This Year Is Gonna Be Different

[FireWalker]

Last winter was relatively mild out here. We used less wood than anticipated so I had to empty the shed of 3/4 cord of the old wood, then put in the new, and back fill the front row with the old wood. Now it will be the first to be used. 3+ cords of softwood ready to go. On the other side, is the hardwood. That's gold out here and will not get used until we need real heat. We have holly, locust and cherry waiting for those nasty days.

I built a shed roof off the side of my deck that holds 2 rows deep 16 feet long and 4 feet high. It's hard to get at the wood in the back and I usually refill the shed when the front row is gone. The back row is all black locust and it's 3 years old now. I have less dry wood this year than last so that locust is going up in smoke come January. I'll be glad to see it gone, I burned it almost exclusively for a whole winter.......a good mix is far better.

 

[dafattkidd]

Yeah, I'm real glad I found this forum. I would have never thought to season wood for that long, or check it with a moisture meter.

I am really excited to finally burn some dry wood this year. I did not have seasoned wood last year, so I was mixing all of my fires with construction debris to make up for the moisture in the cord wood. I have some hardwood pallets that I cut up today. I'll burn them this year, but it's just more to for fun. Last year it was necessary, and a nuisance. The fine ash from the construction debris was pretty messy, too. Can't wait to burn some of the Locust I have- it measured between 16-18 on my meter. Should be fun to burn.

 

[firefighterjake]

First year of burning: Folks are all excited to have a woodstove and they start envisioning the family gathering around the woodstove like all those pics you see in the LL Bean catalog . . . at least they're excited until they realize the wood they bought or are going out to harvest two months before starting that first fire are nowhere near ready to be burned . . . and then they realize that the stove shoppes never mentioned that while wood heat is fantastic it can be messy . . . and while it seems so easy, sometimes getting a good fire going isn't always the easiest task . . . the first 32 degree night they end up loading their stove every 3 hours with their primo sugar maple . . . and end up with a house at 94 degrees F.

Second year of burning: Folks are still excited to have a woodstove . . . and this time around they are a little more realistic . . . they've bought some necessary tools and have developed a routine that works for them . . . and most important their wood supply is seasoned . . . or at least better seasoned this time around. Now they know how to start a fire without batting an eyelash and they know how their stove runs and how to get the most heat from each load . . . they know how to do single fires in the shoulder season and save their "good wood" for the dead of winter.

Third year of burning: There's still something about that fire . . . the magic never really goes away . . . but now things are even better . . . the woodstove is a familiar friend and your wood supply is well seasoned . . . the burning routine is just that . . . routine . . . and starting a fire or reloading is never an "event" but rather just something you do to keep the place warm . . . but oh that fire . . . that roaring fire continues to delight the senses. . . . that is something that will never change.

 

[Lakelivin]

What will be different for me is: No more dealing with firewood dealers that all advertise "seasoned" wood.Only to find out it was cut over the summer and they will split it for my delivery,..The fruits of my labor are ready for picking , i have wood that i cut,split and stacked summer of 09' Ash,Cherry, Maple,Birch and Apple about 22 f/c . All i could do was watch it season, ..playing the we have seasoned wood lottery..what a relieve to know what i have and it's free btu's.
Just from what i learned about peoples definition of "seasoned" reminds me to stay 2 years ahead...Many times last year i would reply to a firewood ad to come home empty handed and frustrated...

That is all behind me now.....bad part is my neigbors are eye balling my wood piles Now that burn season is here...time for a fence...

 

[PapaDave]

Hey Jake, just curious,....when's your next book getting published?
Quite the writer. Seriously.
I remember quite well when I first started burning, that the wood was not producing enough heat. The tendency I had was to add more of the same. Eventually, the moisture left, and I had enough wood in the stove to heat the entire eastern seaboard.
Everyone in the house was sweating,...in t-shirts and shorts. In January.
In subsequent years, I gradually made the transition to drier wood, and better learned how to use the stove.
This will be the 5th year, I'm still learning, and yep, this year is going to be different.

