You burning yet?

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First fire yesterday. Main part of house chilled off to 17c in the afternoon after a couple cool dreary days, so I made a decision that would head off some anticipated complaining. Got storage back up to temp after going cold 5 months ago. Don't want to get into regular burns yet - it's too early. Some sun in the forecast, so hopefully this was just a shakedown burn.
 
She actually feeds the stove more than I do. Shes home all day.

Except on the weekends.... And in the middle of the night. Which I hope is history with the new stove.
My work took me out of town during the week, so my wife had to feed the stove all week. It was my responsibility to stack the wood in the basement next to the stove. Of course with stacks of wood you have sawdust and bark. She keeps a broom and dust pan next to the stove and sweeps up every time she has to put wood in. The trail from the outside door to the wood stack, well, not so much. Since I drive my gator in the basement stacked with wood, the trail often has muddy tracks which she makes sure I get to sweep up. When she brings the wood in, she parks the gator at the door and carries the wood to the stack. If it was left up to me, I would (and have) just load the gator with wood and park it close to the stove.
 
We don't "keep" wood in the house. It goes right from the rack outside the door into the firebox. It's literally 11 feet away, straight shot through a door and into the stove. Same with the insert on the other side of the house. Through a sliding glass door and into the stove.

sent from a field
 
First burn of the season last night. Just a small fire of dimensional lumber scraps and a couple small splits, to drive the damp out of the house.

My how I have missed it.
 
We don't "keep" wood in the house. It goes right from the rack outside the door into the firebox. It's literally 11 feet away, straight shot through a door and into the stove. Same with the insert on the other side of the house. Through a sliding glass door and into the stove.

sent from a field

I find thawed out wood is easier to get burning. Plus not opening the door 3 or 4 times a day for wood helps keep the cold out too. Not my idea of fun to grab an arm load of wood outside in my undies at -25*!
 
Lots of good reasons to not store wood in the house. Besides the sawdust, dirt and bark, you have the problem of bugs. Back in the early 80's, we woke up one morning to an invasion of praying mantis. They where literally everywhere, on the walls, the furniture, the floor. Must have been a million of those little suckers. They had to have came out of the firewood I had stacked in the corner beside the wood stove. I suspect the heat caused them to hatch out. Needless to say, the wife had a fit. Took a while with the vacuum cleaner to suck them all up. Stlll didnt get all of them as we kept running across them for several weeks. Stored the wood on the front porch after that. Oddly enough, I havnt had that problems since, even tho I try to keep at least a weeks worth of wood in my basement. we do have one of those electronic bug things plugged in that supposed to repel bugs. I can only assume it works since I cant hear it or otherwise tell it does anything, but I dont see any bugs.
 
Just wait till after a good freeze or two (like in a few weeks) and the bugs will be mostly dead.
 
I like this time of year. I keep putting off starting up the stove and she bakes in the evening to warm up housw. Last night was cupcakes and lemmon loaf. Cant wait.to see what gonna be cooked tonight
 
Its usually close to Thanksgiving before I start keeping a fire 24/7. I wont stock up the basement until then. I suppose a good freeze will kill a lot of bugs, but I probably wont see a real freeze until Jan or Feb. By March, I am usually letting the fire die out during the day and starting one at night. In April, its very hit or miss if I even have a fire.
 
I find thawed out wood is easier to get burning. Plus not opening the door 3 or 4 times a day for wood helps keep the cold out too. Not my idea of fun to grab an arm load of wood outside in my undies at -25*!

We don't normally get that cold here.

We also have 2 young children. The door gets opened and closed many times throughout the day. Doing so to get wood is at the bottom of the list. And since everything around the stove is warm, and the house is sealed up with no fresh air, leaving the door opened for a few minutes is quite welcome during the winter.

Never had a problem with frozen wood, either.

sent from a field
 
If you leave the wood outside, how is it not frozen? Frozen it's not "so" much the issue, but it also has some snow and ice too.

Dunno where you live, I've never lived anywhere that didn't at least snow.
 
I like this time of year. I keep putting off starting up the stove and she bakes in the evening to warm up housw. Last night was cupcakes and lemmon loaf. Cant wait.to see what gonna be cooked tonight
Same here. My better half just made 2 loaves of pumpkin bread. Warmed up the house nicely.
 
If you leave the wood outside, how is it not frozen? Frozen it's not "so" much the issue, but it also has some snow and ice too.

Dunno where you live, I've never lived anywhere that didn't at least snow.
I didn't say it's not frozen, just that it's never been a problem.

All of my wood is stored under cover of some sort. Even the wood just outside the door is on a covered porch. Snow and ice are only an issue in getting the wood from the stacks to the porch. Even then it's not bad.

sent from a field
 
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