What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

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I've got some nice medium sized larch splits in the stove right now, they are at 14% moisture in my woodshed, and 13% when they've been drying in my bin beside the fire for a day or two. I would've got some fir from the woodshed, but I wanted to get it started early before neighbours might be out in case the smoke blew down into their yard 'n' stuff. It's pretty darn mild these days, cold snap is over so my softwoods are good for that.
 
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ozarkoak said:
Im seeing predictions of near 60 here by Jan 30th. Its all good but thats when we get winter tornadoes LMMFAO
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We had some Tornado warnings with a few touchdown in RI and southeastern Mass over the last few years. Be honest with you they scare the blank out of me! Going to be close to 50 here this week.

I just rearranged my splits adding to my emergency wood under the deck. I keep just over a 1/3 cord there.
 
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bigealta said:
I agree but as i'm mostly home i can reload anytime. And at these warmer outdoor temps shorter batch heating works better for me, especially with a large fireplace heat sink.. Hot fires that immediately burn clean work best for my house and neighborhood.

I also am still not happy with my full pack reload skills. I just can't get good starting clean burns fast enough. The tight vs loose packing has such a big inverse relationship in clean burning vs long lasting.

So i'm choosing hotter, shorter, cleaner, when its not to cold with maybe 1 or 2 reloads on the top down coals. Then let it die.
With the cold days last week i did pack tight and full as we needed it to run continuously. But those fires also were not as hot simply due to their structure and produced more smoke than that same amount of splits would have caused if they were all burned top down.
Of course only top down is not realistic unless in the 40's outside.

Maybe it boils down to just getting better skills at full packed reloads when it is cold enough outside to need them.

So now with the 30's outside i'm doing "hybrid top down" batches i guess i'd call it.
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If you want a nice 4th of July event just toss some splits criss cross and loose on an hot bed of coals and you will get that quick hot fire 🔥 plus the light show! 😁. No top down needed.
 
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Sawset said:
Boxelder is about the only thing I just push aside in the weeds or burnpile. Maybe I should reconsider it. Sometimes there's a need for something with less output than all oak all the time.
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plus @Caw

For me, elder and chestnut last forever in the dirt and mud...I'm talkin years and years and waaaaay better than PT conifer...these two're far more useful not being burned...chestnut being the king

I never burn elder or pine on purpose...it's just the way I was raised
Elder is a tree I have never got along with...nor the elder wood as firewood;
BUT as a prop for any green stuff waiting to get processed, or exterior piles of potential firewood, elder doesn't rot and therefore is a key ingredient to firewood processing chez moi
 
The box elder trees here are part of the maple family "acer negundo" and are usually viewed as fairly trashy trees, weak, heavy when wet, featherweight when dry, not at all rot resistant.
 
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It's raining and warming up to 38, so been buring a mix of sassafras and maple. Ice was really bad this morning and glad I was off work today. Five cars stuck going up the hill past our place and 2 in the ditch. Gonna get muddy again. I prefer frozen ground. Kinda tired of wiping off paws
 
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Sawset said:
Boxelder is about the only thing I just push aside in the weeds or burnpile. Maybe I should reconsider it. Sometimes there's a need for something with less output than all oak all the time.
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Honestly, it's total trash. I had one log of it I bucked up 3 years ago that I'm burning now and I just hate every second of it. It's balsa wood light and it sometimes takes right off but other times acts like punky ash in the stove. It splits poorly because it's usually a very twisted tree. Its just not worth my time at all. I'm going to use what I have and next time I get a BE log it's going straight in the fire pit bin.

I use maple, cherry, poplar, and ash when I need a shoulder season non-oak fire. If I have any. Right now I do thankfully but the next 3 years are gonna be 90% oak which honestly is great but also kind of a pain in the ass too. Oak just doesn't like to cold start and just keeps burning and burning and burning. Not the best for that 38 degree day fire. Or when you want to push it hard on a 0 degree day. But that said, I'll never complain about having infinite oak. It's the king of firewood imo. It just shines even brighter when paired with softer hardwoods.
 
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This evenings/overnight load. Lower 30s today cloudy with on and off freezing rain. Low of 31 expected tonight. Should idle along nicely and keep the house toasty with this cold raw weather we are having.




1706047121161.jpeg
 
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Got a HOT load going now at 700 STT. One of the hottest for me this season. Controlled burn or oak, maple and Redstones. Great draft awesome secondary with small primary flame. @Caw regular cruising for you!
 
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Caw said:
Absolutely! Let that chimney work baby.
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Even with the bends I have my pipe drafts well. Happy with my setup.

Not happy my cap blew off earlier in the season. Crazy wind that night. My sweep changed to a taller Ventis cap made in Scranton PA, USA with a clamp style. I really like it. Like how it will keep small birds out which my old cap could potentially let in.
 
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Sawset said:
Boxelder is about the only thing I just push aside in the weeds or burnpile. Maybe I should reconsider it. Sometimes there's a need for something with less output than all oak all the time.
Click to expand...
Agree that’s why I like cherry but running out!
 
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Caw said:
Honestly, it's total trash. I had one log of it I bucked up 3 years ago that I'm burning now and I just hate every second of it. It's balsa wood light and it sometimes takes right off but other times acts like punky ash in the stove. It splits poorly because it's usually a very twisted tree. Its just not worth my time at all. I'm going to use what I have and next time I get a BE log it's going straight in the fire pit bin.

I use maple, cherry, poplar, and ash when I need a shoulder season non-oak fire. If I have any. Right now I do thankfully but the next 3 years are gonna be 90% oak which honestly is great but also kind of a pain in the ass too. Oak just doesn't like to cold start and just keeps burning and burning and burning. Not the best for that 38 degree day fire. Or when you want to push it hard on a 0 degree day. But that said, I'll never complain about having infinite oak. It's the king of firewood imo. It just shines even brighter when paired with softer hardwoods.
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I mix in oak with my cold starts but I use smaller splits 3” with excellent results. Did it this morning and STT cruising at 660. During the first 15 min I sometimes add an oak split across the top.
 
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Yeah I'm just saying using 100% oak to cold start is more annoying than mixing it in other woods. Splitting the oak smaller is a way around that but it's still slower than doing the same with maple or cherry to help the oak get going. Just in my experience.
 
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Caw said:
Yeah I'm just saying using 100% oak to cold start is more annoying than mixing it in other woods. Splitting the oak smaller is a way around that but it's still slower than doing the same with maple or cherry to help the oak get going. Just in my experience.
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Got it. Should have read the 100% oak part. I agree wish I had more maple, ash and cherry in the mix.
 
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Damp chill outside with the breeze now. Only put 3 small splits on a small bed of coals this morning. Got home around 4:30. Hardly any coals were left. Started with raking coals to the center and pulled ash up front. It was full of small embers so I left it there. Threw some splitter slag in and half dozen pieces of kindlin. Small splits of ash and maple accompanied that. Added some regular splits awhile ago. More ash, piece of black locust, more norway maple, one red oak, and a black cherry. House is back up to temp. After our dysfunctional family eats our late dinner, I'll add some more fuel.
 
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all night moe said:
Damp chill outside with the breeze now. Only put 3 small splits on a small bed of coals this morning. Got home around 4:30. Hardly any coals were left. Started with raking coals to the center and pulled ash up front. It was full of small embers so I left it there. Threw some splitter slag in and half dozen pieces of kindlin. Small splits of ash and maple accompanied that. Added some regular splits awhile ago. More ash, piece of black locust, more norway maple, one red oak, and a black cherry. House is back up to temp. After our dysfunctional family eats our late dinner, I'll add some more fuel.
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😂
 
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