4th season on the NC-30, and the stove as not seen ash, in the ash pan. Instead, I filled the void were the ash plug was with a fire brick and some furnace cement.
If it's shoulder season, and I don't need a full load of wood, I let the ash build up quite a bit. But, if it's time for the black beast to make some heat, I just use the ash rake, and push almost everything to the back 1/2 of the wood stove, then use the rake to pull what coals are in there to the front of the stove, then shovel however much of the ash I want to remove out from the back of the stove, reload, and carry on.
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