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Cleaned out the firebox late afternoon - must've gotten out about 2in at least ash+ coal combined, and I have at least 2, 3in coals remained. I use a pair of welding gloves when operating stove, and the radiant heat from the coals were so strong that I had to take off the gloves because the leather was getting too hot.
Partial reload with oak and locust around 5pm, and stuffed couple more 4, 5in-ish logs of assorted oaks and locust just now. Outside temperature 39F, inside living room a toasty 70F.
Hate burning some oak. It's only 35 degrees and I just want to go to bed I'm exhausted from work but I'm not paying $0.42/kWh. National Grid can pound sand.
Pine again. 4degrees headed toward 0 at sunrise with 19 as predicted high of day. Coffees hot now, dogs happy with fire, me too! 66 inside house headed up.
I loaded the stove yesterday at 6am with shagbark hickory and let the load go overnight into this am. the house was 63 at 8am and a few coals remained. I cleaned out the 3” of ash and loaded the stove east/west with some long pine I had to get rid of. House is up to 65 and climbing. Will be at 70 by evening reload time about 8pm.
Alas pine! 2 degrees outside, high was12 today, so more Pine. Was a typical Wyoming clear blue sky with bright sunshine day so that makes it great winter weather.
It's 26.4 tonight with NOAA calling for a low of 21, up here is 70 and the sleeper is 69. The overnight load is two splits of pine with the rest ash, the stove room should be 79 headed north.
Fire just about ran out about 5 this morning (more wind than expected, 20F outside, 63F inside). I woke up to footsteps and some banging around. Found my wife (not a morning person) in the furnace room restarting the fire. Gave her a kiss and asked if she wanted to go back to bed while I started the fire. Kindling was kiln dried 20 year old pine from the woodshop, then barkless white oak slabwood from the veneer plant. Cherry splits for the majority of the day.
We had 20.1 this morning with the temps up here between 67 and 68 with the basement temp still 73. I loaded up the wood stove with ash and then spent the day outside moving snow, with the possibility of rain, snow and wind with the next storm, I'll be moving more snow from just off the driveway.
Mild weather today in the upper 30s and sunny all day. House has a lot of south facing windows which kept the house at 74. Spent the day cleaning all the ash and glass.
Had the first fire of the season yesterday, couple piles of kindling over the course of two hours then a slow climb into cat operating territory. Wanted to give the chimney plenty of time to dry out from any summer time moisture it may have soaked up. Stove ran perfectly...which is good considering the heat pump puked a few weeks ago.