This crap is getting old? REALLY OLD!

[Whitespider]

This crap is getting old… REALLY OLD!

I get out’a bed ‘round 5:00 AM every day… every morning I look at the thermostat and its been ‘round 67[sup]o[/sup](ish) in the house… so I pour a cup of coffee (auto-brew at 4:50 AM), walk down the steps and light a fire in my little wood furnace. I leave the damper ‘bout ½ open for half-an-hour or so, until the house warms to 69[sup]o[/sup](ish), and then go down and close it so as not to over heat the house. When I leave for work ‘round 8:00 the house is in the 71[sup]o[/sup]-72[sup]o[/sup](ish) range.

There has only been two days so far this year that the wife has added any wood to the furnace, and that was near a month ago, she just lets it go cold during the day. So………

I get home ‘round 5:30 PM every day… every evening I look at the thermostat and its been ‘round 71[sup]o[/sup](ish) in the house… so I change cloths, drink a beer or two, eat supper, and whatnot. ‘Round 7:00 or so it cools enough that I walk down the steps and light another fire in my little wood furnace. When I head in for bed ‘round 9:00-10:00 the house is in the 71[sup]o[/sup]-72[sup]o[/sup](ish) range.

And the cycle continues… day, after day, after day I’m lighting two fires in a cold firebox. Twice-a-day I’m screwing around with the light-the-fire-stuff, and fiddlin’ with the damper, and ya’da’, ya’da’ ya’da’. I’m burnin’ elm from standing-dead right now, rarely fillin’ the firebox full, so I never get a good bed of coals, and the furnace just goes flat cold between fires.

This lightin’ the fire crap is getting REALLY OLD!
And they’re sayin” near 50[sup]o[/sup] on Saturday… Really? 50[sup]o[/sup] for New Years?
Well, if’n it gets that warm I probably won’t need to light the second fire that day…
Don’t get me wrong… the mild weather is nice and all…
But we’re in this two-fires-a-day zone… if it would just cool-down by 5[sup]o[/sup] I could have a low fire goin’ 24/7 and just toss some splits on the coals morning and night.

This lightin’ the fire crap is getting REALLY OLD!

 

[Eric Modell]

go out and get some green wood , as I said a time or two it can be your friend.

A big chunk of green will help hold the fire and produce better coals, but you already know that.

 

[avason]

Sounds like my routine except that I have to walk outside about a 100 feet in the rain, sleet and snow to make sure the odw is still going. It's not getting old even though it should be. I think mentally I just do it and don't think about it. It sure does beat having to pay the propane guy. I think that's how I get by it.

 

[avason]

Oh yeah...did I mention that I have to go outside in the rain, sleet and snow barefoot.:msp_razz:

 

[bubba3228]

Been warm here in central Wi. too. I have been burning up some cherry lately saving all the oak I can for Jan.-Feb it is going to get cold... It has to.

Maybe you could open a window somewhere before you go to work and the wife would get cold enough to throw a split or two on before you get home @ 5:30

 

[mga]

only two options:

1. enjoy the cycle

2. turn on the furnace and pay your local gas and electric a couple hundred a month.

 

[jhoff310]

Oh yeah...did I mention that I have to go outside in the rain, sleet and snow barefoot.:msp_razz:

You forgot in your dad's PJs up hill both ways :hmm3grin2orange:

Jeff

 

[Whitespider]

I can't open a window... I put the storm windows on and covered every last one of 'em with plastic back in early October.
The Sunday before Christmas we had friends over to watch football and holiday cocktails... the fire had been out since the night before and we had both doors kicked wide open... and it was still near 80[sup]o[/sup] in here. Outside the sun was shinning and 55+[sup]o[/sup]... house full of warm bodies, wife had the oven on makin' hors d'oeuvres, everyone wearin' winter-type cloths... we were sweatin' rivers.

 

[Whitespider]

Oh yeah...did I mention that I have to go outside in the rain, sleet and snow barefoot.

WHAT RAIN, SLEET AND SNOW!!?
We hardly even get cloudy days...

 

[spike60]

Got down to 12 degrees here last night, so I won't be letting mine go out today.


I'm used to starting lots of fires because there's no one else to add wood to the stove when I'm not home. Go through lots of kindling though.:msp_rolleyes:

 

[Dalmatian90]

You might heat with wood when you complain you don't burn enough fuel.

