Husband wants to install a wood stove for emergency heating in our old smallish farm house.

[jetsam]

I see your significant other was way ahead of me on the stove requirements thing. ("Well, if I'm gonna haul a stove around, tractor needs a new bucket....")

 

[enduring]

Same way I moved my old Jotul Firelights, although I think your tractor is bigger.

Ashful, I had to look up the Firelight. Its pretty. Do you still have it? I am looking forward to getting this 45-F broken in this spring, as directed.

Thinking wood, we have multiple piles of wood around the farm, anywhere from 2 to 4 years old. A variety of species, but I suspect mostly sugar maple, mulberry. There might be some walnut and apple too. New trimmings this winter are limbs of oak, but I understand that that will need to season for minimum of 2 years.

I might have to convince DH to invest in a face cord of wood, so that it can season over the spring and summer, for use next year. He will say "we have enough", but I don't really know. I told him that this stove can not burn even slightly damp wood. It's a new world for poor DH.

 

[Woody Stover]

OK, I see that "DH" isn't short for "Dark Hair."

("Well, if I'm gonna haul a stove around, tractor needs a new bucket....")

Manoor is corrosive..

 

[Stinkpickle]

Ashful, I had to look up the Firelight. Its pretty. Do you still have it? I am looking forward to getting this 45-F broken in this spring, as directed.

Thinking wood, we have multiple piles of wood around the farm, anywhere from 2 to 4 years old. A variety of species, but I suspect mostly sugar maple, mulberry. There might be some walnut and apple too. New trimmings this winter are limbs of oak, but I understand that that will need to season for minimum of 2 years.

I might have to convince DH to invest in a face cord of wood, so that it can season over the spring and summer, for use next year. He will say "we have enough", but I don't really know. I told him that this stove can not burn even slightly damp wood. It's a new world for poor DH.

Some of that wood might be good, if it's split and stacked.

 

[Ashful]

Ashful, I had to look up the Firelight. Its pretty. Do you still have it? I am looking forward to getting this 45-F broken in this spring, as directed.

I had three of them, two of which I kept burning for several years, and the third became a parts stove at the end. I had the older catalytic Firelight 12’s identical in appearance to the newer non-cat Firelight 600, but very different internally. In any case, they’re all gone now, replaced with a pair of Blaze King Ashford 30’s.

I believe break-in on the F-45 is simpler than a firelight, but follow your manual.

 

[enduring]

I see your significant other was way ahead of me on the stove requirements thing. ("Well, if I'm gonna haul a stove around, tractor needs a new bucket....")

Thats his friends tractor and bucket. His wouldn't start and the bucket is way rustier! Friend leaves his tractor at our farm, and just bought a new bucket last year.

 

[Woody Stover]

we have multiple piles of wood around the farm, anywhere from 2 to 4 years old. A variety of species, but I suspect mostly sugar maple, mulberry. There might be some walnut and apple too. New trimmings this winter are limbs of oak, but I understand that that will need to season for minimum of 2 years.

Some of that wood might be good, if it's split and stacked.

Get it split and stacked now to take advantage of spring winds. And I hear that IA is pretty breezy anytime, so it might not take all that long to finish some of that wood. Meter it when you split it to see where you are starting from. You can always grab some soft Maple, or other light-weight fast-drying wood that will for sure be ready by fall. Or small <8" dead-standing with the bark falling off.
Your secondary-burn stove will be somewhat forgiving of damp wood, you just have to burn in the load a bit longer to drive off excess moisture. I fed my SIL's T5 a few Red Elm sizzlers at the beginning of the season, and they still worked OK.

 

[Stinkpickle]

Get it split and stacked now to take advantage of spring winds. And I hear that IA is pretty breezy anytime, so it might not take all that long to finish some of that wood...

100% this. Single stacked, off the ground, and the sun and wind work quick around here.