Cold and getting COLDER what you burning tonight...

Around 14, Lopi loaded with, beech and hard maple. A comfortable 72 in the house, especially with a glass of Bulleit and the game on. Must be something in the air tonight.Being Thursday, I would not normally reach for the Bulleit, but it just seemed right. It appears other people have the same idea.

Vande said:

Around 14, Lopi loaded with, beech and hard maple. A comfortable 72 in the house, especially with a glass of Bulleit and the game on. Must be something in the air tonight.Being Thursday, I would not normally reach for the Bulleit, but it just seemed right. It appears other people have the same idea.

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Vandy, I see in your signature "Stihl 028 AV - never let me down (20 yrs old?)" Ditto, I have had an 028 AV for over 20 years and it is still going strong.

Chief, yea, it is a great saw, but I know no better. I also think my saw appetite is growing. I understand from this forum, that may be a common problem

Last couple days and nights we have been burning the pellet stove, cold weather coming in for the weekend so I'll start burning the wood stove again.

Zap

2 yr old white oak, Shipyard Prelude.

Maple and beech, with a bit of red oak.

We can make it 'til spring!

Only in the low 20s here. Got a few small splits of cherry, several splits of bone-dry ash, red oak and hard maple topped by a good sized round of bitternut hickory...

...and a couple fingers of Laphroaig non-chill filtered Quarter-cask. Neat.

Dampered down, flue is at a nice stable 400º, stove top at 500º and climbing, face at 750º, with waves of heat just pushing off. Basement containing the stove is 84ºF. Upstairs, house is 74º in every room, about 4-6º warmer than I used to able to get it during the same conditions with my old stove. Feels real good.

Laphroaig. Mmmmm.

83F here. Have that secondary burn going, but stove temperatures falling.

Game over. Roll tide. Opening damper and throwing on oak and pear. Out.

I have off-peak electric heat in the floor, so I use that unless it is pretty cold. Today the high was 6 below zero and it was still about 10 below at 8 o'clock this evening, so I lit a fire. I like a nice mix so I used a big oak split for the back log, a thin slab of Green ash for the bottom, and a split of hard maple (got that stuff from over in Minnesota) for the front log. The kindling came out of a bin full of twigs from ash, oak, cherry, elder and who-knows-whatever else. Topping that were three small splits of birch, walnut, and apple. It was a one-match ignition and a fine fire. Now all that's left are red-glowing coals. It's 77 in the stove-room, 75 in the rest of the house and 13 below outside. I'm drinking Schell's ale and until it got too warm in the stove-room and came in here, I was reading about the life of Burns. Now, really, does it get any better than this?
Oh, and for those of you who may think that 6 below is too cold, well, on New Year's Day it was 11 below when I went for a walk in the woods and 13 below when I got back--- two and quarter hours later. I checked the snow on the ground and it was 15 to 17 inches deep. Now, I know that things are worse farther north, but that is up in Canada, and they are kinda crazy up there. ( ;-o And please, don't you guys "one-up" me.)

The bottom line is this--- Kick back and enjoy the opportunity to spend a little time indoors with a book and an ale or three.

Tonight I am just burning the pellet stove...high 30's here in western washington.. when it gets into the teens and low twenties....its time to feed the pacific energy monster with an ample supply of douglas fir... I keep the pellet stove on remote so I do not have to get up to feed the beast in the middle of the night.

I'm burning my best which is better than what I burned last year.

Big, nearly petrified oak slab in the back, another on top. Black locust in front of that, also mucho grande, then either ash, elm or BL depending on the decline in the mercury. I'll say it again, I hate using my best wood!

Last January a local landscape yard was trying to get rid of their last bit of wood so I bought 2 cords of oak for 100 bucks each and saved it for this year. Its split really small but I have been hitting those stacks hard as it is burning so nice, fires right up and leaves monster coal bed for a long time and then at bed time I have been tossing on a few pieces of Black Locust, god I love that stuff so mush it makes me sad to burn it :-(

gzecc said:

I'll say it again, I hate using my best wood!

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I LOVE using my best wood. I'm all for "eating" cake, not just "having" it.

LLigetfa, its hard to replace my best wood. Highest BTU's I can find, split to perfection, seasoned long enough, carried all over the place. Easy come easy go, doesn't apply!

The whole raison d'être for your best wood is to use it when it's cold and getting colder. I could understand not wanting to burn it outside in your firepit or during shoulder season but the coldest part of Winter??

This reminds me of when colour TVs first came out and my father bought one. When I went to visit him, he was watching his old B&W TV. When I asked him why he wasn't watching it in colour, his reply was that he didn't want to wear it out.

Firewood is not like some mint antique car that you keep garaged and take out just to polish.

Going to be chilly here this weekend...single digits so I'll be using my well seasoned mullberry for the 1st time. Speaking of temps, it's intersting to note how I know if the previous night was real cold or not by the amount of wood left in the boiler when I get up. Wife is a real weather forecast junkie but I can usually tell her if it was single, teen or in the 20's the previous night. I hope the wind finally dies down around here!

I loaded the bins in the garage with my best oak yesterday. I have standing dead cut and stacked since last December in full rounds of 5-8 in diameter and split oak too. Right now it is not too cold here actually it is around 30 degrees here. The cold is coming this afternoon and all weekend. Right now it is 74 in here and the fire is smoldering. I cant wait to unleash the oak beast later.

I try to keep the boiler room full of Oak . . . and a section of that is the biggest diameter oak I have. I keep cutting while I can and so far, I have not touched my wood pile. What I cut yesterday will be going through the GW this cold snap.

Alternating each night . . . Knob Creek and Macallen's Highland single malt.

Mostly red oak. As usual.