Harman P68 Burn

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Good luck with that...

Dan
Pondering it a bit, it may be a not too bad time presently. Inflation is about to cause prices on pellets to climb like lumber did...
 
Spring buy is always the cheapest around here
But this year it ain't cheap
 
Now is a BAD time to even consider buying pellets. Wait until it's 80 outside and then shop and barter.
Around here box stores have summer stuff replacing pellets after Feb.. dealers are only ones with any stock for what its worth.. most stay firm on pricing as they do not have to remove and make room for grills, mowers, AC's etc....box stores need the valuable space...IMHO best to buy as early as possible in spring if u can rather than wait it out to Maybe save a few bucks but that has been my exspirience over the years.
 
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At least my corn stays the same price...... free.
 
My pellets are not free but my firewood is as long as you don't include the cost of
Chain saws
splitter
fule and oil, tax's and upkeep of fences and trails
the feed and housing of the 2 draft horses to get
the logs out of the bush
The log truck to deliver the logs home
and the costs go on
But the firewood is free
So they tell me. Not so sure anymore
 
My corn is free but...

The diesel fuel to go get it a mile down the road so $3.00 for a gallon or so... x 3 trips at 2000 pounds a trip so roughly $9.00 for the entire winter, unless I pull a gravity wagon down to the farm and auger it into a grain tank which is roughly the same in fuel cost.

All depends on if it's bagged or in super sacks on skids and I never know how it's packaged until I go and see.

If it's in bags I still have to get rid of the bags as they are single use so I roast them in the burn barrel. If it's in super sacks I have to return them to the seed farm along with the pallets because each pallet costs them 12 bucks and I don't have any use for the pallets anyway.

I do use about 2 skids of pellets (I mix the pellets with the corn at a 3-1 ratio) that eliminates the corn clinker issue so lets say $220 a pallet for pellets x 2 = $440.00 for pellets plus $9.00 for tractor fuel = $449.00 for the entire winter. Not bad really.

I usually mix up 4 30 gallon plastic garbage cans of corn / pellet mix on a skid and take my front end loader with the pallet forks and set the skid on the back deck by the door and fill the stove with a 5 gallon pail from the garbage cans. 4 garbage cans lasts me about a week and a half to 2 weeks depending on how cold it is and how warm the wife wants the house.

Corn makes a huge amount of ash and the stove has a pretty big ash pan so I empty the ash pan weekly and dump the ash in the driveway (it's gravel). I tried the garden but the corn ash and the garden don't get along well.

The 6039 has an easily removable burn pot and I run 2 pots so every week, the pot gets pulled and put in a bucket of water to soak and a clean pot is installed. The dirty (carbon coated pot) soaks in the bucket of water for a few days, I take a putty knife and clean off the now loosened carbon from the pot, give it a scrub with coarse scotchbrite and set it aside to dry as the next week's clean pot.

The 6039 also has a stirrer rod so it also gets changed out and soaked with the dirty pot and replaced weekly.

My regimen all winter. In and out and in and out....

This winter was pretty mild so I burned about 5,000 pounds of corn and 2200 pounds of pellets.

Have 4000 pounds of pellets and 3000 pounds of bagged corn in the barn, all stretch wrapped and shrouded for next winter to get started with.

I have at least another 6,000 pounds of corn to pick up later this summer. Just got to go get it. All bagged, on skids waiting for me to fetch it.

I'll probably buy at least another pallet of pellets if, I can get them for a good price.

Works for me really well.

It's not 100% free but it's a pretty cheap date. Going on 5 years now and no end in sight.