I let the fire go out.

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LLigetfa

Minister of Fire
Nov 9, 2008
7,360
NW Ontario
First time this year that the fire went out. It had been raining all day and was getting too hot in the house so I didn't stoke it up for overnight as usual. Was still 74 in the house this morning so I didn't bother starting a fire either. Supposed to rain all day and the roads are so slippery they cancelled a lot of the school bus runs today.

I sure hope the rain stops before it turns cold. Don't want this turning into an ice storm.
 
Yesterday 40*... 6 windows open and we were burning wide open, 3 good splits in various stages. We kind of like doing that, why?...I dunno.
 
I've only been building a fire at about 9PM and then relighting off the coals at about 5AM. The house stays anywhere from 67-70 right now because it's been in the high 30's and 40's for the past week. I don't mind building the fire, but now I realize I should have put more time into making some kindling!
 
Not sure if we'll have a fire or not tonight. Danged stove hasn't been fed but is still warm. Supposed to rain here tomorrow.
 
We're at least temporarily into the 2 fire a day mode. It's a nice change. But it's only early February so it probably won't last.
 
Snowing again here on the so-called "mild west coast".

Know what? This winter has been so cold and snowy and just crappy that I no longer give a crap about overnite burn, or anything else like it. The old oil boiler is set for daytime 17C and nitetime `14C. If it comes on to warm all 4 floors of this old house, then I could care less.

Not to say that we don`t love our new insert, cause we do and it shows in the "smiling flames in my avatar".. :smirk:
 
While you are warming up today we actually got snow so I got to burn all day instead of a fire only in the a.m. But, alas, our weather is supposed to get back into the 40's and 50's again so I am enjoying our nice fresh snow and warm fire.

It has been very educational to read about all the different weather you all have been experiencing this winter. Thanks to everyone who chimes in with how things are happening in your part of the country/world. Helps me keep in touch with things that I wouldn't have a clue about.
 
perplexed said:
While you are warming up today we actually got snow so I got to burn all day instead of a fire only in the a.m. But, alas, our weather is supposed to get back into the 40's and 50's again so I am enjoying our nice fresh snow and warm fire.

It has been very educational to read about all the different weather you all have been experiencing this winter. Thanks to everyone who chimes in with how things are happening in your part of the country/world. Helps me keep in touch with things that I wouldn't have a clue about.

Well perplexed we are at our seasonal normals now. If we were above seasonal norms Id still have to be burnin. :down: :lol:
 
north of 60 said:
perplexed said:
While you are warming up today we actually got snow so I got to burn all day instead of a fire only in the a.m. But, alas, our weather is supposed to get back into the 40's and 50's again so I am enjoying our nice fresh snow and warm fire.

It has been very educational to read about all the different weather you all have been experiencing this winter. Thanks to everyone who chimes in with how things are happening in your part of the country/world. Helps me keep in touch with things that I wouldn't have a clue about.

Well perplexed we are at our seasonal normals now. If we were above seasonal norms Id still have to be burnin. :down: :lol:

One of the things I have learned is that your seasonal warms are never above 0* in the winter and, I suspect, that your winter is a good 10 months a year and I still can not imagine how anybody can live is such a cold place. I would last less than a month - especially when the sun never gets above the horizon. Suicide prevention's phone number would be the first number on my auto dial key pad. :ahhh:
 
We've been in the 60s and even the 70s a couple of days here in Middle TN. Not a typical February for us by any means. So, the stove's been out for several days. The kids have gotten used to being much warmer, especially the youngest. She swears she's freezing if it's below 74F downstairs now. ;-)
 
I hate having to let the fire go out midwinter like this.

My basement is cool even on the hottest days, so even if it is 60º out there, I am cold especially if it is a dreary, rainy day.
I never can decide what to do- it's easier to keep it going than to have to start over every evening, but when it gets back down into the 20's, as I'm sure it will, I'm going to wish I hadn't wasted that wood.
I feel like a fool burning, so I don't, and subsequently sit here shivering all day like an even bigger fool.

Stupid schizophrenic weather...
 
Thermometer on deck is reading 60 (Central MA). Sliding door open. Me freezing because the air is moving across the foot of snow on my deck....

Hey, I'll take it for the fresh air for once.
 
LLigetfa said:
I let the fire go out.


Somewhere, a ninja is crying right now.
 
