What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

[Ashful]

Of the prevalent woods here, oak is king. I'm told Locust is as good or better, as well as Osage, but we don't get a lot of either, here. Hickory is another that seems to pack a punch, and also seems to dry quicker than oak, but the bugs eat the hell out of if it's not under a roof staying bone-dry.

The rest of our high-frequency trees are walnut, ash, maple, cherry, elm, and linden... all lesser than oak and hickory.

 

[Pinesmoke]

I'll be burning a significant fraction of less-than-oak-BTU wood in the Ashfords for the first time, starting this year. I still have some oak and hickory mixed into each upcoming cord, but now there's a lot of ash coming due. For many years, my firewood was nearly 100% oak, and then this year was almost all hickory. I've burned a little ash over the years, but it was never the majority wood in my stacks.

I wouldn't normally seek out ash, but it's dying by the truckload in my neighbors lawns, so they've been asking me to take them. The tree next door is more convenient than the tree 2 or 8 miles away, and I'm helping neighbors to save money on having them hauled away.

You will like burning alot of ash. I burned a LOT of it since the beatle came through Ohio. Good heat, coals well and leaves very little ash.
ETA
It cures quickly as a bonus.

 

[Ashful]

You will like burning alot of ash. I burned a LOT of it since the beatle came through Ohio. Good heat, coals well and leaves very little ash.
ETA
It cures quickly as a bonus.

Yeah, I've burned a good amount of ash before. Somewhere in this forum there's a picture of two 40+ inch ash trees that I took down in back-to-back visits to the woods. I think I got more than 3 cords out of each of those two trees, but I'm pretty sure that was before I owned the Ashford 30's. I've cut a few smaller ash since then, but not enough to really put together any continuous run of it long enough to really get a sense of the stuff.

Like you, the EAB is wiping them out in droves here, the last 5-6 years. So it's just coming due to burn now, given my typical 5-6 year backlog.

 

[Caw]

Loading boxelder 2 splits at a time stringing out some extra BTUs until I am ready for bed in 3 hours.

 

[ctreitzell]

until I am ready for bed in 3 hours.

0250, just got into bed zzzzz

 

[NickW]

3rd load of pine & aspen went in about 6:30. BTU needs are high right now. Got the upstairs up to 69 today with the solar gains, but by 4:00 I couldn't keep it anymore. Will probably do a load or 2 of bark before the overnight load.

Brought in some more ironwood, honey locust and sugar maple earlier to have a better overnight load. Going to try what @thewoodlands does and put the better stuff on top so it doesn't get buried and see what happens. Maybe just a piece or two of ash to get it rolling.

 

[thewoodlands]

Tonight we planned on heating with the pellet stove so about an hour ago, I put in three beech splits with two ironwood on top of a chit load of coals.

The basement was 79, the living area 69 to 72 with the sleeper at 67. The outside temp is 15.3, Accu is calling for a low of 13.

 

[Pinesmoke]

Yeah, I've burned a good amount of ash before. Somewhere in this forum there's a picture of two 40+ inch ash trees that I took down in back-to-back visits to the woods. I think I got more than 3 cords out of each of those two trees, but I'm pretty sure that was before I owned the Ashford 30's. I've cut a few smaller ash since then, but not enough to really put together any continuous run of it long enough to really get a sense of the stuff.

Like you, the EAB is wiping them out in droves here, the last 5-6 years. So it's just coming due to burn now, given my typical 5-6 year backlog.

If you are actively loosing some older/larger diam trees. Ash is not a spectacular grain on its own but stains in well and is a very hard wood. You can get slabs and make some nice table sized slabs. Think 800 lb picnic table.

 

[Ashful]

I ran two back-to-back loads thru one of my Ashford 30's this evening. I'm getting ready shortly to cram this afternoon's third load into it, since 3pm!

I had not bothered with a morning reload, and got distracted with other things. Next thing I know the house was down to 69F. First full load thru the thing at wide open throttle warmed the room with the stove, but the adjacent room still held 69F - 70F. After a second load through it, I'm finally back up to 73F in the adjacent room.

All said, this will make the sixth reload into an Ashford 30 in the last 24 hours, in this house, with just a little over 4 of those loads being consumed in the same time.

 

[Caw]

So many loads. Insert joke here. 😉

Heading to bed. My overnight load ended up being primarily ash with some red maple to kickstart it. Cruising along. Yawn.

 

[NickW]

3 ironwood, 1 sugar maple, 1 honey locust & 2 ash...

 

[ozarkoak]

Getting ready to throw in some oak. One of my ewes lambed tonight so it will be a long night.

 

[bigealta]

Burning the bottom of the stack pieces. Running into some that just aren't burning as well, or kicking out as much heat, as the pieces above them did. This happens often to me. The bottom is never as good as the top and middle stacked splits.

My stacks are on 2x4 and 4x4 stringers on concrete blocks. so 8"-12" off the ground.

