What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

[ctreitzell]

ack! I just filled it up before hittin the hay at 0300
3 x 4" splitz ash/oak/beech intake at 20%

7.5C overnight; salon very cozy at about 19.8C / 67.6F...If it goes out I'll do another cold start tomorrow

 

[Wildflush]

Going through stove withdrawals here since have not a had fire in days. 45-53 temps. Warmest season so far. Have not even burned a 1/3 cord yet. Heat pump and NG furnace so mixing it up. Stove for the cold weather.

 

[thewoodlands]

It's 33.2 out at the moment and the overnight load of pine is settled in.

 

[NHWS]

It's long term and connected with why the red cedars are dying off in the entire region, from northern CA to WA and up into BC. That said, who knows, this too may change.

I'm cautious about the phase "long term" when applied to changes in weather / climate. Human's don't directly perceive things on that time scale.

 

[30WCF]

I'm cautious about the phase "long term" when applied to changes in weather / climate. Human's don't directly perceive things on that time scale.

But we are human. What is long term to humans is relvent to humans. We are not rocks, or oceans.
Mix if oak and pine here. 70 inside headed for a low of 28.

 

[Pinesmoke]

Warm and toasty, burning down embers. Oak waiting till I finish a Rye.

 

[zmender]

The dreary weather continues. 43F outside and 67F in living room. Another full load of ash and locust just went in for overnight fire.

 

[NHWS]

But we are human. What is long term to humans is relvent to humans. We are not rocks, or oceans.

We are not climate, and climate is not human. Weather / climate may vary on our time scale, but the underlying patterns change over longer time scales than humans can directly experience.

The weather / climate certainly appears different to me in the PNW than it did a few decades ago. Plant and animal species, including cedars, can certainly be affected by changes lasting only a few years. But some changes lasting decades are just normal statistical variations.

 

[30WCF]

I misunderstood. Ups and downs over decades, as long as you’re looking at the average, or the average of the averages. Is often not perceived by humans. I compare things based off 1980, my dad off the 40s, Grandpa bases things off 1910. But the average is some cycles of up and down.

I understood you to mean that what happens over the millennia is not recognized by humans, but should be. We weren’t here before we were here, and we won’t be here renter we are gone. The only thing we can care about, is what we have time to care about while you are here. Often the baseline is formed from your personally biased experiences.

Letting the house cool a bit in the short term. Auber reads 149, so there is some life left in there. Long term goals for tonight are to toss on an ugly to bring it back, then load it up for the nite.

 

[ctreitzell]

slept 2hrs and got up to just enough embers to have kept the flue warm
put on some ash/beech/oak
...
ooh, hr later and that load isn't gonna go for very long so put on more oak and ash...

 

[NickW]

4 splits & 1 round of ash, 1 piece of honey locust went in about 10:45. Will be a nice pile of coals and still plenty warm in the morning. Going down to about 24F tonight. Sunny and near 40 tomorrow, so I'll probably milk the coals along until late afternoon, do a shoulder season load, then stuff it full of hardwood overnight again. Haven't cleaned the glass in weeks.

 

[30WCF]

I fell asleep before I reloaded last nite. Cold start this morning with oak. Coffee in the works too.

 

[ctreitzell]

last load made it until 0915; brought it back with some ash

and an hr later put on a nice split of oak

 

[ctreitzell]

I fell asleep before I reloaded last nite. Cold start this morning with oak. Coffee in the works too.

Oooph! 🙃

 

[ctreitzell]

We decided to choke this current burn and pre heat the flue this evening before opening the intake…then if we smoke out the place it be an acceptable time of day…I’m pretty sure it’ll be fine…quite mild but overcast and high humidity

 

[joop]

i hate cold starts,take to long to light with newspaper

 

[ctreitzell]

i hate cold starts,take to long to light with newspaper

me too...I did one last night...photo'd the whole journey and filmed 10 min of the "balky" start with my dodgy rig

 

[joop]

firestarters are the best, but wife brought tons of journals so gotta use them.starting my morning fire ash and maple

 

[ctreitzell]

Dang, what a kafuffle for cold starts! I photo-doc'd it last night
maybe this isn't the best thread to post in...or is it the perfect one?

