Almost that time.

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Garage rack is filled 3/4 with left overs from last year, chimney is clean, stove gaskets checked and are still good. I'm ready, but not ready mentally, now that the ultra hot / humid is waning, I'm enjoying getting back out and working 6+ hours outside without needing 3 t-shirts, 4 gal of water and cans of bug spray lol. I was talking to my neighbor last night (we do fence beers occasionally) and was saying that I'm going to start cutting tree's and staging logs in the yards to split when cabin fever happens at the end of winter, he laughed and said I'm always up to something with firewood.
 
Moved some starting sassafras into the garage, moved 3/4 of a cord of oak from a leaky tarp to my wood shed. Bought a soot eater (white rods) for a mid season brush. I'm ready. But it's still 80 during the day and 70 during the night, and humid this week...

I guess I'm going to have to wait until November because of using the minisplit to heat when it's above 35-40...
 
My AC was still cycling at 6:00am. Highs are still hitting 90 several times over the past week. Going to be a awhile before we start burning for real heat. New insert will probably get a break in fire or as soon as it’s cold enough to draft but warm enough to keep windows open.
 
Cooler here of late but it is going to pop to the high 80's + over the weekend into next week + rain.
 
No hurry here. We'll be stoking the fires soon enough. For the early shoulder season days we'll let the heat pump carry the load.
Yep. Right now we're in open windows all day and night season but soon it'll be heat pump time. No need to start burning until we start seeing sub 40 overnight temperatures.

I still need to repaint the top of my stove. Waiting for some cooler weather so I can fire it up the next day and get it cured before the dog gets it.
 
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The heat pump was turned on over the weekend, mostly for chill chasing overnight at this point. With temps in the 50s it only comes on occasionally.
 
Not yet . . . although typically at some point in September we will be lighting a fire to take the chill out of the house. Soon . . . very soon.
 
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Yeah I think it's getting close to starting shoulder season fires. We've had nights in the low 50's and that certainly gets you in the mood but for me that's still too warm for even a short fire to light for a few hours then let it die out. I love autumn, it's my favorite time of year. Temps for me are just perfect this time of year and with the tree's starting to turn color....This winter I'll be burning 90% ash that was split in 2019 it should perform nicely.
I second this! There is nothing like a cool autumn breeze and some beautiful tree colors. It's also "flannel" season haha
 
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One of my favorite things to do is watch the long range forecasts of the top weather models, idk I just like seeing whats correlating down stream, never take with a grain of salt on a specific storm or event past 5 days from your current date, anyway the gist is that it looks as though there is a chance for the first seasonal frosts to occur in New England and dare I say very northern mid-atlantic come October 1st give or take a couple days.
 
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Maybe I'm just mellowing out in my old age but I find myself agreeing with all of the different opinions in this thread. Started heating with wood in '82; will use heat pump primarily for the shoulder season; will have a few pleasure fires because I can't wait to put all that hard work to use and smell some wood smoke; have help coming to clean chimney at camp because of body 2.0; come February filling the woodbox every day will be getting pretty old and thoughts of warmer weather and the upcoming maple season (and burning another cord of wood) will be dominant; 90% of my firewood for the next 2 years will be beech, not ash, but I actually saw a BTU chart (from Utah) that had beech higher than white ash which surprised me. Anyway, I'm not being wishy-washy with my opinions, I'm being mature!
 
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Locally the fire danger is so high that I want everything to become nicely saturated before considering any wood fire. Rain is supposed to be good this weekend. That will be a start.
 
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Locally the fire danger is so high that I want everything to become nicely saturated before considering any wood fire. Rain is supposed to be good this weekend. That will be a start.
No kidding. I've lived in the Puget Sound area for 4 decades, and this was the driest + hottest summer I've ever experienced here. The wood I split and stacked last winter is certainly well-seasoned now! I like the sunny weather, but it sure is nice to get some rain finally.
 
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Looks like by mid week we could see highs in the 50’s so probably be time for the first burn.

It’s been a warm dry Summer here as well. I cut, split and stacked 3 cords of Aspen last Spring and it’s ready to burn reading 15% moisture.
 
I have to smile for you stove wood people are rearing to go---your all addicted...Hope it gets nice and cold with your first burn for the year and your wood is just wonderful after all the preparation involved...Just think of how pretty it will look on a cold cold day with a nice cup of coffee in the early morning--Oh Boy , Oh Boy---clancey
 
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