 

[oilstinks]

this year is going to be different im not going to burn myself as much.

 

[firefighterjake]

Hey Jake, just curious,....when's your next book getting published?
Quite the writer. Seriously.
I remember quite well when I first started burning, that the wood was not producing enough heat. The tendency I had was to add more of the same. Eventually, the moisture left, and I had enough wood in the stove to heat the entire eastern seaboard.
Everyone in the house was sweating,...in t-shirts and shorts. In January.
In subsequent years, I gradually made the transition to drier wood, and better learned how to use the stove.
This will be the 5th year, I'm still learning, and yep, this year is going to be different.

HehHeh . . . I can't help myself . . . I went to school to become a journalist . . . and somehow somewhere along the way became a Public Education Officer with the fire department . . . I have a "thing" for words and writing. Sometime I should post some of my old "Chewin' the Cud" humor columns that I used to write for a local paper.

Of course my wife just rolls her eyes and says I'm "waxing" when I go on and on about some inane subject. . . .

 

[FireWalker]

The other thing that is going to be different this year hopefully will be less wood consumption. I did a fair amount of "stove stuffing" last winter and with my new stove and I was making big dents in my wood supply. I was regularly loading two armloads for an 8-10 hour cold weather burn. I was on a real tear with this technique last season.......my wood was good and I had plenty of it so I didn't really think about conserving. With the additional capacity I had, fill her up each load seemed the way to go. I learned a lesson later last winter after some experimenting with load size and found that I may have wasted some wood.

My goal for my 3 daily (cold day and night) burns is pretty simple:

1. Make the house comfortable. No big temp swings please.
2. Make sure there is enough fire left in there to ensure simple rake and reload. This is easy.

I found out that there were still plenty of coals in there no matter if I burned 6 splits or 12. Big loads tended to make unwanted temp spikes, especially overnight when you don't need hot, you need steady. Now with this stove, the real art of using it has everything to do with how you load it and this is where a bigger firebox comes in handy. Weather dictates which way the wood goes in.........on cold nights, wood goes in NS but I learned only 1 row high (4-6 splits), then add one (or two if it fits) big split or two nice 6" rounds (the best) EW on top and shove it all the way to the back where it will burn but not until later and then it will burn slowly.

Once we get into the part of the season where you have a fire 24/7 for the duration, saving 4 or 5 splits a day can be a big deal come April. Right now, I'm burning flash 3-4 split fires for cool nights, get it going quick and hot and let the stones do their magic, a warm stove in the morning but the fire is gone. Burn and learn folks, burn and learn, we get better every year.

 

[PapaDave]

Jake, I thought I remembered you mentioning that some time ago.

 

[PapaDave]

I can't, or at least I couldn't, load the stove for a long burn. It would overfire if I did that, so I learned to use maybe 3 splits at a reload. I was using about 25 splits/day last year, and hope to be able to control the air better this year to get longer burns on whatever gets put in the stove. Result SHOULD be less wood usage if I can make that happen.
You're right that just a few splits/day less will add up quite a bit by the end of the year.

 

[FireWalker]

That is another thing I learned last year........I have a stove with a big firebox, it holds 80lbs of hardwood. 80lbs of dry hardwood if a lot of fuel. Well you get where I'm going, what if things get a little out of control in there? I know the factory boys at HS have done their tests and all but...........it's fire, you just never know what it's going to do.

 

[oldspark]

I can't, or at least I couldn't, load the stove for a long burn. It would overfire if I did that, so I learned to use maybe 3 splits at a reload. I was using about 25 splits/day last year, and hope to be able to control the air better this year to get longer burns on whatever gets put in the stove. Result SHOULD be less wood usage if I can make that happen.
You're right that just a few splits/day less will add up quite a bit by the end of the year.

You could not control the fire good enough to slow the burn rate down?

