First time using a wood burning fireplace

[spirilis]

Staying at a condo rental in Gatlinburg TN up in the hills, the unit happened to have a wood burning fireplace (looks like some kind of ZC thing, you can see all the dings in the metal plates from folks tossing logs in there). Unrestricted supply of firewood too, they have it all stacked up in some wood shed by the main office. Looks like oak and it's definitely under-seasoned.

The condo owner didn't provide any firestarters, just a cheap book of matches, lol... luckily there was a charred log still on the grate and I brought 5 Supercedars with me. Those saved the day. Now I'm putting some of my hearth.com reading to use (selectively picked the smallest, lightest/most likely to be dry splits I can, and start my fires with those with a quarter of a supercedar underneath) and we're having lots of fun.

The view of the Smokys is absolutely gorgeous...

 

[Danno77]

Only been through Gatlinburg once. Beautiful area. The Backpacking trip was awesome EXCEPT we went during the wet season (a risk we knew we were taking) and hiked one day in a downpour during the hardest climb of the trip. Stronger for having done it, and a better story than nice weather, but Geesh. I'd love to do a similar trip in the winter, having a hard time with busy schedules to get my brothers in on it with me.

 

[spirilis]

That sounds pretty cool, a few years back a buddy and I tried to do a backpacking trip here in the Smokies and aborted after the first day due to the strenuousness of the trip. My buddy can't plan trips well, lol...


Today we did our first drive through the park, took some pics at Newfound Gap, toured Cherokee real quick (my wife wasn't too fond of it, basically a quaint dump) and we went out to Asheville. Spent a couple hours at Luella's BBQ and walked around downtown a bit, then did the long drive back to Gatlinburg. Man I-40 going around the east side of the Smokies is kinda scary... you're doing around 70-80MPH in the fast lane while going through nonstop twisties with a concrete barrier like 3 feet away from your car lol

Only problem we've noticed so far with the fireplace is it likes to backpuff with the winds up here at the summit... I think they could use some vacu-stacks on those flues. Less of an issue once I got the big splits cookin' and the fireplace is a blazing inferno.

 

[MasterMech]

You know you're addicted to hearth.com when....

The Super Cedars go in your vacation suitcase.... :lol:

 

[fireview2788]

We always stay in Townsend, "The Peaceful Side of the Smokies." Be sure to go to Cades Cove and hit some of the trails around there.


f v

 

[spirilis]

Planning on visiting Cades Cove maybe tomorrow when it clears up.

Haven't touched the fireplace in the past couple days 'cause it's been too warm and windy, today it's in the 40's though so I fired it up. Gorgeous having a fireplace full of wood (that I didn't have to process) on a dense, foggy day.

 

[spirilis]

Well it looks like the key to a fireplace actually heating up the room where it resides is to have a deep bed of coals actually facing the room. Stacking splits in front of it is a great way to pile on the wood, but they block the radiant heat from the coals. Started the fire around 8AM and finally by 3PM the thermostat is reading 2 degrees higher than its set point (and it's now freezing rain/light snow outside, so it's cooler outside). Oh and I've probably gone through 60lb of wood or so.

I kinda wonder if Anthracite or Bituminous coal fireplaces did a better job of actually heating their spaces.

 

[Mrs. Krabappel]

and we went out to Asheville.

I went to The Big City Sunday also. Too bad for all the rain on your vacation.

 

[spirilis]

I'm not mad at it, it's supposed to clear up tomorrow but today the rain turned TO SNOW! YEAH!!

My guess is by the time the National Park Service declares US-441 fit for travel, it'll be safe to come down from the 3000ft mountain where I'm hiding :D
Either way I get to take gorgeous post-snow pics either from my balcony, and/or in the park itself...