I hear ya - been in two fire mode for a coupla days but finally threw in the towel. Today it's supposed to get north of 70 :bug: Hard to get her started on a day like today. Oh well - good chance to get out and work on next year's pile...
 
The wife missed having the fire so after relighting it yesterday after work, she wouldn't let it go out since. My WISP was down yesterday so I couldn't get online. I slept most of the evening away, it was bloody hot in the house. I keep opening a window but she keeps closing it. Internet came back up today but it won't let me get to hearth.com so I had to VPN to the office and browse over the VPN connection.

Been raining all day here but dropped below freezing now and getting colder tonight and much colder as the week progresses.
 
I concur with Carbon. . .tonight its around 40 and have the stove fan off. . .a nice toasty 72 in the family room with the kids rooms upstairs at 68. Good thing as that cold snap caused me to go through the pile faster than usual. LLigetfa, you have the right idea with that huge woodshed. I wish I had the room to bulk up that much wood ahead of time. ... .
 
I lit a small fire tonight, and I'll be roasting in just a few minutes. I'm not sure if I made the right decision. Wood heat is a drug.
 
Last couple of days the temps have been WAY up there (high 60's) but it's been rainy so my stove saw some fire to keep the damp chill out.....well it would have not been so damp if I would have closed the windows but I LOVE having the windows open and burning the wood. lol Crazy huh.....Can't help myself. I even do it when it's zero outside. lol
 
We have been in the upper 40's the last few days here, and i tell ya what... i've been putting in half as much wood at night, and yesterday morning i only put in 2 big splits at 6, my wife pur in 2 more at 10:30 and we didnt put anything else in till 4ish... this compared to 3-4 splits every 3 hours when its 0-20 and 3-4 splits every 2 hours below 0...
 
We had 68 yesterday. Left the stove off for a couple of days. But there is still 6" of ice In the one water tank for the horses! BUT THE GRASS IS STARTING TO GREEN UP! I guess that means we will have a blizzard in a few days.

Ken
 
The warm spell is over. Back to burning 24/7 as usual. Well... as usual as of late anyway. In my former home I had electric baseboard heat as the alternative so we burned pretty steady but my current home has a gas furnace and for the first six years here, I would put on a fire when I got home from work and let it go out overnight. That was before natural gas took a big price hike. Now I stoke it up for overnight and stoke it up again in the morning.

I keep saying that we burn 6 cord a year but that's not really accurate. I should say instead that in the past I bought on average 6 cord a year but I usually also cull a couple cord of wood off my property. It looks like this year I'm going to break all previous records. The wife insists on it being hotter than we've ever kept this place and it being colder this Winter than previous years, I think I will be digging into next year's 6 cord reserve this Spring. I'm still waiting on my next 12 cord delivery and when it arrives, I'll need to get busy and buck, split, and properly stack some of it right away in the shed as I'm pretty sure I will be burning some of it this time next year.

I need to give thought to how I will take wood from the shed so that the new green wood I stack in there doesn't box in any of last year's seasoned wood. I'd hate to have to move and restack the seasoned stuff. I've been taking wood out of the middle of the shed from the one open side to keep a "stack wall" of wood on the perimeter that keeps drifting snow out. This perimeter wood is stacked up against a lattice so I cannot take it out from the other side. It looks like I will need to burn that perimeter wood next or else it will get trapped in behind the new wood to come.
 
LLigetfa, I would be interested on how you achieve a long overnight burn. We have the same model of woodstove. I stock it up at 11 or 12 at night and it's down to nothing by 3am. Not even enough in the way of hot coals to get it restarted. Wood is primarily red oak that has been stove split thin and dried well. Do you fill it up to the air tubes? I cram as much as I can in there and turn the air control over to the left but still get the same results. I am jealous of those with other stoves that get the legit 6 hr burn with coals in the am that they can just restart the fire. It has to be something I am doing.
 
I shut down my insert for 3 days, do to ever shrinking wood pile and some warm air. Today got to light up, and it felt great. 20 degrees this morning. I got about 2 weeks left of wood I'm so depressed. First year with insert live and learn.
 
bgoodwithwood said:
LLigetfa, I would be interested on how you achieve a long overnight burn...
I have a thread on this forum about my doghouse mod.
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/32701/

I stoke it up at around 11:00 PM and give it lots of air for about 20 minutes and then close down both the doghouse and secondary air for the night. At 6:00 AM I still have enough coals to resurrect the fire.
 
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