 

[PapaDave]

oldspark, problem #1: I had the stove repaired because the previous owners overfired it and blew out the weld attaching the back panel to the bottom panel. It got stuffed with some rockwool or something, then refractory cement. The cement started crumbling before the season was done, and I had an air leak back there. That back panel has been replaced. It's MUCH better since being repaired. No more air leak back there.
Problem #2:
The air control is a very rudimentary thing. Square hole in the bottom of the stove with a plate attached to an arm coming out to the front of the stove. The plate, when completely covering the hole, leaves a small gap between it and the bottom of the stove. Air leak. I have a plan to use glass gasket over the edge of the plate to help seal the hole. It's on order, because no one around here has it in stock.
I can, so far this year, keep the stove below about 700, but I haven't really loaded it yet.
I need to get pics of that. Found one. It shows the air hole and control, and you can see the refractory coming out of the gap at the back. Fun times. :-S

 

[FireWalker]

Next years wood.........what a great guy, my wood guy that is. He called last night and let me know we have a change in plans. He knows I like a good mix and I like oak, he also knows I'm not going to burn it until next winter so instead of selling me mostly ash and beech that is nearly ready now, he wants to make that wood available to his other customers for burning this season.....ash is good like that. His loggers are moving again and new wood is coming now, so I wait an extra week or two and get the nice mix I'm after for $220/dumptruck load. The wood comes split and neatly stacked on the truck and one can easily measure the load.......it's 2+ full cord and I take two loads. The guy is a pro, he knows folks have been burned by both load size and quality, he wants me to be a regular customer and goes the extra mile. I asked him if he could bump up the size of the splits as compared to my last deilvery and that was fine, less work for him. He asked if I like unsplit 6" and smaller rounds........up to 10" halfs......up to 14" quartered and so on, pretty cool.

The guy talked my ear off, everything from wood to politics, I was on the phone for a half hour. He mentioned wood deliveries are way down this year and we couldn't really figure out why.

 

[OhioBurner©]

This year will be different for me too. But not quite different enough! See my problem was I only found this forum this year, and didnt get to really reading through every post and learning about seasoning wood properly until I had just split this winters wood... in July/August. Good thing is its cherry, and from what I read hear, might be just 'ok' later on in the season (I have a couple months supply of good seasoned stuff to start with). Next year will be better, as I've been working hard the last month and got 2 more big loads in addition to what I had left over. Should be enough for next year I hope, but I know on a few of my trips to the farm for hunting season I'll be bringing back some more.

One thing I am eagerly awaiting is the full potential of the new Jotul Rockland! Thats how I found these forums, looking for reviews on various models we considered this spring for an insert. Did another break in last night, shes seen over 500 now. I plan on doing atleast one more fire to get to full temp before I start running it continous. And well, its not quite cold enough yet anyhow.

 

[FireWalker]

This year will be different for me too. But not quite different enough! See my problem was I only found this forum this year, and didnt get to really reading through every post and learning about seasoning wood properly until I had just split this winters wood... in July/August. Good thing is its cherry, and from what I read hear, might be just 'ok' later on in the season (I have a couple months supply of good seasoned stuff to start with). Next year will be better, as I've been working hard the last month and got 2 more big loads in addition to what I had left over. Should be enough for next year I hope, but I know on a few of my trips to the farm for hunting season I'll be bringing back some more.

One thing I am eagerly awaiting is the full potential of the new Jotul Rockland! Thats how I found these forums, looking for reviews on various models we considered this spring for an insert. Did another break in last night, shes seen over 500 now. I plan on doing atleast one more fire to get to full temp before I start running it continous. And well, its not quite cold enough yet anyhow.

You may want to save that good seasoned stuff for the heart of the cold weather.......that is if you can get at it. Nothing worse than fighting with the stove on a cold night.

I like the Jotul you picked!

 

[OhioBurner©]

You may want to save that good seasoned stuff for the heart of the cold weather.......that is if you can get at it. Nothing worse than fighting with the stove on a cold night.

I like the Jotul you picked!

