Whats Your Combination

Hey all,
Hope all of you are ready for Christmas, Im not. Up early this AM as the rest of the family sleeps late. I came downstairs to a hot bed of coals from last night's load of 2 year old locust, maple and some oak. I loaded the stove NS/EW crisscrossed at around 9pm last night. At 7 the stove top was at 400 and a very healthy coal bed. This is by far the best results I have had with the 30 and I attribute it to the wood. I have in the past used the same wood but individually never mixed. I think i found what the 30 likes to eat and agrees with her stomach. The oak is 2.5 years split and stacked, the maple i CSS in january of this year and the locust is 2 years old. Great combo of wood. Whats your stove favorite mix drink?
Have a happy Sunday and lets go Giants, Or Ravens, Im torn.

So far it runs the best on ash north south packed really tight ! I can go all day on a good load then fill it before bed and get up to a hot coal bed.

Pete

Sorry to say I don't mix drinks to often. Straight locust this month and the next few months. I'll mix in shoulder seasons mostly. Menu consists of oak, locust , cherry,birch, and maples.

I hardly ever have a load with only one type of wood. It is always mixed here so it is hard to say what the best combination is. no two loads are alike.

I find some of my best burns include a load of locust at the back and top and a nice split of oak on the raked forward coal bed. The oak lites off nicely and burns well. As the temp rises the locust starts to go off. By the time the oak burns down the locust is ready to do ts thing. Clean splits of locust (no bark or "defects") don't light off easily at reload temps, at least in my stove.

Edit; locust = hard to start

I usually base how much and what kind of wood I load based on how much heat I need and for how long. I always have different kinds of wood in the piles so I judge based on what I have and how it burns versus what I need. Example: last week was warmer with highs of 40's and lows in the 30's so the day time was 2 small loads (3 splits) of silver maple and the night load was silver and hackberry. Now it is colder with highs 25-30 and lows of 15-20 so day time is walnut or silver and walnut, the night load is walnut and black locust. I keep my wood separated in the stack and bring in a couple days assortment based on the upcoming weather. I only run full loads of black locust when it gets cold. It pretty much has to get in the single digits or colder before I switch to pure locust loads since for me to really get pure locust loads to burn well I need to reload by the time the stove is down to about 400*. 400* is normally maintaining the house temp down to at least 20*. Last year and this year has been so mild that I am actually running short on shoulder wood so I am burning better wood than I normally would at these temps. I did just pick up 5 cords of silver maple this fall to replenish the shoulder wood for the up coming years. Right now I have about a 1/2 cord of silver left and a 1/2 cord of marginal hackberry left and then I am down to just red elm, walnut, sugar maple, white oak, and black locust. The oak is at 2 1/2 years and about 20% so it is sitting until next year when it should be much better. Never thought I would actually be hurting for shoulder wood. I have become so accustomed to burning shoulder wood I now realize that I actually like having the variety as I can keep the house within 2-3 degrees 24/7 on 2 to 3 loads a day from 0 to 50 degrees.

right now i am mixing oak and birch it work great mixing for me.

We tend to burn a lot of ash and we mix that with some ash then add a little ash. Once all those ash trees are gone then we'll have to change the mix a bit. We do burn some oak in mid-winter when the cold really gets here.

Whatever I have in the woodbox that is best when it comes to BTUs . . . typically this is elm, ash, yellow birch or maple.

Got home from my neighbors Christmas gathering and the house was cold, (69) so I just loaded the stove with the same woods as last night. Put in 4 larger splits of locust, 2 medium size of oak and three smaller sizes of maple. she is taking off now.

Our stove seems to like a breakfast of cherry, ash and maple. Evening meal of black locust and oak. Some days it gets a snack of mullberry, silver maple and elm.

Locust and cherry. Is there really any need for anything else?