Who's still holding out?

I'm kinda like Jags and BackwoodsSavage: The stove gets fired up when the house temp is below 65 deg. My house is located about 1300' elevation and is exposed to wind on all sides. We have had many cold, damp and windy days and nights so the stove has been on slow burn 24/7 for about two weeks. A rough estimate is that I have burned about 10 cubic feet of wood so far. Most of this has been cookies, chunks and small rounds. Larger rounds and splits are being saved for winter burns.

I am building a wall of book shelves in the great room. Stove heat speeds drying of the spackling paste, caulk, glue, primer and paint. Recently purchased one of those ole timer folding clothes dryer racks and placed it in front of the stove to dry as much laundry as possible without using propane. This should also help dry clothing after snow blowing this winter. Even though I have an ultra high efficiency propane boiler, I still shudder when I hear it turn on.

Yesterday was two years and ten months since my stem cell transplant and my oncologists gave me truly excellent news. Please forgive my need to shout this out from the highest hilltop.

Life is good.

John_M

Go John Keep shouting from the roof tops

Congrats...that is great news John.

Great news John

We still haven't stared our heat yet. The hearth is still torn up I still have a few more piecs of stone to cut.

John_M said:

Yesterday was two years and ten months since my stem cell transplant and my oncologists gave me truly excellent news. Please forgive my need to shout this out from the highest hilltop.

Life is good.

John_M

Click to expand...

Congratulations man - no need to appologize...hell i'd start another thread about it

John, You go man!
Smile on my face right now thinking how you and the docs have beat it.
I'd still have a brother and a sister if this had been available before they passed.
Keep on keepin' on!

Dave

It is getting cold here but I haven't started an indoor fire yet. The fact that there is no wood stove installed here yet makes it easier to hold out.

First overnight fire last night. Wife called me around 3:00PM yesterday at work and asked to start the stove. Had small fire until 8:30PM and then loaded it up about 3/4 full of oak and black birch. Temps were down near freezing with wind last night. We did this so we would not have to turn the heat on in the AM. Worked like a charm. 73 degrees downstairs and about 67 to 70 in the upstairs bedrooms.

Looks like we'll burning in some manner through at least Monday with daily temps struggling to reach 50 and some evenings near freezing. More like late Nov weather than Oct here in New England.

Last weekend - Fri night was the first burn; dropped to 15F with wind chill and snow/ice; man sure was nice and toasty but a little harsh for mid-Oct. Stove's been on since then, but supposed to be 70F this weekend so we'll probably let it go out tomorrow.

We've been burning on and off now for the last couple weeks - mostly because I enjoy it too much. We definitely need it tonight, though - it is supposed to get down to 28...

If I get my new stove installed in the next few weeks I'm going to see if I can hold out until June for my first burn.

Yeah small fire tonight. First of the season. I swept the chimney last weekend and just got around to putting the baffle and soapstone bricks back in tonight, so there was no way I wasn't going to have a fire. Did a 2 1/2 hour fire, just enough to get any moisture out of the soapstone from the summer months... my seasonal break in fire.

Looking forward to doing some full on overnight burns in the next few weeks, but it really just isn't cold enough for that yet...

First fire was tonight. This weekend will be my first chance to fire up both stoves at once (install won't be done on the second stove until tomorrow. This weekend we are supposed to have a high in the low 40's and a low in the mid 30's.

This time last year I was burning from mid September on, though that had more to do with just getting a stove and looking to iron out the kinks before the really cold weather hit.

BrowningBAR said:

First fire was tonight. This weekend will be my first chance to fire up both stoves at once (install won't be done on the second stove until tomorrow. This weekend we are supposed to have a high in the low 40's and a low in the mid 30's.

This time last year I was burning from mid September on, though that had more to do with just getting a stove and looking to iron out the kinks before the really cold weather hit.

Click to expand...

Made quite a dent in the wood pile, didn't it?

Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:

BrowningBAR said:

First fire was tonight. This weekend will be my first chance to fire up both stoves at once (install won't be done on the second stove until tomorrow. This weekend we are supposed to have a high in the low 40's and a low in the mid 30's.

This time last year I was burning from mid September on, though that had more to do with just getting a stove and looking to iron out the kinks before the really cold weather hit.

Click to expand...

Made quite a dent in the wood pile, didn't it?

Click to expand...

Yep, I probably wasted a half a cord getting my act together. Probably closer to a cord based on how I was setting up my fires for the first three months.

Was all excited coming home from Maui yesterday that I would need to fire the stove to take the chill off the house (had turned the furnace off while we were gone and was hoping it was in the 50's in the house). I was optimistic as the weather report said a windy rainstorm was blowing through. Turns out it was what they call a 'pineapple express' (tropical depression) and it was 67 in the house. So, the stove sits.

Been burning up here most of Oct and even a few days in Sept. I am already at the point of wondering if I have enough wood put up for this winter! :grrr:

Almost went for it last night, but held off. Moved a bunch of wood to the back porch and loaded the woodbox inside yesterday. The stove is all loaded, and ready to light, but it wasn't quite cold enough. Now it looks like we're going to get a bit warmer for the coming week, so I might wait a bit yet.

I've been burning off and on for the past week since installing my insert. I had the first overnight fire 2 nights ago and another one last night. its nice waking up to a house in the low 70s instead of in the low 60s.

Nor'easter coming in this weekend. The weather is going to be crappy from today till Monday, highs only in the 40s. I re-loaded my porch to avoid having to head to the woodshed in wind driven rain.

I'm holding out because I have a geothermal heat pump. The ground temp is still fairly high (60 F) from summer heating so I'm just using that for now. When I notice the ground temp fall below 50 F I'll start bringing in the wood.

I'm holding out too...but may throw a few splits in later tonight....just a warm up.

I've been burning off and on for about a week. If the house falls below 67 and people are home, I start a fire.
I've got a bigger firewood glut than an oil glut. Neighbor started complaining about the amount of firewood on
my property. I'm not moving it off my property so I'll have to make the stacks smaller the old fashioned way.

I usually hold off till Nov. Last year I didn't start till 1st of Dec. I acutally would have liked a few fires this week, been pretty cold. My new hearth is just about done and the new stove isn't hooked up yet. Plus all I have right now is wet wood from all the rain(tarps blew off) and plus most of it's isn't fully seasoned which is ok, i burn hot anyway.