What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

[stoveliker]

Also absent on the other forum..

 

[stoveliker]

After a few oak uglies at 2 pm, a reload of mostly red oak, one bigger white oak, and one small black locust split.

 

[all night moe]

2:44 am, Mon night-Tues morning. Low is 10*
I put my ''overnight load'' in around 11PM. Had a big double crotch clunker of red oak. 10'' tall and 14-16''dia on the single end. Went in on a big bed of hard wood coals. Had to rest my 1/2 black pipe on the door frame. Put the clunker on top and slide it in using the pipe as an aid. I fed the clunker more splits on top. Red oak & black locust splits, and two 3'' rounds of hickory and petrified red oak. Just came back up from a reload. The clunker is chuchin away with mostly off gassing blue flames. Lots of coal on top still in form. Added another hickory round, 2 red splits and 2 BL splits.

Still can't sleep. Mind is working like gears in an analog watch. Drew my 2nd draft on graph paper of my OWB gasser. Been studying gassers online. I'll be picking @cumminstinkerer 's brain in the near future. His Polar G series has a couple features I like overall.

Mean while I have my first OWB drawn up too. It should burn pretty clean and heat 440 gallons. This one is inexpensive to make but will only last a few years before it burns out. Cheap materials. Besides, I want a gasser. 😁

 

[Wildflush]

Also absent on the other forum..

Concerning 🙏

 

[Wildflush]

After a few oak uglies at 2 pm, a reload of mostly red oak, one bigger white oak, and one small black locust split.

View attachment 324927

New career stove photography. Just need some meditation to go with it!

 

[Wildflush]

19 outside but sunny. Oak, Ash, maple, and a biobrick for the cold start. Strong draft.

 

[all night moe]

That huge oak ugly was a remaining big glob of coal. Couldn't resist poking it with that 1/2'' steel pipe. It broke right down into smaller chunks. Threw in two decent BL splits and a 6'' petrified red oak round. Finishing my morning coffee and heading out for 2 pickup loads of wood. Will add more wood before I leave. The second load of wood is supposed to be a bunch of dead maple ..... saving my a$$ this season.

See you all in the ''work done 2024'' thread later.

 

[joop]

hopefully vacation

Anyone seen/heard from @thewoodlands yet ?

hopefully vacation

 

[cumminstinkerer]

@all night moe I know with the Polar poking and breaking the chunks up doesn't work the best, unless they bridge above the nozzle and leave a big hole, I am running some pretty big chunks now too, crotches and gnarly stuff that I got p'ed at when splitting, mostly ash but some oak and some silver maple, dang thing only burned last night, lol, loaded about 9pm, went out at 6:20 this morning and couldn't have crammed any in if I wanted too, we've been pretty warm during the day though, yesterday was 55F and we got down to 25F overnight, It did kinda mess up my loading schedule though, Friday into saturday got down to 5F and Saturday to Sunday was 9F, but Sunday went to 48F so big swings, yesterday was 54F, hopefully we will smooth out a little now.

 

[NickW]

Agree with the temp swings making it interesting... I've been doing a half load in the morning with 2 cherry/ash and 3-4 pine aspen to get a quick temperature boost, then try to milk the coals to evening and do a full overnight load. Really like the way a mix of hardwoods burns compared to all of one species.

I have mostly ash & cherry for my everyday hardwoods; and then mostly sugar maple with some honey locust, hickory and ironwood for my premium hardwood. The everyday stuff lights so nicely but doesn't coal as long. The premium doesn't take off very well on light coals. Mix them together and what a nice burn! Easily can reload after firing up the coals 18 hours after loading with a tube stove.

 

[cumminstinkerer]

one thing I really like about my Polar is just stuff it and forget it, with the storage and the way it shuts down things work great, big issue was saturday we butchered a couple pigs, had firebox full when I left around 830 AM, dang wind blew and never got above 35F, got home about 9pm and had almost no coals, wind is my worst enemy, it blew most of saturday night too, that started the weird loading schedule, trying to get back to normal, I don't mind adding a little before work but really like my loading to be right before I go in for the night.

