This was a pretty relaxing winter day for us. It was one of those you hope for every so often this time of year to really enjoy the fruits of your firewood processing labor. So, I was in all day except for one trip to the firewood shed. Normally I have to feed the stove and either go to work or go to bed (after the burn has settled out). Then for each next load, I sift out the coals with a scoop deal designed for frying food. The hot ones are put in front of the inlet air port. Some of the finer ash powder is gently scooped out when it's 2 or 3 inches deep. However, today, I loaded only a couple splits at a time, several times while keeping the temps in the 4 to 600 degree range. I stirred up the ashes a little before each small load. Oddly enough, there seems to be the same amount of ashes now as I started with 14 hours ago and no clinkers. The glass is spotless too. Full, long burn loads, with air cut back usually fogs up the window somewhat until the next hot firing. The long burns have more hidden coals and minor clinkers. So, opening the door more often today probably cost me some heat efficiency up the stack but we have less ash to mess with. Just an ashes observation.
