Got the itch? Burn outside !!!

Myself and my woodburning friends here in Northern Mass are getting the itch to fire up our stoves but it hasn't really been cool enough to do so. Days have been too sunny and the houses have been holding enough heat. Soooo, we have been firing up the little back yard fire-pits on the week-ends, downing a few or more cold ones, listening to Back to the 80's, or just the crackling fire, throwing in some various splits too see how this log or that log from this pile or that has been seasoning. Lots of fun, lets you burn and smell the fire, and more importantly, eases that wood-burning itch we all get as the season approaches.

ScottF said:

Sounds like a great time and a great way to satify some burning cravings. I too have been itching to burn but it is still a long way off for me. House has still been too warm and I still use the AC. We went to a camp house up north this past weekend and I was so anxious I actually opened all the windows to let the heat out so I could burn a couple of logs. Just wanted to test the stove but It still drove us out of the place. I like your idea better.

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Exactly what I mean. Similar to that feeling you get when you're done burning at the end of the season, and you're sitting there staring at a cold stove, wondering whether you can fool yourself that it is kinda chilly in the house, and in the middle of that daydream while you are still imagining the flickering flames through the glass, you realize that your wife has been vacuuming around and under the stove, has packed away the glove(s), poker, ....and woke you out of that hearth spell. Well that spell lasts every day until now, when the leaves start to turn, the calander says Fall, but the inside of the house is comfy left well alone. But outside, on a Friday night, temps down to the 40's.......nothin but clear starry skies above....perfect time to satisfy those hearth cravings. Plus, you get some of those senses back you don't really get from the stove - the sparks whizzing up into the air, the smoke in your face, the crakle of wood not muffled by a layer of cast-iron.....My wife always berateds me about the inside temps. In winter if it is 70 in the house, I throw more logs on and say it is cold. In summer, if it is 70, I'll say it is hot and run to the AC.....

I have one of those copper fire bowl thingies with the top spark screen. Holds some big logs too. Several weeks ago we burned some kiln dried spruce from the construction going on here, but it crackled and popped and smoked too much. But hey, it's still burnin, right?