End of season ramblings

Climalogical end of winter is here and the forecast seems to agree. Poking around a few weather sources looks like we are starting off below normal then mid-month spring quick snap comes.

Looking back on the season, the first with the Englander 30, I'm extremely pleased. Going from a too small stove to a too big stove I finally have the peace of mind as we had three days test where it got down to single digits and only in the teens during the day that if we ever lost power for a duration in the cold we can stay comfy. The Napoleon would have no problem keeping the bedrooms warm low - mid 70's if I kept it fed every 4-5 hours however the rest of the house I would struggle to get out of the low 60's. With the Englander it was no problem maintaining the low to mid 70's throughout with the help of doors and fans without the help of the furnace. Previous years I would keep the furnace at 70 because it would take a few fires to get the temperature up to the mid 70's we like. With the Englander the furnace is set at 65 and only kicked on a few time that I know of and for the week we were in Florida the end of December.

Doing the end of the season inventory, I figured on 3 cord which is my average and used about that, which leaves me close to four cord for next year (a record) if I don't get any more ( like I would let that happen ). Two cord was bought April last year and two cords was a scrounge in September.

The end of the season is sort of bitter-sweet. I love the family time by the wood stove (kitty cat included as family) and love the feeling and the challenge of making the perfect fire. I love the ambiance and the lack of concern when the heating bill comes or when someone leaves the door open too long. My cat loves to snuggle with the wood, sleep on the wood, play with the wood. He loves to lay by the fire. He eagerly awaits my return from work to get the stove started again. We will both miss it. However there is an eagerness to put away the coats and not have to bundle up to do anything outside. I'm looking forward to sleeping in a bit since I won't have to get up early to get the stove started. I'm looking forward to longer daylight hours and getting outside and enjoying nature. I already have my list of projects.

Winter used to be much less tolerable before I was introduced to wood heating. I used to gain 20 - 30 pounds being a couch potato. Another winter and I can say I only gained 5 pounds. Of course I enjoy all the activity here. Though I'm here all year round many are not. Thank you everybody for making this such a wonderful internet stop.

Happy springtime!

Hehheh . . . heating season is far, far from over for me.

I'm dissappointed by another lame-ass winter.....I was hoping to try and "guage" how much wood I would end up using with the second stove online now (NZ3000 fireplace). But it was a totally erractic winter, with way too many ups and downs to do any 'redneck scientific testing'......oh, well. I guess we'll have to wait til we get a winter (which may never happen again).

Not to mention all of the beautiful sawlogs/firewood (all white oak) that I had big plans on getting off of the farm this past winter (needed the snow to drag them out with the sled), didn't happen......will have to wait til next year I guess....if even then....

Then to top it off, I'm STILL plugging away at the living room remodel. Got most of the big jobs done, just waiting on my reclaimed pine flooring to get back from the Amish (getting planed and re-tongue/grooved) and we'll be all but done in there. But that room, hovering over my head all damm winter, kept me from doing a TON of tree jobs this winter (lost some of them to competitors, etc), and more importantly it kept me from being able to make maple syrup and THAT pizzes me off....

Okay, rant over. There's always next year.......MAYBE......

I figure we are due here for a dozy. I thought this year would be the payback for last year, I was wrong. See what happens next winter. We only get a bad winter when people are not prepared. If you see a lot of snow blowers for sale on craigslist, watch out! After all this year is the unlucky number 13 if you believe that stuff.

Sorry :-( Its a tough job but someone got to carry the flame while others of us stare at a cold stove with only fond memories.

This post needs some pics for those of us who are still snow-bound and only have white, gray and brown landscapes to look at.

I'm only 2 hours west of you n3pro but my wood processing area ain't looking like spring yet (that's 5 minutes ago, currently snowing, behind my office parking lot which sits at 2300 feet elevation on the Laurel Ridge plateau, not as much snow down at our house at 1500 feet elevation):

Well, t'aint so here.
Still a foot or so of snow on the ground and cold. The calendar/climalogicalists can say whatever, but what's outside my house is what tells me when winter is over.
Nice musings, though.
I'll give it another 10 weeks and then probably stop burning......if ma nature cooperates. We are due for a slight warmup soon. That'll be nice, but so then begins the "burning hell", as BB so aptly put it.

Hello n3pro! You may not remember me but your emails and PMs were a HUGE help to me last year when we bought our Napoleon used and were struggling to keep it going. Well, just over a year later, we are still loving it. I work from home so I have the luxury of tending the fire all day. I go to bed about 11pm get up at 5:30 and start the stove again. The furnace does kick on about 3:30 when the temps downstairs hit 64 but the upstairs is still usually about 70 when we get up.

I often think about a bigger stove but we are only heating 1,000 sq ft and as it is this stove can blast us out of the living room on a full good load.

I too am looking forward to spring but only so all this dang ice stops ripping the tarps on top of my wood piles

We still have a while to go before we won't light the fire. Being in a stone house, its damp so even in early spring we are still burning, way into May last year!

I figure burning pretty much 24/7 with the exception of a few days here and there I had to travel, we have gone though just about 3 cords so far, a bit more than expected but better than needing oil! Still have 125 gallons as back up.

I sure do remember you, that really made my week, thank you. I'm glad to hear I was able to help. I'm used to be the receiving end not the giving end. Great to here things are going well!

http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/harrisburg-pa/17102/march-weather/330288

NOAA can go either way now.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/30day/

Guess I jinxed us

NOAA was this

That awkward moment when you start a post and shortly after it appears you were misled or duped

-10 when I got to the shop yesterday.
6" of crap on the road today, took 78 minutes to go 32 miles.
Oh yeah, can't wait for "Spring break" traffic. {sarc}

Still about a foot on the ground here from the 2 storms in past 9 days,temps upper 20's-low 30's the last week.Another storm expected late tommorow night into Monday,several inches are predicted there.