how many are ready to give there stove a rest until next burning season?

wood spliter said:

ansehnlich1 said:

I'm here in south Pennsylvania, had an old timer for a neighbor years ago, he burned wood to heat his cabin, he said to me one morning "cheezus cripes, had to make fire in JUNE"

I've never forgotten that statement, and indeed, I KNOW I'll be makin' fire in April, some mornings in May, and maybe even in June to take the chill off!

I'm a veteran burner, coal first, now wood, and I'm not anywhere close to being ready to shut down for the summer.

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I'm with you, I will make fires till I need no more heat. Last year I think we had a cold wet spring.

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I just ordered my first woodburning fireplace insert. Its a Jotul Rockland 550. Its for my home in Long Island. I have a vacation home in the catskills and have an Enviro Pellet stove there. Thats where I got the bug to have something at home, and wood is just more available in Long Island than Pellets.

First of May, I hoping for an early spring. Down to one row of wood 8' X 8' X 15" I'm in to conservation mode with the stove. Burning one log at a time, having smaller fire. Letting the fire go out, and then re-firing when the house cools to less than 70 degrees. Having no fire thru the night till 5am.

diodeduster said:

i just burn at nights and weekends and i will be shutting down in a couple of weeks as temps are going up in the 50"s next week.

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Yep. I'm a 24/7 burner, but I am switching to evenings/nights now. I am hoping we stay at our seasonal averages from this point on which will keep us in the 50's.

Side note: The weather states we are to have a high of 42 with current temps of 46. How the hell is that possible. Do they not know what the term 'high' means? How can the high be lower than the current temp?!

BeGreen said:

Mother nature essentially shut our stove down by mid-January. Earliest I can recall. We still do some occasional night or weekend morning burning, but nothing like we normally would be doing at this time of year. The garden is loving it. Peas, lettuce, spinach and radishes are in the ground and sprouting.

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I'm still waiting for pics of the daffodils you mentioned a few weeks back . . . as we say here often . . . pictures . . . or it didn't really happen!

Backwoods Savage said:

It might appear that Spring is here, including the pair of bluebirds that finally returned here yesterday but old man Winter won't give up this easy.

On a normal year we figure on stopping burning sometime in May. Last year it was June and we could have stood a fire once or twice after that. So, the stove won't get cleaned just yet around here nor will the shovel and snow blade get put away. I still have the snow blade on and the shovel is next to the porch.

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Funny you mention the early return of birds . . . my wife swore she heard a phoebe the other day . . . and a day or two later I was outside and heard what sounded like a phoebe as well . . . a sound not heard since last Fall.

Well we will heat a little every month but July and Aug. Its usual to get about 6' of snow in March to add to our 35' for a total around 40'+ and like most northern places it can snow any monthof the year. The last day for snowshoeing is usually may 15. Since we are great cross country skiers this is heaven for us.

ellipup said:

I just ordered my first woodburning fireplace insert. Its a Jotul Rockland 550. Its for my home in Long Island. I have a vacation home in the catskills and have an Enviro Pellet stove there. Thats where I got the bug to have something at home, and wood is just more available in Long Island than Pellets.

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Welcome to the forum ellipup.

I hope you also have next year's wood already put up. If you have to buy wood, do not wait! Get it as soon as possible and stack it so the wind will hit the side of the piles lest you end up like so many with poor fuel next fall. Those type of folks end up with some big time problems and many will quit wood burning because of it. The wood seller tells them the wood is seasoned....and it is not. Sad, but true.

Good luck.

I'm a pyro. As soon as my stove goes cold, I'll start lighting it up at the outdoor fire ring. I'll keep
burning inside, as needed, into May.

still burning 24/7 here, will burn into June. Have had snow on July 4th before.

Still burning in the evenings, though with NG closing at $4.58 today, it's not much of a $ savings anymore.

Backwoods Savage said:

It might appear that Spring is here, including the pair of bluebirds that finally returned here yesterday but old man Winter won't give up this easy.

On a normal year we figure on stopping burning sometime in May. Last year it was June and we could have stood a fire once or twice after that. So, the stove won't get cleaned just yet around here nor will the shovel and snow blade get put away. I still have the snow blade on and the shovel is next to the porch.

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I'm at least a couple hours north of Dennis, and I have to echo almost to the word, what he wrote.
Starting to see some bare ground the last few days, and warmer temps too, but old man winter hasn't lost his grip just yet.
Like Dennis, last year we made fire into the first week in June.
I'd love to give the stove a rest, only because I have plans to build a platform hearth, tile the stove room, and build a woodshed. Lots of other stuff planned for outside too, but still a little too much snow on the ground, ..........and it's frozen.

