Burned some uglies for the first time last night

[Bster13]

Started the fire at 8:19pm with a decently full load and had to leave the door cracked open a bit as the the fire took longer than normal to get going. Eventually it took and I turned down the bimetal thermostat and it got the far hallway of my house to 71F when I went to bed. This morning (7:40am) the stove was ever so slightly warm to the touch (the fire was out) and the thermostat in the back hallway was 70F an the other side of the house is 68F (back behind my insert, but it's the sunroom warming up with the sun).

I can't ask for anything better than that, as the uglies are <1yr old (wood collecting started Nov 2012) and they have been sitting in a heap, not drying optimally.

I guess this is the way to get rid of uglies and I'll keep chugging through them this shoulder season even if I have to burn the stove hotter in the beginning to get it going.....I am running out of newspaper though, will have to grab some from work. (refuse to buy firestarters)

I'll throw up some pics this evening of the "ugly" load and leave the bit of pine that is the oldest in my pile (in the beginning I would scrounge whatever I could find) for a little later on. This will certainly help to clean up my wood pile a bit, it needs it says the wife.

 

[PapaDave]

I've been burning the shorties recently too.
Pretty dry stuff and it warms the house just enough in the SS.
You guys with BK stoves need your own sub-forum.

 

[USMC80]

I put all my uglies on top of stacks and try and burn them first

 

[Bster13]

Curious for those burning uglies, do u season your uglies for over a year just like your regular wood or do u burn as soon as u can (within reason, perhaps a few months of sitting in a pile )?

 

[Bster13]

I have too many and small limbs to fit them all on top of my stacks. Haha.

 

[USMC80]

they do season, usually 8 months or so, majority of my "uglies" are actually cut offs from rounds i had to cut down a couple inches. They dry out real quick

 

[PapaDave]

Depends on the type of wood, but most of the small stuff is good to go within a year.
Wow, USMC80, those would be called stubbies.
I have some pine that are about 8-10", but those are the shortest.

 

[Bster13]

Yeah I have cutoffs as well. But most of my uglies are just the knotty crap.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Curious for those burning uglies, do u season your uglies for over a year just like your regular wood or do u burn as soon as u can (within reason, perhaps a few months of sitting in a pile )?

No wood goes into our stove until it has dried. That includes the uglies. Either fall or spring is a good time for burning them.

 

[Hogwildz]

Don't let the other BK guys see this post, or they will surely blast you for not achieving a 24 hour burn....

 

[Bster13]

In this mild weather I may go for a 24hr burn time. I load it more and more each night as confidence rises. But...I'm not sure they are getting 24hr burn times with uglies, they may be fully loading the stove.

 

[PapaDave]

See, if you load it up and let 'er rip, you'll have a great story to tell....to someone. Tell it to us.
We'll wait.