Bringin' up da Wood

[g_man]

We have a lot of white pine around our place. This year was a bumper cone crop. Along with that is a bumper stink bug crop (pine cone beetle). The wood in the shed is loaded with them. With the warm spell we are having it is all I can smell when I go out to the shed. They get in any crack or bark crease to over winter. They are big clumsy fliers and harmless. I always manage to bring some in the house with the wood. They come to life and fly upstairs. Sadisticly I enjoy watching my wife's paranoia over them as she tries to catch them w/o killing them or getting any stink on her fingers or the furniture. Then she very carefully puts them back outside 

gg

[SwampDonkey]

Well, I stuck with it and got the 2-1/2 cords in the rack this morning. Just waiting for my New Year's lobster roll now. 

[Al_Smith]

It's finally gotten cold enough to lit the fire off but I'have a slight problem .The entire area around the insert is clogged by a ton of stuff I had to move in order to paint a room .I totally dispise interior painting but some times you just have to bite the bullet and get-er-done .
Slightly off target but just to mention .When I paint I use premium paint .I only want to do it once .Like a dumb azz I let Sherwin Williams talk me into less expensive so they called premium ceiling paint .Two coats later the smoke residue from wood heat and cigarette smoke was still bleeding through .Bought a gallon of $96 real premium paint and that fixed it .That will be the very last time I let anybody talk me into anything .I'm not really happy about it .

[SwampDonkey]

Pays to buy the good stuff. I have been very happy with Benjamin Moore paint, did the whole interior of the house. And the covered deck I use their premium stain. I painted the old barn trim 40 years ago with Tremclad, which is meant for steal. She's good stuff because she never peeled off that old rough wood. 

[GRANITEstateMP]

Brought another tractor bucket of wood up to the basement while the meatloaf I made cooked last night. It sure has been cold, but we have zero so on the ground.  I don't mind the cold if there is at least a bit of snow! More cold thru Friday, maybe a chance dusting on Thurs

[Al_Smith]

17 degrees time to light the fire .

[Magicman]

This cold is putting a dent in my stash.  Light er off about 5:30am and let er die down about 8:30pm.  Never a big fire but rather one stick every couple of hours.

Looks like I will have to be "bringin up da wood" next week. 

[GRANITEstateMP]

Magicman,

Is it common in your area for homes to have a woodstove or fireplace insert, or are you kinda the exception to the rule?

[Magicman]

Fireplace inserts are the normal here.  A wood stove, etc. would be rare and an outside boiler would be virtually non-existent.

I modified my insert by adding a rear vent outlet which is ducted into the sun room which is immediately behind the chimney and closing off the front outlets.  The only heat that the original house gets is radiant heat from the front.  Just guessing but probably 75%+ of the heat comes into the sun room which is where my "nest" is. 


My nest is the recliner in the center.


As you can see, there are seven double pane 6' windows plus the double pane glass door so there is certainly heat loss in "my" room.  There are central heat ducts in the ceiling but also notice the large grate below the TV which is where the fireplace insert heat enters the room.

By the way, that ceiling is V-groove T&G Tulip Poplar which has a "white wash" pickling stain.  This room is 18X24 and is part of an 18X36 addition that I did in 2003.  I would never attempt such a project ever again.  This is what I was undertaking when I told my Mom that I should not be doing it.  She said:


Her words of wisdom are framed and displayed on a side table as a constant reminder of what is important.

[Old Greenhorn]

Great post Lyn. It makes me think it would make a very interesting thread for may of us to post photos of our 'Nest' as you say (maybe there is a better term?), but then I thought, oh heck no! No way would I be willing to show you guys where I hang out at night. It's a pigpen. In fact I have had at least the FF members visit and none have seen it because I am embarrassed to let them see it. We are not neat folks. But for those that. like you, keep a neat house, it would be cool to have a picture of where somebody is sitting when they fire off a 'deeply thoughtful' post.

[GRANITEstateMP]

Mr. Lyn,

Thank you for sharing.  Your Mom's words are thought provoking and inspiring.

I like that your insert can be seen in one room, and feel the heat in the other.  I lived in NC for a while when I was working in racing.  I wasn't in a city, but not 100% rural either. All the new homes were gas or electric heat.  The older homes, or farms that were cut up to make developments, you could see stacks of wood here and there and an oil tank too.  When we'd get a cold snap, I'd envy those folks!

Tom,

Just photoshop a nice "nest" photo!  I'm not smart enough to do that.  Most ofmy posts are from the kitchen table, and I got plates to clear, no pics this am!  Just loaded the stove, 18, dropping and windy here this am.

Matt

[SwampDonkey]

I've gone through 98 cu feet of wood since Christmas from the house furnace wood. 

