An Autumn Passtime

[Old Dog]

Whether a passtime or a necessity,
It is one of the things that needs to be done around here for us to have a good winter.
This is about 1/4 of the pile as it will be when finished.
This whole area will be full when I tarp it off just before the snow falls.
There are only two rows of wood here. and there will be 6 to 8.

The rows are 28 feet long by 18 inches wide and six feet tall.

 

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[bbqbull]

I used to heat with wood, my son heats with wood and thanks for the memories.

 

[SC_hunter]

Man oh Man....Glad my wife didn't give me that chore...I get blisters just looking at all that wood...

 

[Cynangyl]

I miss having wood heat...nothing in the world warms ya clear to the bone like wood heat! Of course gettin all the wood stockpiled warms ya pretty good too!

 

[packerbacker]

So........YOU'RE the one depleting the Brazilian rain forests!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Old Dog]

So........YOU'RE the one depleting the Brazilian rain forests!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I do use a lot of exotic wood in my business, But I doubt if I have caused so much as a splinter's woth of a problem compared to the actual performers in the play.

As for my pile... The only wood I will cu this time of year is dead and down. Mostly beetle killed trees.
These would be a forest fire hazard if not removed.
I am actually providing a needed public service and not wasting any wood to do it.

 

[packerbacker]

I went to a pellet stove some years back for price and convienience. Pellets have doubled in price since I did that. Go figure.

 

[Burdie]

You must have a large place to heat. That is a lot of wood for the winter. Nice and neat to.
Burdie

 

[Old Dog]

Burdie,
About 2400 sq feet
My worst utility bill had the public service company out here triple checking the meter .
everyone else is heating with gas and their bills were as high as $400 for a month.
Ours ran an average of $110 to $120.

Packerbacker,

I was looking at a pellet stove but decided against it as we do have power failure quite often here.
I got to wondering what I would do if that pellet stove had just loaded up and was burning good and the electric went out?
Might burn the house down.

Decided against it.
The woodstove was something that I could burn anytime.

A lot of guys replaced the burner pan in their pellet stoves and are burning corn.
The corn costs about half of the pellet cost.

The pan needs to be changed out because the sugars in the corn will cause the original pan to deteriorate.
It seems to happen very quickly too.

Thom

 

[COUNTRY GIRL]

Wow! Will you burn all 16 or so cord? We have been busily splitting and stacking to beat the snow ourselves. Warms you several times. I'm guessing we have about 9 cord stacked now. The Hubby is building a wood furnace as we speak. I'll get some pictures, today is day one......................

 

[Old Dog]

Hi Kim,
So nice to hear from you....

LOL
I'll Keep my place toasty to the tune of about 12+ chords if it is all pine.
Pine seems to burn hot but very fast,
I can generally count on a solid 8 chords for a winter if I mix in a good bunch of juniper and oak for long burns , like overnighters. a good sized chunk of juniper will burn for about 6 to 8 hours depending on how large it is. I can burn the little stuff during the day and put the short bursts of heat through the house when the sun isn't doing it's job.
It starts getting cold here the end of the month of Sept. usually.so the cold lasts through the first of May and sometimes into June.
It can take a lot of wood to keep this place warm, depending on the year.

Thom

 

[packerbacker]

You can install a battery backup system on your pellet stove although I didn't. If the power goes out, the auger quits working and no more pellets go into the stove and they have an automatic shutoff in case of overheating. Just a little info

 

[Old Dog]

Then it starts getting cold .....

My wife starts yelling at me when that happens LOL,
she says she puts up with enough from me,
a cold house isn't one of the things she will tolerate.

Thom

 

[E59]

One of my most vivid memories is helping my brothers and mother chop wood and stack it in the basement of our huge farmhouse outside Argyle Iowa. It really creates the atmosphere for good memories, doesn't it? It was almost 25 years ago and it seems like yesterday. Maybe it's the feeling of security or accomplishment, possibly the cool fall air.

Have fun, hopefully you'll make some good memories too!

 

[COUNTRY GIRL]

Hi Thom, Here is the picture of day one, I'll post the details in another thread. "This just might work!" Normal Garage statement.

We are burning mainly Oak and Maple this year, a bit of pine mixed in. The nasty storms we had this year took out a few big trees. Lots of wood available.

I agree with the wife, goose bumps are horrible!

 

[Ray S S]

Hello there, Old Dog,
That is a good looking stack of wood. I love that wood heat. When you come in after being out in 10 or 15 degree temps
it feels soooo good to back up to wood heat. Back in the 70's, wife and I lived up in northern Mich. I installed a wood
heater instead of using the gas furnace. Got a permit from the DNR to get trees they had cut down the year before for trails. All Maple and Beech, That was good heating wood. This time I had the luxury of a chain saw and splitting maul.,and I enjoyed cutting it. When I was a kid in the upper penninsula, everything had to be cut with axes and hand
saws. It was alot harder and slower.
Looks like you will be getting it done ok so your wife will be toasty warm in the cold weather. We have to keep our ladies happy LOL. Its more fun that way.
Have a good winter. And also, thanks too for bringing back memories of time gone by.

Ray karenray08

 

[ronwoodcraft]

It's a good feeling to get that chore done. I use about as much as you do, I heat strictly with wood in my house and shop. Finally got all mine in under the roofs about a month ago.

 

[Old Dog]

Sure is a good feeling isn't it.
I have five large elm trees that have been down for over a year drying from my son's house.
That purs a dent in the pile too.
I also have several loads of good beetle killed ponderosa that are ready to stack.
we'll bring them in with a dump truck and only have to stack them as they are already cut and split.

This takes a lot of the "winter" pressure off.

Thom

 

[Red_desert]

That is the way our wood piles looked where we moved from a couple years back. No wood heat at this house...oh boy, sure don't miss stacking all that wood. A lot of the work was done during the cooler months, even during the winter.

 

[Magic Fingers]

Ours is already to go for the winter also.
I use the larch for our overnight wood.
I still need to talk my son into starting a smaller pile a bit closer to the door....lol.
I agree...nothing like a wood fire to take that chill off.