My first year of "doing it right"

[BamaScroungr]

I've lived in my current half of a rental duplex since the winter of 2011/2012. The rental came with a Baby Bear woodstove and I made an immediate decision: I don't want to pay for firewood. So I started scrounging, bucking and splitting. Fast forward to the winter of 2014/2015. I discovered this forum while trying to ID some scrounged wood. I knew nothing about seasoning, moisture meters, single stacks or top covering.

This fall I paid to have the chimney cleaned and saw the result of burning green wood--a big grocery bag full of creosote. Yikes! But this forum taught me to c/s/s early and to single stack and top cover and use a moisture meter. Everything I'm burning now was processed by the end of March.

What a difference. I used to sit right in front of the stove with the door open, but now the wood burns so hot I have to sit six feet back!

Thank you https://www.hearth.com/talk/forums/the-wood-shed.17/. I've learned a lot.

 

[drz1050]

You & me both.
I was splitting yesterday morning.. a neighbor walks over and says "Getting ready for winter, huh?" No sir, this is for NEXT winter, then I pointed at the stack I have at the back of the property for this year.

I'd like to get 3 years ahead like a lot of people on this forum.. this is my first year burning, so hopefully I have some of that stack leftover come Spring time.

 

[peakbagger]

No substitute for experience. I suspect that many great deals are found on craigslist for one year old stoves that were bought by folks with green wood. After suffering through a winter, they decided to go off wood and someone else scores a great deal.

 

[firefighterjake]

First year I burned wood that was a few months old -- mostly tops from a wood cutting operation, some dead elm and pallets. I thought I did quite well.

Second year I burned wood that had been cut a year previously . . . my eyes were opened to what my woodstove was truly capable of doing with magnificent secondaries, easy relighting, etc.

Third year I burned wood that had been cut two years previously . . . Eureka!

 

[Trktrd]

Yet, some people never learn. See way too many house fires every winter from uneducated wood burners. I shudder every time I see smoke pouring from a chimney.

 

[Babaganoosh]

My house came with a 1981 Russo stove. I came online to learn about it and found this site. I was able to run a pre epa stove very well due to the information I learned from this site. Without it I would hav to been running a smoke Dragon. Luckily I had access to some maple rounds that had been stacked 2 years. I got started cutting and stacking for this year last Dec. Now I have an ideal steel hybrid and enough dry wood to get thru the winter. I've got next year in the bag too.

The wood I have now is pretty dry. Between 19 and 22% mc. Next year will be even better. The difference between last year and this year is night and day.

 

[Paulywalnut]

Congrats! Way to go, sometimes to get three years ahead you might have to buy a cord or two just to store it 3 years for seasoning. You're going about it right, I'm sure you appreciate the wood heat.

 

[ADK_XJ]

Kudos and so true. I felt very frustrated early last year after plunking down $X,XXX on a high-end stove and "pro install" and finding I could barely keep our living room at mid-60s. Found this site and, while I certainly kicked myself for not knowing better, it motivated me to bust my ass last winter and get a solid 3-4 cord put away well before spring. I'm burning from deadfall trees (ash, cherry and maple) that then sat split in the stacks for almost a year. Based on how well this stuff is burning I can't WAIT to see some of my other hardwoods after they hit 2 years...

 

[Babaganoosh]

It boggles my mind that stove shops don't stress the importance of dry wood with these epa stoves.

 

[BamaScroungr]

My pre-EPA Fisher is perfectly capable of burning green wood, so I had no idea starting out! I discovered this site about a year ago, which prompted me to begin scrounging and processing in earnest. I expect to burn 1 to 1.5 cord this winter and currently I have 2 cords c/s/s. I recently moisture metered the species in my stacks. I have a lot of silver and red maple and punky ash to burn first (about a cord's worth), measuring about 18%. Then I have hard maple and oak at 26%, mulberry and hickory still at 30% and dogwood off the scale--all for next winter. I have yet to burn 2-3 year seasoned firewood, but I plan to eventually. Unfortunately I don't have a working chainsaw at the moment. If I did, I'd be out in the yard right now bucking up the last of my logs for next winter!

 

[hamslam42]

It boggles my mind that stove shops don't stress the importance of dry wood with these epa stoves.

In my experience, many of the different installers I talked to all stressed dry wood...including all 3 places I got quotes from to do a wood stove install. The place where I bought the stove and did the install spent the time to teach me some basics on operating the stove and how to identify dry seasoned wood, and how to use the moisture meter that came with the stove. They were very clear that I wouldn't be happy and my chimney wouldn't be happy if I wasn't using wood below 20%. Luckily I already had about 1.5 cord of seasoned wood on hand (almost all ash) to use for that winter.

 

[Knots]

Between dry firewood and burning the new "EPA-style" stove the way it is intended, I didn't even need to clean my chimney after 3 cords went up it last winter. I'm sure my neighbors appreciate it as well...