I think my wife might shoot me! (Time to light up?) (merged)

I'm in southern middle Tennessee and lit the first fire Tuesday evening. :red: Usually wait til sometime in Oct but the inside temp was down to a damp 66 after three days of 50s and 60s with no sun thanks to the tropical storm. I think the fact that it was 97 last Sat made 55 and drizzle feel downright wintry. Kids were begging so of course I had to give in. Have to admit it felt pretty good.

Still hoping the first fire isn't lit until November.

Coach B said:

I'm in southern middle Tennessee and lit the first fire Tuesday evening. :red: Usually wait til sometime in Oct but the inside temp was down to a damp 66 after three days of 50s and 60s with no sun thanks to the tropical storm. I think the fact that it was 97 last Sat made 55 and drizzle feel downright wintry. Kids were begging so of course I had to give in. Have to admit it felt pretty good.

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Considered lighting up on the Plateau last night, but held off. A fire would have felt nice, but in this weather even a small fire can quickly have it too uncomfortable for sleeping. Shoulder season's a real pain sometimes. It won't be long though...

Lit our first fire of the season a couple of nights ago.
Got into the upper 40's & dropping, so I lit a small one
with some "junk" wood I had laying around. Actually
burned pretty well, so I guess I'm good-to-go
(brushed flue end of last winter).

woodchip said:

We have a cold windy day forecast here tomorrow........ and Mrs Woodchip is mumbling about feeling chilly.

Something tells me we might light up tomorrow, just for the evening.

I had hoped to go through to October, at least we have plenty of dry punky stuff to get rid of..... ;-)

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Looks like Saturday Night will be our second fire, it's been real damp and the temp on Saturday night will be 42-45 degrees. After a day back in the woods milling it should feel good.

On the menu will be some nice dry cherry and maple.


zap

I'm holding out until at least October 15th...don't ask me why, as I am sure it has to do with some spreadhseet I have cookin.

5-6 more weeks to go for me most likely. Besides which, all of my wood is drenched from practically sitting in water for 2 out of the last 3 weeks.

Mostly, I'm excited about my new stacking methodology this year to begin. 2 week supply in the garage (roughly 1/3rd a cord). Then I'm stacking another quarter cord on my front porch (cement slab against brick siding) with is covered. Then another quarter cord on the outside face of my masonry chimney (which is on my driveway).

This is gonna be roughly 15-20 trips with the wheelbarrow, but should supply me with upwards of 6 weeks worth of wood directly in or next to my home. Last year, every day or every few days I trudge out to the wood pile with my canvas wood carrier, bring enough inside for 2-3 days, and then repeat. And, of course, it was often covered in snow/partly wet.

It's gonna be glorious!

I couldn't resist the urge to have a small fire in the T-6 tonight. It wasn't really that cold inside (65), but a little damp and a fire seemed in order. Anyone else have their first one yet?

Yup, had one in my new 30 N-C yesterday for a test fire as it was 41 degrees @ wake up. Saturday night its supposed to drop into the 30's so will probably fire up again.

Theres been a few 'first fire' posts here in the last week or so. I know some of the Canadian and Michigan folks have started up already. I still have some time before I ger her going. Enjoy!

My Oslo heats my home said:

Theres been a few 'first fire' posts here in the last week or so. I know some of the Canadian and Michigan folks have started up already. I still have some time before I ger her going. Enjoy!

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Yup, shoulder season is just arond the corner for us. We're due for one of those cold, wet rainy days too.

Heck, I haven't even cleaned my chimneys from last year.

Well... I'm hoping we don't have a need for one for a few weeks yet. After discovering some sort of insulation showing inside my SS chimney last weekend during cleaning (yeah, I should have cleaned/inspected last spring, I know), I am now on hold for first burn until my trusted sweep can get by on the 30th to check it out.

However, I am eager to burn - maybe this will help hold me off Last year it was October 7th for first fire so I SHOULD have a month left if that means a thing. The rain all week has allowed the house to cool down a lot though - no sun etc so I do have a sweater on which rather makes burning seem like a reasonable thing to do.

