Anyone else fired up their woodstove yet?

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Couple of small fires in the shop but the boiler has yet to be lit. Probably time to turn on the water pump and make sure it's running well, get the air out and top it off. Wont be long.

Still holds true. Couple of cool nights this week but looks to be warming back up. Hopefully we dont pay for this easy fall later.
 
Woke up to 34 degrees this morning! that hurt as I have no heat on, no wood on the porch, and just not ready in general. Looks like this weekend will be spent loading out racks, taking a look in the chimney and getting prepped. Should be a little warmer this weekend, but the cold is coming.
 
probably will burn some ugliness to take the chill out of the house within the next couple of days
 
I've been kicking my pellet stove on in the mornings, going to pick up a ton of pellets tomorrow, just been using last years left overs so far...only a couple bags left.

Funny how every year I tell myself I'll have my boiler all cleaned out ready to go in the spring/early summer and every year it takes a cold day in October to kick me into gear! I got out today and pulled the door off my boiler, cleaned all the creosote off and replaced the door rope gasket, knocked out all the ash and shoveled out the boiler...dumped last years water and refilled with fresh water/boiler treatment. All ready to go. I'm shooting for November 1st to light it up but may go a week or so sooner, we'll see how it goes.
 
Fired up my OWB today for the 1st time. Loaded it with construction cut offs and some cedar slabs off the new sawmill. \just got dome setting the 1st skid of ash beside it. I cleaned it out in the spring and a month ago put a new gasket on the door. Redid some heating lines last week to the shop. My son's lovely girlfriend turned on the pump in their house about 3 weeks ago, it's heated with my OWB too. She's had nothing to do with the heating unit so not sure why she would even touch it. The valves were shut off on both sides of the pump last spring. My son didn't even know she had turned it on until he went to turn it on and it was already running, said the pump was cooking hot. Not surprising since it been spinning in the same 1/2 gallon of water for 3 weeks. Funny thing was that I took my grandson over there this afternoon for his nap and I sat there for 20 minutes until he fell asleep. I heard the pump running in the next room and thought that was odd but never thought anymore about it. Well "bless her heart"
 
I've had my first fire of the Fall burning for about an hour and a half now. It was 42 deg out when I lit it. Thermometer outside reads 40 now. I love this time of year!
 
Going the shop this morning some what nippy & debated as to lighting the wood burner but put on an extra coat heard some noise in the back of the shop & the old black Lab came from the back dragging his lay in front of the WB rug & the sad look on his face made me feel bad & light the stove for him when I went to lay & straighten his rug the look on his face & the circular tail wagging & big sigh as he settled down made me guess I'd done the right thing Who says dogs don't display expressions on their faces 5 hours later fire still going good I'm outside & "Brouk" the dog he's snoring in front of the WB
 
It was 71 here today very warm for this time of year but I'll take it. I need to clean my chimney still and install a damper in the chimney but it doesn't seem like that time of year yet.
 
First hard freeze last night. Supposed to get down to the low 20s all this coming week. Had a high of about 40* today. Wouldn't be too horrible but we had a solid 2" of rain so everything is humid, wet and muddy. Darn near needed hip waders to get out to my truck, it apparently was parked on the high spot!
 
Looks like I will be splitting more wood in a few days. Been having to burn a bit more then I like this early. Luckily I have a cord and a half fully seasoned to help replenish what I burned so far. I want to start November with a full 8 cords. Last year was bad and burned a bit less then 7. 8 gives me the margin for safety. I hate being cold.
 
Wife & I cleaned out the shop barrel stove & installed new stove pipe to the chimney. Cleaned flue out for the add on furnace and cleaned it out. New seals on doors of both and dumped 1/2 cord down the basement for shoulder season. First fire tonight!!!
 
House was 62* this morning could have gotten by and waited for the expected warm up this coming week, but with more then 2 years of seasoned wood on hand no reason to not light a fire this morning. The first fire for me in North Central Iowa is 10/15.
 
I've burned about 1/3 cord at home already. I burn about 3 cords a winter, so I guess that means winter is 1/9 of the way done already! haha.

I planned to fill up the rack on the porch today, but I slept in till about 9:30, cooked breakfast, took a nap, called my folks, did some wash and housework, came down to the shop to check on the stove and do paperwork... and still here. Gets dark around 7PM now, so yeah...
The idea is to take Sundays off though. I'll be happy when firewood season calms down in about 2 months cause I'm worn out!
 

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