Here goes...

Prep. prep and more prep!

My dec cold start box was depleted so I dug out some coveted apple cut green...been drying outside for about 5 years; boxed up in 2022...nice, bone dry stuff (Liz helping out)

I took down several small hollies; neighboring farmer tore up some roots which yielded some Holly attrition. I cut this and collected in sept 2023...but this stuff was bone dry when it hit the box...Holly twigs are my latest cold start best friend

here's what I gathered for this cold start (from left to right):
-beech chips and a round from this year's delivery and a little round of elm (yeah, a bit of white fluffy mold);
-apple from the plastic tubs;
-poplar splits that have been curing for 5 years; they been wet while curing, but dry now- just split;
-holly twigs bone dry
any less than this and it ain't gonna burn- (really I should have doubled holly twigs)

Oh man time to build it
I always start in the corner; probably not the best for beating up on the stove, but in the corner always works for me. I first prop up some flat, big chips on the walls in a corner and then put a chunk of something that will burn in the corner (the coals are cold and extinguished from yesterday; if there was any heat in those, I would have been smoked out in a couple minutes):

Next I added poplar and then holly twigs; poplar might look wet, but it is dry!

Strategically place some more substantial apple branches

that's not quite enough, best get some more substantial fuel on there:

Time to pre heat the flue (for me and my horizontal run :-/
I do that outside and didn't film that...hopefully y'all don't need to do that!
Gotta make sure the air intake is full open, I usually light a candle and get some shish kebab skewers ready to light this with

 

[ctreitzell]

I don't have a photo from last night of the shish kebab skewers, but I do have a nice smoky shot from my first ever cold start on this stove last year, Dec 2022. Wood is beetle kill, bone dry elm.

 

[joop]

is that your regular size heating wood or kindling

 

[ctreitzell]

Back to last night's cold start:

Ignition of holly twigs is very quick; once smoke starts not drawing, I close the door and keep it closed until the smoke clears. If I fail, I get a noisy smoke filled panic with all doors and windows open- therefore a failed cold start is not an option- I should have put more holly twigs!

I filmed the next 10 mins...a bit white knuckled as usual with a cold start, but it was a success in the end
after 10 mins: poplar and corner chips fully ignited, holly twigs pretty much burned up- but still embers

Apple now ignited and burning alright

Just about ready for the first load

Door opened for the first time and first load added
some more apple, a little split if bone dry ash, a split of oak on top and beech in the front
white knuckle time- hope these take! Creosote on the door, I believe that's from the beech chips and round- everything else was 5 years cured!

nice! mission accomplished; taking off

ok, tipping point, heat's getting too high, time to reduce air intake

I quit photoing cuz it was all good from there
except in my situation I have to reload every 2 hrs

 

[ctreitzell]

is that your regular size heating wood or kindling

all kindling in those photos!

I have been using smaller splits this year tho...
I realize that brings burn times down,
but this Panadero doesn't like more than 2.5KGs of fuel at a load
and I get much more even burn thru the fuel with smaller splits and a good mix of oak/ash/chestnut/fruitwood/hazel/holly which burn slower than elm and beech. I use the elm and the beech to keep the other species burning well.

I would much rather burn larger, say 6" splits but my stove is too small. You can see the overfiring I did last year as the baffle is melted and sagging like a half pipe

here's a pic of the sizes I'm burning this year; essentially splitting once the median diameter my wood vendor is delivering
2-4 inch/ 16" long...little pieces of hazel for good measure

 

[Wisco Shepherd]

4 pieces of pine in the Kuma this morning. With the mild winter and a small, very well insulated house I'm on 2 small fires a day both cold starts. Waiting for some all day burn weather.....

 

[Diabel]

Just reloaded on yesterday’s sugar maple load. Cooled down quite a bit here with windchill of -9C coming off the lake. My next load will be a cold start, eve of Jan 1st. Heading out to visit some friends for the weekend.

Happy New Year everyone!