To all those who have lit up for the first time - congrats and enjoy! I don't look forward to the "roast dust" first fire smell, but I sure am looking forward to that heat on my back as I sit here in the evening typing away!

Slow1 said:

Well... I'm hoping we don't have a need for one for a few weeks yet. After discovering some sort of insulation showing inside my SS chimney last weekend during cleaning (yeah, I should have cleaned/inspected last spring, I know), I am now on hold for first burn until my trusted sweep can get by on the 30th to check it out.!

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I'm curious about your insulation showing inside your liner. Do you have any ideas as to what happened?

wendell said:

Heck, I haven't even cleaned my chimneys from last year.

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x2!

My wife was gone all week so I didn't worry too much about the house being cool and damp. When I walked in from work tonight the house was 67* and damp so I turned the heat on for 5 minutes and the house was up to 70*. No way I'm going to deal with the stove for 5 minutes worth of the furnace running. When the wife walked in there wasn't even a mention of the temps so mission accomplished!

Irene the other week was the perfect occasion -- the power was only off for a little while here, but I still kicked up the first fire of the season, just because it was 20 degrees colder than the day before and slightly dark inside.

Still, I'm I've got at least a month till the real shoulder season starts around here.

My Oslo heats my home said:

Slow1 said:

Well... I'm hoping we don't have a need for one for a few weeks yet. After discovering some sort of insulation showing inside my SS chimney last weekend during cleaning (yeah, I should have cleaned/inspected last spring, I know), I am now on hold for first burn until my trusted sweep can get by on the 30th to check it out.!

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I'm curious about your insulation showing inside your liner. Do you have any ideas as to what happened?

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Me too!

I posted a picture in another thread but it doesn't help a lot as taking pictures inside the pipe is very hard to show details with the way flash bounces etc. Talking to the sweep it may be that somehow the pipe split - perhaps a seam?. It looks to me to be right at the junction between the horizontal piece and the T. Since I really haven't studied the construction of the pieces I don't know what seams etc are there to split and/or how it is possible for it to happen. I don't believe that I have abused it in any way - i.e. chimney fires or undue mechanical stress. In any case, it doesn't look right to me so I'm having him come take a look - he installed it and up until now did annual cleanings so perhaps if it has failed we'll push for a warranty claim. Even if there isn't a warranty claim, I refuse to burn until I know what the situation is and have confidence that all is well - I like fire only when I can control it.

No I have not lit the stove up yet and I usually resist the urge to do that until at least the second week of October however last night my wife was complaining it was damp in the house and stated you know it might be nice to light up the stove for a bit....I promptly replied yeah right you know I don't light that thing until at least October, my comment apparently went over like a lead balloon and the room got real quiet for a minute her response was you better simmer it down it's as much my stove as it is yours in fact you might just come home from work tomorrow to find the house 90° with the windows open and me burning the stove so I get to watch the fire......LOL
I was actually impressed with her comment because normally when the Dutchwest was sitting there she wouldn't touch the stove with a 10 foot pole unless it was a necessity but she feels comfortable with this one already after only dealing with it for about a month or two this spring. How much you want to bet I burn more wood this year with her stuffing the thing full all of the time. :lol:

For as long as I can remember, I wait to turn on the heat (whether it's a furnace or a stove) until the high for the day is below 64- when it's closer to 32 than to 100. =P Otherwise, I usually wake up and start baking first thing and my gas oven heats the kitchen up nicely. And wear warm socks.

~Rose

Been burning most everyday now. Have had a few days here and there that it's gettin gin the low 60s still, but even still it's getting cold at night... high 30s/low 40s.

Looks like some cold nights ahead for me, possible frost or freeze Wed and Thur morning. The stove will be fired up for a couple days.

36 degrees this morning...must resist...do not light...

Mid 30's is cold enough for me. I had a small fire last night and again this morning. First burn
of the season turned out to be 9/14/11.