Moving to nights and weekends now, unless we get a really cold one. I will still fire it up for a night here or there until about May 15.

Nice thread,
This is my first year heating solely with wood. I'm still burning 24/7. But I probably don't need to. I'm just trying to learn the ins and outs of my new stove. It's getting to the point when 70 is not so bad in the house! With the weather above thirty most of the time, the house doesn't cool off as much during the day. Our temperatures are unusually high too. Next week we are supposed to break 40 almost every day. By the end of the month our average high is 48 and low is 30. I will burn as long as the house needs to be warmed up. I am ready to start going outside more, in fact I've been outside with my four year old everyday this week pushing him in the swing, even though the ground is still mostly covered in snow. Cape Cod is calling my name and I would love to start going to the beach tomorrow, but until that day I'm prepared to burn baby!

I am switching over to weekends only myself. I am tired of dragging a sled full of wood through my backyard. I need another 4" or so of snow gone to be able to use my wheelbarrow- and if it's still cold then I'll consider a few more fires. Honestly, I'm sick of it. Love the savings, but with 50's coming this weekend I'm ready for the 24/7 burning to be done.

Plus, my seed starting room is in my basement next to my furnace, and my tomatoes and peppers have germinated. Easiest way to heat that room up is by running my furnace...

Just purchasing a new Lopi Leyden has "renewed my interest", but I will have to stop when we start getting sunny and high 40's. Except for a small take the chill out of the basement evening fire!

Still getting cold at night here, tho the days are up into the high 30s and 40s. Nights are still down to 20s brrrr. Been running a little lighter than normal with the blower and fans off for the last week or so. Woke up to a 67 degree LR this morning, so the blower is back on and the fans are going. We have 14 ft of north east facing windows in the LR, so it warms up nice on sunny mornings, but takes a little while.

i am ready to quit but only because i am sick of fighting wet wood. I have only been burning when the house drops down to 62 (where the oil furnace is set)in an effort to conserve wood. I had about 3 weeks this year to get all my wood from out in the woods to stacked and drying. Everything i cut was dead standing so nothing was as dry as it should have been. Next year should be a lot better. I have about 4 cords stacked and drying since December and have another 1.5 cords of ash that still needs to be split and stacked. Then i am getting ahead for the next 2 years.

We've only been brning nights and early mornings since the first week of january, do to such a mild winter here in the northwest. Probably stay that way u.ntil May. Been a really strange winter.

I was wondering this just the other day and was going to start a thread, glad someone did, I have enough wood for at least a couple more months but would prefer to save some for next year.

I’m not expecting this winter to shorten any. I expect I’ll be burning right into April. I expect more snow, too. I remember reading about some winters back in the 1800s where it snowed during the summer, wiped out crops, and proved deadly for some. I think earth is about the throw a few of those winters at us again. Cycles. Just time for some weird stuff to take place.

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That was due to a volcanic explosion that blocked the suns rays, it was called the year without a summer, interesting read, wonder if it could happen again.

I'm done with 24/7 burning until November.

I saved a few days worth of wood for the freak spring storm/power outage but will basically go cold until just before turkey day.

My setup doesn't work well effectively with start/stop and I'm a 24/7 or nothing guy.

I usually give it up around the first of April. Not really worth it anymore as the house heats up a bit during the day from the sun and the electric doesn't cost that much at that point. I may fire the stove up here or there to get the chill out of the downstairs...

Its more the weather than the date. I won't shut the stove down untill the end of May. 50 degrees is the cut-off. 40 degrees and raining in April is a fine time for a fire.

I was just thinking about this the other day. I've been burning in the evenings and through the night, my wife will throw a couple logs on early in the morning and then we'll let it burn down. Just yesterday I went out to the wood pile to bring some up to the house and when I pulled the tarp off I saw the next row was Oak. It's only about a year and a half old so I wont burn it yet. I brought up a load of White Ash instead. I processed that last fall so it could stand some more seasoning but it'll work for what few days are left to be burning. It's supposed to get really really warm here for the next week, close to 50 and barely into the 30's at night. Those are about the temps when I stop. Occasionally on some damp, rainy days I'll run it. I still look for one or two more cold snaps but they won't last long. Spring is in the air.

I'm hoping to get well into April if the supply lasts. We never know what kind of Spring we're gonna get around here, but I'm looking forward to the warmer weather. I got a mess of felled trees in the yard to start dealing with!