Firewalker, Thanks, we like it too! Just got to see how it will actually perform yet, as we have only done small break in fires (but were pretty much ready now).

Yeah I actually posted a thread about what to do with my wood situation. I was thinking like you, maybe burn my more marginal stuff (cherry) in the shoulder seasons and save the good stuff for jan-feb. But seemed most thought I should burn the good stuff and by the time I was through it the cherry should be ready, or it least ok. Last I checked, maybe 3 weeks ago, I was getting average readings about 28-30%. And I'm thinking I got enough good stuff (measuring 18% average) for maybe 2 months. During the shoulder season I could probably mix it up and throw in 1 cherry to 2 or 3 pieces of good stuff, that should extend it a bit.

 

[Slow1]

I wonder how different this year will be here. Well, it already is since we haven't started burning yet and last year I was already fiddling with the stove at every possible excuse. If the weather guys are nearly right we may make it well into October before my first fire - that will save me a bit (1/8 cord?) or so... not a whole lot but something eh?

Like others I have a better wood supply than last year - much less punk in the pile, instead of misc craigslist scores I actually cut most of this pile and it was stacked by me from the start... good or bad. Not as much oak as last year, but that may be good since it didn't get 2 years to dry out. Lots of poplar, black birch, apple, and then leftover oak from what didn't get burned last season. I also am happy to have almost 2 more years worth stacked now... ah, now that IS different!

Back to burning - I expect that my wife will be willing to feed the stove this year and I'll be teaching my 8yo to tend the fire as well since she has proven to be pretty responsible and careful in general. Will be nice to not be the only one taking care of it.

I'm sure that many other lessons learned last year will come into play - I plan to not stuff the stove to the gills (as much?) as some air space is good. I'll be engaging the cat a bit faster based on advice received during the WS open house (going to go by stovepipe temp more than the stone temp and see how that works out).

Oh yes - and I'll officially be a pine burner for the first time - I have about 1/3 cord of white pine that is first up on my stack to be burned. It was split and stacked now for well over a year so it is ready to go. That should help get me through the start of the burning season without digging into the hardwood. Although I plan to mix in my buckets of chunks (mostly hardwood) with this pine to get some longer lasting coals and to get rid of the chunks... I figure between the two I should make it through the first month or so of burning pretty easily. Time will tell though.

 

[SolarAndWood]

The 8 cord I plan on burning this year has been under a roof since last October. Next year's 8 has been split since this past New Years and 2012's 8 was finished a couple weeks ago. Different is good.

 

[Dexter]

re: initial post:

Burning time isn't here for us, east of Boulder, CO. We broke another heat record again yesterday. 'Hit 91!. I hope that's not the kind of "different year" we're going to have. No rain or cold in the trends for at least 3 weeks, according to the wx gurus.

Dexter

 

[FireWalker]

You may want to save that good seasoned stuff for the heart of the cold weather.......that is if you can get at it. Nothing worse than fighting with the stove on a cold night.

I like the Jotul you picked!

Firewalker, Thanks, we like it too! Just got to see how it will actually perform yet, as we have only done small break in fires (but were pretty much ready now).

Yeah I actually posted a thread about what to do with my wood situation. I was thinking like you, maybe burn my more marginal stuff (cherry) in the shoulder seasons and save the good stuff for jan-feb. But seemed most thought I should burn the good stuff and by the time I was through it the cherry should be ready, or it least ok. Last I checked, maybe 3 weeks ago, I was getting average readings about 28-30%. And I'm thinking I got enough good stuff (measuring 18% average) for maybe 2 months. During the shoulder season I could probably mix it up and throw in 1 cherry to 2 or 3 pieces of good stuff, that should extend it a bit.

If I were you, I would leave out a face cord of your best, most seasoned wood for use on nights the weatherman has called for frigid temps. Can't hurt, if you don't need it, just use it up later in the winter. It's a pretty satisfying feeling when you stoke the stove on a cold night and get big time heat, no sizzle, no waiting to turn down the air, just throw it in and relax.