poplar too. My house doesn't require oak when it's not 25 degrees. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty. Plenty of Ash too. Black Locust. Beech. Hickory. And cords of Red Oak. But I can save them for another year if I can burn lighter stuff as much as nature allows me.
Dipping down to zero, so the stove is filled with oak and hackberry.
toddnic
Minister of Fire
toddnic
Minister of Fire
I burn pine and hemlock as well! I've got a lot of red and white oak but the pine is easy for the shoulder season and provides a quick, hot fire. Sometimes if I have a cold stove I find that it is quicker to get it up to temp with the seasoned pine or hemlock and then add the hardwoods afterwards.
FaithfulWoodsman
Minister of Fire
Ash, elm and cherry with a split of bur oak and what I think is shingle oak. My last two splits of the good stuff that accidentally got mixed in with shoulder wood. We just burned through our first chord and still have another before I can get to my stash of oak. So much for my organization theory. Guess we'll be burning a little more of the lighter stuff to keep temps up in the house.
Firefighter938
Feeling the Heat
Last night we dropped to 10*F. I was on duty, but I told my wife where the locust and some big mulberry rounds were stashed.
Edit: She did well! I got home around 7am and there were still some hot coals in the stove. Not bad for a smoke dragon. Cruising along now with a small split of pine, a piece of silver maple, a dash of honey locust, a sprinkling of Hackberry, one small piece of mulberry, and one Gren brick from Rural King. Last years left over wood is almost gone. I have just barely broke into this years wood. I am kind of looking forward to the cold snap just so I can get my stove cruising. I may regret saying that.
Editx2: I should add, last years left overs were originally scheduled for this year but I ran out and had to move them from my parents house to mine to finish the year off.
Edit: She did well! I got home around 7am and there were still some hot coals in the stove. Not bad for a smoke dragon. Cruising along now with a small split of pine, a piece of silver maple, a dash of honey locust, a sprinkling of Hackberry, one small piece of mulberry, and one Gren brick from Rural King. Last years left over wood is almost gone. I have just barely broke into this years wood. I am kind of looking forward to the cold snap just so I can get my stove cruising. I may regret saying that.
Editx2: I should add, last years left overs were originally scheduled for this year but I ran out and had to move them from my parents house to mine to finish the year off.
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mwhitnee
Minister of Fire
Still burning some good/messy punky cherry with an occasional not so seasoned piece of Norway maple but I'm not complaining. It heats the entire house and I have a vacuum! My new BK is not as finicky at people were saying...
I'm gonna keep saying it, I have at least 2 cords of hickory for next year and I can't wait to burn it!
I'm gonna keep saying it, I have at least 2 cords of hickory for next year and I can't wait to burn it!
Firefighter938
Feeling the Heat
A steady diet of honey locust is heating the house nicely. Our wood consumption really sky rocketed the last couple of days. I was letting the coals burn down considerably, just keeping enough for an easy relight, just a week ago. Now I am chucking splits into my smoke dragon every 3hrs when I'm home.
burning hedge more and more as the weather drops. going to be 7 degrees at 5pm and i've got a motor to work on....hedge it is.
blacktail
Minister of Fire
Paper birch. I had already burned a bunch of it from one of my racks out front, and decided to move the remainder yesterday to make room for new wood. A few arm loads of the birch went in another stack, and a few went on the deck by the back door.