 

[ozarkoak]

0 degrees this morning dropped to 66 inside while I slept for a few hours. Box filled back up with oak. Supposed to hit 20 degrees today. Overnight burns are the hardest. With no one monitoring the stove I always wake up to coals and a cooler house than I want. During the day I will slowly open the air as the fire dies and by the time its ready to reload I'm down to mostly ash and have squeezed about every BTU out that I can. Lamb survived the night had to be minus 15-20 with the windchill. All the mommas were surrounding it this morning in deep bedding. There was steam coming off the lean-to roof.

 

[NickW]

Wife apparently took me quite literally when I said last night "I should set the alarm and get up early tomorrow...". -11 with -22 wind-chill outside, upstairs is 64, downstairs is 70, big pile of coals. First load will be hardwood, then a bunch of aspen & pine loads again.

 

[Caw]

Big chunks of ash and oak this morning with a split of maple on the coals for a jump start. Wife and I are both going in today so I'm going for a long fire. It's 64 in here now.

I bet the fire carries the day until the afternoon then the heat kicks on. Thermostat lives at 63 and will kick on at 61. We only both go in 1-2x a week so we accept the this a necessary usage. The stove isn't big enough to carry the house by itself without reloading for 10 hours on a cold day. Id be reloading every 5-6 hours if I were home. Happy to buy a few hours though!

 

[all night moe]

Burning the bottom of the stack pieces. Running into some that just aren't burning as well, or kicking out as much heat, as the pieces above them did. This happens often to me. The bottom is never as good as the top and middle stacked splits.

My stacks are on 2x4 and 4x4 stringers on concrete blocks. so 8"-12" off the ground.

Next time you restack, try placing some pallets on top of your stringers. You'll be able to stack your bottom row a little looser and increase your air flow. It's been so wet last summer and fall, I'm sure the ground is saturated.

 

[all night moe]

All this talk of woodstoves has me kinda jealous. As I mentioned somewhere before, the furnace is quite boring. I can't watch the STT as it is surrounded by an air plenum. I can't view the fire without going down and opening it up. I do have a small bench down there that I use for my morning coffee and reloads. It's just not the same.

If it was up to me, I'd be pulling an @Ashful . A stove in the parlor and one in the living room. I'd also have two smaller stoves for the kitchen and mudroom.

These would be all for shoulder seasons and quick warm ups when desired. Main heat source would be an outdoor gasser.

Woke up this morning to 60* inside. About 17* outside. Some coals in the furnace got fed some maple splits. They should be burned down some by now. Tome for another reload.

 

[Wildflush]

Snowing here. House was 64. Good top down load of oak, maple, small chunks and a biobrick. Nice secondary light show. Heading to 650STT which is perfect.

Edit: hot load for me cruised just shy of 700STT. Got the downstairs to 70 quickly and stove is still cruising.

Edit: house now 72 and STT is 475 now. Won’t reload until 250 STT.

 

[Caw]

Snowing here. House was 64. Good top down load of oak, maple, small chunks and a biobrick. Nice secondary light show. Heading to 650STT which is perfect.

64 you copying me? Almost like we live in the same area or something. 😉

 

[Wildflush]

Burning the bottom of the stack pieces. Running into some that just aren't burning as well, or kicking out as much heat, as the pieces above them did. This happens often to me. The bottom is never as good as the top and middle stacked splits.

My stacks are on 2x4 and 4x4 stringers on concrete blocks. so 8"-12" off the ground.

I’m in the same boat I think. I have a few single row stacks that sit lower than yours on the bottom. Mine are on patio bricks with PT 2x4’s. When I get to that level I will not burn them but rotate to the top of another stack for a season.

 

[Wildflush]

64 you copying me? Almost like we live in the same area or something. 😉

Funny parallel lives. We have our thermosets set for 64 since daughter is up for school in the morning. This morning I heard my wife and daughter using the mini split downstairs for a quick burst of heat.

 

[zmender]

62F in living room, 25F outside... finally got about 2in of snow overnight, and another 3.5in forecasted for this morning. I'm getting the snow sled ready for some backyard fun this afternoon.....

This morning took out about half gallon of ash from stove and fully loaded with locust again.

 

[Ashful]

If it was up to me, I'd be pulling an @Ashful . A stove in the parlor and one in the living room. I'd also have two smaller stoves for the kitchen and mudroom.

If we didn’t have our kitchen table sitting right where the original iron cookstove sat, I’d have a third in the kitchen!

Two stoves is a great way to go, if your house is as broken up as most of these older homes tend to be. Keeping them fed was wearing on me when I worked in an office all day, but now I work from home, so what was previously an office coffee break is now stove reloading time. Much more manageable.

+9F forecast tonight, with-1F windchill. Better get the snow plowed and cleaned up before that hits. I love being out in the cold, but not when it’s windy.

 

[Riff]

First good snow of more than an inch in almost two years. Nice to see it looking and feeling like winter.

Couple of splits of white oak with a split of cherry to get it going. Planning to rely more on oak and locust this afternoon/evening to have a good bed of coals for when the cold air hits tonight.