 

[blackdogon57]

A strange winter for sure. This morning is is -18C, clear and cold. By this time tomorrow it is going to above freezing and raining.

 

[beerman6]

I lit a fire back on 10/23.House stays 73-75(ish)

I dont see myself having to light another one until next October :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[avason]

We've had a pretty mild winter here so far in CT. No snow yet (fingers Crossed). I think it's been under 20 degrees about 4 times so far this year and that has been at night.

 

[branchbuzzer]

day, after day, after day I’m lighting two fires in a cold firebox. Twice-a-day I’m screwing around with the light-the-fire-stuff, and fiddlin’ with the damper, and ya’da’, ya’da’ ya’da’.

Well see, this is exactly the type of misery and suffering that those of us in the south have to put up with on a daily basis almost all winter long. Day after day of the pain of not having our fingers freeze off if we have to change a flat tire for example ( sheer torture! ). Once y'all have gotten a taste of it, it ain't quite what it's cracked up to be is it?

This is one reason why I just buy my $10 Starterlogg box and not fool with a mountain of kindling, and also why poplar and red maple are worth taking for me.

I usually have my choice of running a continuous fire and having the house at 80+, or two ( or more! ) burns and 60-75. When it's 50-60 outside is the absolute purgatory - not warm enough to heat the house up, but nice and damp so your wood is like a moist towelette when you do burn it. No bringing it in from outside for me ( I might as well throw a used diaper in there ), it's in the house almost a month before it lights up.

See how good you have it up there?

 

[c5rulz]

Obviously you need to take your damper out.:hmm3grin2orange:
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Just seeing if your are paying attention.:msp_tongue:

 

[zogger]

I don't get it why she won't throw a stick or three in the stove during the day.

Here, at night, I get up and got to go, easy enough to throw more on, in the morning all it takes is a chunk of cardboard dropped on the coals then some more splits.

I usually drop a big round that barely fits in at night before I go to bed anyway. That ticks over most of the night, add a coupla splits at o dark 30, still good coals in the morning. During the say Gf loads as she sees fit. She likes it warmer during the day then I do, but I don't care either. I want coals in the thing most of the time. Seems to work the best then over starting it, letting it go out, starting it again, etc.

I keep one box with cardboard scraps and the junk mail, then a bucket with splitter pile junk, that's kindling.

 

[1project2many]

Two days ago it was below freezing most of the day but warmed up and started raining as evening approached. Yesterday it was 42 and raining hard when I woke up and any ground that had finally frozen last week was mud. This morning it was 19 deg when I woke at 4:30, 17 degrees at 5:30, and 13 degrees at 8:00. This year's weather has been a mess. Two weeks ago there was Forsythia blooming in the neighbor's yard. Yesterday I noticed leaves sprouting from a small Red Maple outside the shop.

Now we've been burning fairly consistently since the end of November but I haven't finished the first row of wood in the woodshed yet. I usually average one row per month starting near the end of October. It's definitely been warmer than most years. I'm expecting Winter to hit with a vengeance through January and February and pile up snow one storm after another. Regardless of the weather there's only one fire lit per day and my work schedule this winter means I get home about an hour after the wife's got the fire lit. Have to say... it's amazing how quickly she's learned to build a good fire.

Anyway, this is year's weather is an "extreme" circumstance so IMO it's acceptable to resort to using pine boards, Birch bark, or even a torch to start a fire quickly. Twice a day fires every day in December just ain't natural.

 

[laynes69]

We woke up this morning and the house was 68, the coldest it's been this season. The wifey was complaining that she was cold. I went down to the furnace and there was a nice coal bed after 9.5 hours with it in the low 20's outside. I told her I enjoy my sleep and didn't want to get up. After loading it was 73 in about a half hour. I didnt have to restart so I was happy. She knows how to load it, if she wants to get up that's fine, but not me.

 

[avalancher]

OP, hate to say it, but thats the norm around here for this time of year,but I will have to say its been warmer this year than normal. last year the kids had a month long christmas vacation because of all the snow and ice, and this year I spent the day outside yesterday in shirt sleeves pulling weeds in the flower bed because the wife discovered that the tulips have popped out of the ground already. Makes a guy wonder what we are in for in Jan and Feb. The old timers say that this is the perfect example of 1993 when this area got hit by a four foot snow blizzard in Jan.