Spring Has Sprung!

[Henz]

Well men, I am sure glad it is here. Its been a LONG winter here in the NE and a damn cold April. I basically ran out of wood mid April and had to barter with my Dad for some of his to get me into May..I figure that I started my full-time burning mid-Spetember and its now mid-April and the full time burning has ended. So, that makes 7 solid months of full time burning. Being my first year burning, it has really been a test year. What I ahve learned is that I need to have 7 full cord ready each year. I think I burned alittle over 6. Thats alot of wood man. Luckily, I am getting ahead this year. I have scrounged up 3 cord and have bought another 5 full cord and I havent even had to take a single tree of my 50 acres. right now I am getting hardwood poles for 55-65/cord so I couldnt not take that deal.
Anyways, I basically didnt even use one tank of oil, to be exact, like 151 gallons thats all! It cost me$380 where last year I spent $3,000..Yeah, thats three zeros..

Well, tis time to get the wood stacked and ready for the next season..Good luck to you'all

 

[titan]

Adirondack-you speak the truth;what gives you abetter return on investment than a good woodstove?My oil bills were very similar to yours at one time.I'm certain my last two stoves paid for themselves in less than one heating season.Factor in the comfortlevel and ambience from an open flame and you can't be wrong.Long may my chimneys draw!

 

[Henz]

Yuppers..And, after last eyar of shelling out thousands to heat our house where we still were freezing, the wife doenst mind when I say "going to do firewood" this time of the year, hell, she actually encourages it!

 

[PAJerry]

My wife helped me stack a full cord on Wednesday. She loves the stove and really pitches in with all the work. This Nov. will be 30 years for us and I am a happy man!

 

[Henz]

Oh baby! nice! Well, my wife would but with a 3 year old and a month old its tough for her to do!

 

[Willhound]

Still burnin', still moving wood piles aound, will be burning (at night anyways) for another month or so. July and August are about the only months I don't usually burn a lot, but even then, early July and late August there are nights I'll put on a small burn to take the dampness and chill out of the house.
Family is currently gathered around the hearth, enjoying the heat.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

My wife helped me stack a full cord on Wednesday. She loves the stove and really pitches in with all the work. This Nov. will be 30 years for us and I am a happy man!

Jerry, that is fantastic! I can really relate to it too because my wife helps me with almost all the cutting of firewood. I still have to split and stack it but sometimes she even helps in the stacking. Also, June marks our 45th and we are still happy too!

 

[Gooserider]

Well the GF helps some w/ stacking and brush moving, but doesn't have the endurance to do huge amounts... We've now got about 1/2 cord stacked into the shed, maybe as much still on the ground. Our old shed which will hold about a 1.5 cords in four "bays" now has one bay full, mostly small to medium rounds, some splits but mostly the stuff that doesn't need to be split. The next bay is about 1/3 full, same mix, should be enough on the ground to fill it and then some. The bay after that is about 3/4 full of kindling - mostly seasoned, and left over from last year. I had been mixing it in with the rest of the wood, but found that didn't work so I'd been moving into a "kindling bay" as I was burning last season. This year I'm not trying to get as much kindling size stuff and will be keeping it more segregated.

Got more evidence of spring this evening though - had the first mosquitoes of the season

Gooserider

 

[Todd]

Spring has sprung here as well. 78 today. Haven't had a fire in a week. I went through 3 cord last winter, have 3 cord fully seasoned for next winter, and 4 more freshly cut and stacked for the following. I'm all done with wood scrounging unless something happens to fall in my lap. Bring on summer! Time to go fishin.

 

[wg_bent]

prediction here today is for 88. I think the Stove is off for the season. This year will be the year of scrounging more, and finding new ways to store the wood in better looking piles. Yo Steve, maybe we should put our heads together to figure out this holtzhausen thing!

 

[begreen]

Dudes, that's not spring - 88 is SUMMER. :cheese:

 

[Highbeam]

I am having a hard time with spring. It is warm enough outside, like say low 60s, but that won't get the house to 70. One nice fire and we're pretty quickly up to 75, I let the house cool to 63 or so and then another fire to get it back to 75. Poor insulation is again my problem here. If I just tried to burn a low fire all day it would still cook us out so I am getting good at starting a couple of fires per day.

I'm down to about a weeks worth of wood so I am trying to scrimp. I have even managed to scrounge some wood from next year's supply by splitting and checking moisture content. Low 20s on the good ones. Bark peeling is a good clue.