Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[Deleted member 150358]

That rafting looked pretty hard core. One of my relatives did guided raft trips as a summer gig in Washington working her way through college. Beat the heck out of waitressing! She was addicted and continued as a guide for some time after college.

 

[James Miller]

7*F here @farmer steve said we would cut in single digits some day. I might go up to my spot and give it a try. Or just sit here and feed the stove.

 

[square1]

-13 at the cabin! Glad I'm not there, only -6 here.

 

[Deleted member 150358]

70F makes my toes cold! lol... I like 72F better. and even warmer in front of the fireplace...

Eventually it was 75°F but it took all my little stove could give and the fan. I do have a wall furnace in there but it's so loud we never use it.

 

[KiwiBro]

A

Well, that's even worse.

And medically impossible to boot

 

[Deleted member 150358]

Glad I don't get to the north often. To @svk its probably just another winter day.

SUNDAY'S LOW TEMPERATURES

45 below zero: 5 miles E Seagull Lake

44 below: 5 miles NW Ash Lake

42 below: Babbitt, Crane Lake, Celina

41 below: Kabetogama

40 below: Gunflint Lake, 7 miles E Effie

38 below: Ely, Birchdale

37 below: Littlefork

36 below: Cook, Orr

35 below: Chisholm-Hibbing airport, International Falls, Bigfork

34 below: Makinen, Cotton

29 below: Aitkin, Grand Marais, Grand Rapids, Isabella

28 below: Kettle River

27 below: Two Harbors

25 below: Side Lake

24 below: Brainerd, Saginaw, 5 miles NW Hovland

23 below: Duluth NWS, Cloquet, Aurora

 

[woodchip rookie]

-1 Murkan here when I got up. 54 in the house. I had to dump 3 buckets of hot coals in the front yard to reload before work. I dont think I have this whole burning thing down yet. Wrong stove, wrong technique, wrong wood. idk...

 

[Deleted member 150358]

I'll open the stove up when there is time between loadings and let the coals burn down. Tons of heat there if ya got time.

My buddy has the same issue with his old Daka add-on furnace. I think he uses a blower in the draft to burn off the coals but again this takes time. Even with the stupid shaker grate its more of a problem then it should be. Can be full to the door with coals and not get the plenum hot enough to kick in the blower. Which is the only way to get heat out of it.

Dryer wood it isn't as much of a problem.

 

[moresnow]

I had to dump 3 buckets of hot coals in the front yard to reload before work. I dont think I have this whole burning thing down yet. Wrong stove, wrong technique, wrong wood. idk...

I'll open the stove up when there is time between loadings and let the coals burn down. Tons of heat there if ya got time.

Another trick to reducing coals to make room for full reloads is to pile your coal bed towards the front of the firebox at the tail end of the burn cycle. Add one small dry split op top of the coal pile, close the stove up and leave the primary air control wide open until the split/coal pile is burnt down. The aggressively burning single split really melts down the coal pile. This works well in many cases. The split must be dry. Supposedly a compressed wood brick/ecobrick works well also. Ive never tried the bricks. Mostly do this when its been very cold and the stove has been pushed/reloaded more frequently.

 

[Deleted member 150358]

Another trick to reducing coals to make room for full reloads is to pile your coal bed towards the front of the firebox at the tail end of the burn cycle. Add one small dry split op top of the coal pile, close the stove up and leave the primary air control wide open until the split/coal pile is burnt down. The aggressively burning single split really melts down the coal pile. This works well in many cases. The split must be dry. Supposedly a compressed wood brick/ecobrick works well also. Ive never tried the bricks. Mostly do this when its been very cold and the stove has been pushed/reloaded more frequently.

Good tip. I do this out of habit didn't even think of mentioning it!

 

[Bobby Kirbos]

Single digits with sub-zero wind chills - man is this stove nice.

 

[MustangMike]

In the 55 gal drum stove (up at the cabin) I rake the coals forward every time before I load new wood. That was another thing Sotz sold, a ash shovel, rake and poker tools set for their stoves … indispensable!

Got just below 0*F here, I put a little portable heater in the garage to ensure the pipes did not freeze.

 

[Deleted member 149229]

had to cut them to about 13' to lift.
View attachment 698195

That is very impressive wood. It would make fantastic live edge table and benches.

 

[Deleted member 149229]

Tomorrow morning calling for -5, then RAIN ON THURSDAY!!! This sucks.

 

[Cowboy254]

@woodchip rookie , this is something that works really well for me, with our particular heater.

Morning coals...



then I scrape them into a N/S row, couple of good sized bits on either side and a lid on top and air intake fully open.



The air coming down the glass is forced to funnel through the middle over the coals and burns them down really well. May or may not work for you with your heater but works great in ours. Doesn't work so well from cold though. I tried lighting a similar row in this configuration a few times and found that it took a long time to get enough heat for the funnelling action to get going but you could still light it normally then once there was some heat there do a similar thing if you had coals to burn down.

 

[MustangMike]

Prediction is for 0*F again tomorrow morning, then up to 46* and rain on Thurs!

I had to take screw drivers and chip the ice off my mailbox door and my fence latches, etc, and the wind blew my recycling can across the road and into the middle of the back yard across the street.

All the tree branches look pretty, like glass coated, but every time you are out side you hear them cracking!

 

[Deleted member 149229]

Prediction is for 0*F again tomorrow morning, then up to 46* and rain on Thurs!

I had to take screw drivers and chip the ice off my mailbox door and my fence latches, etc, and the wind blew my recycling can across the road and into the middle of the back yard across the street.

All the tree branches look pretty, like glass coated, but every time you are out side you hear them cracking!

Misery loves company. They changed our rain up to Wednesday now. Ought to be some wonderful flooding.

 

[cantoo]

Got home from work ( office today) and changed into my cutting clothes. I was planning to cut up all the under 8" dia small logs and branches into 36" long stuff for the OWB before dark. Going to be warmer on Wednesday and I figured I could crate them up and that would be enough to last me this winter and I could save all the splits that are already in crates for next year. Got halfway to the barn to get the tractor and my brain said "listen dumb azz it's -30 F windchill out and you are going to cut wood that you don't need until next year, are you insane"? So turned around and headed back to my home office chair and here I'm staying. There will be nicer days. I did drive back and took some pictures of the log piles. The piles are about 9' high, about 230 logs in the 1st pic and 70 in the 3rd one. Also looks like a dozen good clear saw logs in that pile too. The smaller stuff at the front of the last picture was what I was planning to cut up today. Going north to Gravenhurst tomorrow morning to thaw out some frozen water pipes, should be fun. They'll thaw out Wednesday when it's warmer but the Boss says drive up Tuesday and make them happy.

 

[Deleted member 150358]

I'm gonna say its a bit windier than this but ya all know the trend!

 

[MustangMike]

The piles are about 9' high, about 230 logs in the 1st pic

Nice looking wood, what is it?