First Cold Night of the Season

[Chris-PA]

The low is supposed to be 28 tonight - we'll see, but I fired up the big stove for the first time this season.

We've been burning the little stove so far, but that only heats one part of the house and doesn't kick on the blower from the old heating system, so our bedroom gets no heat.

I just put the second load in on the bed of hot coals and it's cranking now! The draft control rod is sticking a bit and that gave me a moment of panic - everything looks OK under there so I'll have to lube it tomorrow. I didn't want to force it and risk breaking it, and then not be able to stop it down.

 

[steved]

Even my wife got a fire going tonight...which is odd, cause she's still gunshy after our fire, it must be cold in the house.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G730A using Tapatalk

 

[KenJax Tree]

We've had snow already

 

[redfin]

I have a covering of snow in my yard. I have seen below 25 this year already.

 

[chuckwood]

The low is supposed to be 28 tonight - we'll see, but I fired up the big stove for the first time this season.

What I see in the weather news is that a huge cold wave is coming in next week. The gov't weather wonks are saying that we are going to just have a normal winter this time, and no need to be alarmed. They said the same thing for last winter, and obviously failed big time. I've read a number of articles claiming that winter has more or less arrived a month early all over the Northern hemisphere, and that they are already having snow emergencies in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, the global warming alarmists are saying that 2014 was the hottest year on record. The global cooling alarmists say we are at the beginning of a mini-ice age like they had some 300 years ago. The only way I have to evaluate these claims is by going outside and seeing for myself what's going on. I'm betting that this winter will be a repeat of the last one. If it's even worse than the last one, and next year is worse than this one, then I'm gonna start getting scared. With all the problems going on in the world right now, a mini ice age sure ain't gonna help anything. It will be good for the firewood sellers, I'm gonna be busy cutting and splitting this winter - that is if my ground freezes good and I can get my four wheeler and tractor in and out of the woods. If its just cold rain and mud I'll have to find something else to do.

 

[Chris-PA]

Well, you can view global temperature anomalies here:

http://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/view.php?datasetId=MOD_LSTAD_M

Looking out the window will not always give you a good picture of what is going on elsewhere - March 2014 being a good example. While in parts of NA we were concerned with the polar vortex, much of the rest of the planet was cooking (relatively).

Things have gotten chaotic and they are having a hard time predicting, I suspect because their models use too much historical data which is no longer relevant. It will be interesting to see what this winter brings.

Still, I fell asleep on the couch in basement where the stove is cranking away. Such a familiar feeling!

 

[TreeTangler]

We've had snow already

I'm on the tail end of our second snow STORM!

 

[svk]

Supposed to be 21 here tonight but low clouds and high wind so I doubt we'll dip below freezing. Full moon and deer opener tomorrow so I'll be in the woods.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Been warm here. 30* right now even. Last week it was single digits.

 

[Chris-PA]

Well, we just dipped below 30deg early this morning, heading up to 50 and the sun is bright. I think I will load the little stove once and do some work on that damper linkage on the big stove.

It won't be long until we're in the mode where the fire rarely goes out, and it's just a matter of keeping the ashes down and loading in more.

I have a covering of snow in my yard. I have seen below 25 this year already.

We're in the Eastern corner of Berks Co - it's only flurried a bit here so far. I'm in no hurry for more, mind you!

 

[slowp]

Weather is a tricky thing to predict beyond a few days. We were supposed to have an El Nino, but some powerful typhoons got the ocean worked up so the warm water dissipated. Now winter should be normal, and our low of 35 this morning is normal, as is a chance of snow next week. I hope Collyfonia and nearby areas get dumps of snow. They really need it.

 

[cmsmoke]

We had snow in Johnstown, yesterday. It laid in the grass and on parked vehicles for a while. We also went down to 28 last night with heavy frost this morning. High today to be 45.

 

[Chris-PA]

I hope Collyfonia and nearby areas get dumps of snow. They really need it.

Not likely now that the El Nino has dissipated.

 

[redfin]

Good morning fellas. I have a question for you. This morning when I went to reload the stove after I got the splits burning fairly well I shut my bottom ash door. At that point the stove began to puff, puff bursts of smoke through the vents in my main door.

I reopened my ash door and let it get fairly hot and burning well. It took several cycles for the stove to stop puffing throught the door vents. I'm assuming this is from closing down my vent to low through the nite and I had buildup that needed burned off?

My flew is clean, I had a blend of cherry, beech and oak in last night. Any thoughts?

 

[Chris-PA]

Was the stove cold by then or still warm from the night's burn? I guess more important was if the flue was cold?

And does it have any other air intakes?

 

[sunfish]

Burning fairly regular here lately. Been in the low 20s' a few times already. Too cold this early!

 

[flotek]

Low 30s lately here in nw pa . Shaping up to be a cold one no doubt ..Last year was a really good example of the global warming nut jobs being called out on their lunacy . Coldest winter in the us ( not just my neck of the woods ) .. But of coarse the loons coming out of the woodwork tell us record cold temperatures is actually what we should expect to see with global warming ! Check your brains at the door ...We were also told many years ago that the polar ice would melt and cause the precious frigid Eco system to come unraveled and the oceans rise to catastrophic levels ..but the ice is actually at record levels in thickness instead lol no shortage of gullible people these days

Satellite photos of the Arctic taken by NASA in August 2012 and August 2013 show a 60 percent increase in the polar ice sheet, more than half the size of Europe, despite "realistic" predictions by climate scientists 8 years ago that the North Pole would be completely melted by now.

 

[redfin]

In response to Chris question. I had some small coals left so the stove was not completely cold. I do have a clean out door at the base of my flew. I thought about that and went outside to make sure it was sealed.

 

[redfin]

I have been using the same method with this stove for years and don't recall ever having this happen.

 

[Chris-PA]

I have been using the same method with this stove for years and don't recall ever having this happen.

It's doesn't sound like you have a blockage problem since increasing the air inlet (and temperature) helped - the flue was able to flow well enough.

Maybe it wasn't all that cold and the temperature difference was not enough to make a good draft?

Was it windy (it's pretty still here this morning).