 

[Toasty-Yote]

I burn box elder in shoulder season. It can get punky quick, but solid live tree's css right away are OK. I know @Caw hates it. I think it's between pine/aspen and silver maple. Certainly isn't a *go-to" wood. Maybe @ctreitzell is not referring to box elder but a different elder species. Our box elder is actually a maple sub-species (I think...).

Added bonus of box elder is that it seems to be one of a few woods that can actually go from a live tree to ready to burn in one year if you split it small. I guess that is just testament to the fact that there is not a lot of density though.

 

[thewoodlands]

Anyone seen/heard from @thewoodlands yet ?

Everything has been fine, I just took a break from posting. We've had some cold nights but nothing like we usually have in February.

We've been burning beech & ironwood at night so the temps have been pretty much the same from my last post. The basement is usually starting out at 72 or 73, the living area 66 & 67 with the sleeper at 67 or 68.

Since the weather hasn't been that bad, I started moving snow off the driveway and a few other spots, I usually start that job the last week of February.

This morning I took out ashes from the wood stove to the outside fireplace, we've been running the pellet stove today.

2/15/24 Living Area Temps 66 & 67 Outside Morning Low 1.0 Basement temp in the morning 73 / Sleeper temp 67
2/16/24 Living Area Temps 67 & 68 Outside Morning Low 17.0 Basement temp in the morning 72 / Sleeper temp 68
2/17/24 Living Area Temps 65 Outside Morning Low 13.0 Basement temp in the morning 70 / Sleeper temp 66
2/18/24 Living Area Temps 65 & 67 Outside Morning Low 15.6 Basement temp in the morning 70 / Sleeper temp 67
2/19/24 Living Area Temps 66 & 67 Outside Morning Low 4.3 Basement temp in the morning 72 / Sleeper temp 67
2/20/24 Living Area Temps 66 & 67 Outside Morning Low 11.7 Basement temp in the morning 72 / Sleeper temp 67

 

[stoveliker]

Nice to have you back. You have been missed - though we understand it's nice to take a break sometimes.

 

[thewoodlands]

Nice to have you back. You have been missed - though we understand it's nice to take a break sometimes.

Thanks @stoveliker , I also missed the members and the site. I haven't done any cutting since I was on last but we have had some nice meals along with enjoying the heat from the fires.

 

[thewoodlands]

Before supper tonight I started a fire with some white & yellow birch limb wood, that gave me enough coals for our next fire, three beech & two splits of ironwood that I'll have down to coals for the overnight fire.

 

[stoveliker]

Last night's 10.15 load is done.
Reload of some oak and locust pieces, all a bit irregular, having small knots, twisty, etc.
So not a great load. Enough until sometime tomorrow tho.

edit: 29 out, a low of 26 forecast.
72 upstairs

 

[Pinesmoke]

It's still 50 out, burning pine to warm up the stove and get ready for tonight.

 

[thewoodlands]

It's still 50 out, burning pine to warm up the stove and get ready for tonight.

We'll be getting some of that but on 2/24 our high is 13 with a low of 3 but we're almost done with February, hopefully not many more days like that.

 

[Dieselhead]

Tonight’s load in, still coals from last nights similar load for ignition. already in the mid 20s, mid teens expected overnight.

 

[Pinesmoke]

We'll be getting some of that but on 2/24 our high is 13 with a low of 3 but we're almost done with February, hopefully not many more days like that.

Good luck. One reason we came down here was the winter. It was 60 today and I was working in a T shirt by noon.

 

[thewoodlands]

Good luck. One reason we came down here was the winter. It was 60 today and I was working in a T shirt by noon.

After my father passed, we should've sold everything & headed south but we would never have the land like we have here.

60 sounds great, is this early for weather like that in your area?

 

[Bobbob]

Tonight's load of cherry, maple and some sassafras since it's in the 40's right now

 

[stoveliker]

Lol, I went north from SE TN to have some snow during the winter - nah, it was for work. But I do like the occasional snow.
(Rather than the 0.5" forecast == schools closed ;-0 )

 

[Pinesmoke]

After my father passed, we should've sold everything & headed south but we would never have the land like we have here.

60 sounds great, is this early for weather like that in your area?

From what we are told, yes. First winter in the place but had been coming down for the 2 years before that and it seems normal. We are also told it's time to plant after Easter. It was mother's day back north.