[g_man]

Been bring in da wood and pushin it up da chimney. Has been steady cold. Not extreme just steady. Single numbers either side of zero day and night with a NNW wind and not much sun. Since New Years. The January row is getting eaten into. The high for the last 4 days has been 5*.

gg

[NE Woodburner]

I've probably burned about 2 full cord so far this season. I'm 3+ years ahead so the first cord or so was older wood and not the best, but BTU's are BTU's so in the stove it goes. Been pushing the wood to the stove pretty good over the last week with the cold temps and wind trying to keep the oil man away...

[SwampDonkey]

My nest is 32 x 16 in the house, and 480 sq feet in the shop.  I'm in no hurry to move past winter, best time of the year for me.

[Hilltop366]

Just passing 1 1/2 cords. The first 1/3 or so was fir and the rest has been a mix of hardwood.

In the process of adding a wood stove in the living room.

With the wood boiler and in-floor heat with concrete floors it can be a long time from lighting a fire and warming the room if it gets cold quick, other times in the spring / fall we only want a bit of heat in the morning or evening.

I looked at various ways to do this (wood, pellet, propane, electric, heat pump) but for me the thing that was checking the most boxes was a wood stove. It won't cost me any more to operate as wood I burn in the stove most likely will be wood I would burn in the boiler, it does not require electricity to run, it has no electronics, wear parts are minimal and should last a long time.

[SwampDonkey]

A good wood stove will last a mighty long time. Only thing you might need every few years is a new gasket or bricks, get the real bricks not them fake ones. They ain't any good at all. 

[g_man]

A good wood stove will last a mighty long time. Only thing you might need every few years is a new gasket or bricks, get the real bricks not them fake ones. They ain't any good at all. 

I've replaced our stove brick a couple times in 24 years. Just last fall was the second replacement. What do you mean by "real" and "fake" bricks ? The replacements I use are supplied by England Stove Works the mfgr of the stove. How do I tell if they are real or fake. Never new there was a difference. Thanks, I need some education I guess.

gg

[SwampDonkey]

If you've only had to replace twice in 24 years than you've got good bricks. I'm not sure what the ones I call fake are make of, but they are a pound lighter, they can't take something like a poker scoring them and they go all pebbley when they break down. They last maybe 4-5 years. Rutland sells good bricks, Shaw up here does to. I went to a local hardware to get some replacement brick one time, all they wanted to sell me was those light fake things. I wasn't interested. I went to another town north of here that have a business that carries bricks of all kinds including good fire brick. They usually run $6.50 a brick around here for a good fire brick, I have seen some places online charge more, ovoid them. They'll be over 3 pounds a brick for 1-1/4" x 4-1/2" x 9". Wish I knew more about bricks, but I don't. I know what to avoid though, all I gotta do is look at'm.

[Wlmedley]

Been going through quite a bit of wood here since the first of the year. Got a pretty big snow Sunday and has been snowing a little bit every day since plus temperatures in the 20s . Supposed to stay below freezing for another week. I've been using a Buck stove since 1987 and it had some sort of fire brick only in the bottom which finally got thin and busted out approximately 5 years ago. I bought some stuff that I mixed in a bucket that looked like concrete and poured it in the bottom of the stove and it has been holding up good. I clean the stove good every spring and inspect it and can't see wear so far. Can't remember what the name of it was.

[Magicman]

As predicted, we have had a daytime fire since Sunday and the forecast shows that it will continue for another 10 days.  I am adding a stick about every 2 hours. 

[g_man]

As predicted, we have had a daytime fire since Sunday and the forecast shows that it will continue for another 10 days.  I am adding a stick about every 2 hours. 

Must be hard leaving the nest every couple hours. BTW that whole room looks pretty comfy to me !!

gg

[g_man]

As predicted, we have had a daytime fire since Sunday and the forecast shows that it will continue for another 10 days.  I am adding a stick about every 2 hours. 

Must be hard leaving the nest every couple hours. BTW that whole room looks pretty comfy to me !!

gg

[Magicman]

Thank You and yes, this room was a "do it then or never" situation. 

[Spike60]

My nest is 32 x 16 in the house, and 480 sq feet in the shop.  I'm in no hurry to move past winter, best time of the year for me.

Ever wonder why this is such a minority opinion? I enjoy winter. Couple of my best friends feel the same. Gal friend and i went on a mini road trip Monday. Light but persistent snow that lightly covered the roads. But at 18°, they weren't greasy or slippery. Windy as hell. With the snow going sideways. We loved it. Hit the store for supplies. Hit a local Cafe called "the roost" for lunch. Not an afternoon coffee guy, but it smelled SO good when we walked in I had a cup anyway. We're not the eat and run type and hung there until we were last of the lunch crowd. (and for a side topic, the ONLY table without a cellphone) Walked out to see that the snow had stopped. Faces no doubt looked like a couple kids who were bummed that they weren't going to get a day off from school.

Time to put a couple sticks in the stove.