What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

[Grizzerbear]

15 this morning with red oak set ablaze before heading off for work. Roads were slick this morning. I got almost to town and it started freezing rain pretty good.....enough that it was freezing instantly to my windshield and my wipers froze up. That was fun lol.

 

[MoDoug]

Monday night I let the coals burn down then cleaned the stove out of pretty much all ashes and coals, the coals were still hot, thank goodness for welding gloves. I dumped the ashes in the fire pit outside, on some branches and small stuff. There was about 3 inches of snow covering the pit, it smoldered all day, through the night, and finally quit smoking this morning. It amazes me how long fire will smolder, even in this kind of weather, surrounded by snow.

I've read a lot where it is recommended to leave a couple inches of ash in stoves, but my stove seems to burn much better cleaned out. I'm also learning to do a better job of managing coals as I go. I'm burning mostly oak and elm now, it's what's on top the wood rack.

 

[JimBear]

Honey Locust, Osage & a few small pieces of Slippery Elm to fill the voids. Supposed to get down to -2* tonight with -25* wind chill.

 

[NickW]

What's in my stove? Too darn many coals... still. I tried burning them down with silver maple at 5:15, but still too many. Temps starting to drop in the house. Gonna grab some cottonwood or Aspen tomorrow from the outside stacks to try again. I, unlike some, don't like 4" of ash and charcoal in the bottom of my stove. I prefer to remove ash twice a week, but this cold snap is making it difficult to keep the house temp up and let it burn down enough to get at least some of the ash out. Won't hit 30 degrees again until the 21st or 22nd... more ash and beech going in shortly.

 

[MMH]

Lows in the 20s tonight again, more pine for Dorothy

 

[milothecat]

The shop has a full load of burr oak cruising. Just filled the stove in the house with some three year old ash. Supposed to be -37c here by morning.

 

[Caw]

Found enough shorties in the stack this week for a fun N/S load of cherry/ash/maple. Every time I do this I get very jealous of the full time N/S loaders...it's so easy!

 

[lml999]

Just got some cherry...yummy. It's a nice change from the scrub oak I got from a local guy on Cape Cod. Not to self...never buy firewood grown in sand.

I've got some "mainland" oak seasoning...hope that it will be ready for next fall...

 

[Grizzerbear]

Had 12 outside and light snow with a full load of white oak before heading off to work. The wife was off work yesterday and reloaded right before I got home. It kinda messed up my overnight reload where if I didn't put more wood in before bed, the furnace would kick on in the middle of the night or, if i added wood, I knew it would get a little warm. Well with temps as cold as they are I don't want my heat pump running so needless to say, It got "down to your underwear toasty" in the shack last night. Better than freezing I guess.

 

[Gearhead660]

Found enough shorties in the stack this week for a fun N/S load of cherry/ash/maple. Every time I do this I get very jealous of the full time N/S loaders...it's so easy!

View attachment 274264

Love my N/S burners. Makes loading much easier.

 

[NickW]

Down to -8F last night. Up to -4 now and sunny. Burning mid size cottonwood loads today to reduce coals and hopefully get ash out later. Heat wave coming! Not supposed to go below zero tonight, but another week and a half before we hit 30 again.

 

[Caw]

26 and sunny now. I just threw two small ultra bone red maple splits on to burn down the AM load coals. Thing went from 350 to thermonuclear in minutes...I can see the coals vanishing before my eyes!

This is my preferred method for dealing with coals when its cold out. I usually use bark but small splits work too. Yeah it uses a little more fuel but I can run the blower on high for 20 mins and get a lot of added heat out of the stove while working the coals versus just waiting for it at 350 with the blower off...that's what I do if it's too warm in here.

 

[MMH]

System moving in tonight, raining now cooling off; calling for a couple feet of snow in the mountains and 2-4” in the valley, we’ll either get a couple inches/nothing or get some decent snow being semi close to mountains. Pine tonight and I’ll probably move some mahogany and juniper in tomorrow just in case.

 

[thewoodlands]

We had -14.6 this morning. We ran the furnace overnight and we're back burning beech today.

 

[Tar12]

Coldest air of the year moving in and lasting for several days...many single digit nights ....just replenished the indoor wood boxes that I brought in so I dont have to go outside for a few days...lol...and I filled the boxes on the porch as well with Locust and White Oak...I can now ride out a week and a half pretty easy ....currently running a load of 4 year old White Oak and its putting off some incredible heat!

 

[heavy hammer]

I went through about all the locust and ash in the garage this week. It was cold every day, today we were in the 30's so I cleaned out the summit and filled the garage back up to about full. The coming week is supposed to be cold as well. A few nights I fell asleep before I reloaded the stoves and the furnace kicked on. Then some nights I loaded the stoves to well to wake up to a very warm house.

 

[Caw]

A few nights I fell asleep before I reloaded the stoves and the furnace kicked on. Then some nights I loaded the stoves to well to wake up to a very warm house

The life of a non-cat wood burner! Blank happens.

Big old pile of coals for me right now. Timing and temps looking good for the 10:30 bed time reload. Looks like it'll be about 12 so just a regular load of ash/cherry/maple tonight.

 

[heavy hammer]

Caw the Kuma in the basement is a cat stove, it gets very good burn times but a few of the nights I didn't reload it when needed 10-12 plus hours since last load because the house was warm and I fell asleep. The summit on the first floor is a non cat but where the thermostat for the furnace is located unless you have it putting out good heat which is 6-8 hour reload times. The furnace will kick on with these cold temps. The Kuma burns the stuff down to a fine power, but like most here have been saying the summit was full of coals. I have been throwing cedar splits on here and there to burn them down. The temps were in the 30's today and I was able to clean out the summit to get ready for next week.

 

[Zombie]

31* and freezing rain right now, pine and the mystery hardwood just loaded for overnight burn.

 

[Grizzerbear]

It's 10 out now with a low of 3 and white oak for the overnight. I gotta get my rear in gear tomorrow and get some more wood stacked on the porch before it starts snowing Sunday morning. I expect to be coming and going from the house the next few days to clear streets in town if we get the snow they are saying. Looks like the wife will be in the drivers seat keeping the house warm if so. O yeah they are saying wind chills of -25 to -30 with a forecasted low of-9 Monday night......yowza lol.

 

[JimBear]

-6* with -25* wind chill this morning, supposed to have wind chills down around -25* thru Tuesday with -35* Monday night. Loaded the stove with Osage & Slippery Elm this morning.

 

[heavy hammer]

I just kept the stoves fed with a little maple and small ash splits we only went down to 19 last night so not that bad. Sunny this morning so the house should stay pretty warm, but some cold temps coming.

 

[Mark N MO]

Currently 4°, N wind @ 13, only one thing. White oak, perfectly aged like bourbon, meticulously cut to 18" to stuff the maw of the Buck. Adjust air down to no visible flames. Cruise through the day @ about 900°-1000°. Rinse, repeat.

 

[thewoodlands]

Our temp bottomed out at - 15.4 this morning, we're back burning beech.

 

[baseroom]

Ah this cold air has us all working these stoves hard! Single digits here. Lake effect snow combined with three storms in a row on the way. Forced me to load the garage yesterday. I am currently burning Locust, Hard Maple some apple chunks and a bit of Bradford pear I got from a neighbor four years ago. Keeping us “warm in the storm “!