wood oven?

[habanero]

...BTW, the old timers round these parts call wood finely split in this way "biscuit wood" since it's what you want to have handy come time for baking...

Dad talks fondly of the smell of corn cobs burning in his Mom's cookstove. Of course all the corn was picked as ear corn back then, and after shelling, she'd use the cobs to provide quick, high-heat fires. Dad said he and Grandpa would always know when dinner was about ready if they could smell the cobs burning.

 

[woodbooga]

cookstove heat

While maybe not the absolute most efficient way to heat, my Crawford Century tosses of some significant BTUs. The sheer size of the contraption means that, once hot, there's a lot of hot cast iron radiating heat. And if you're not cooking, you can open up the oven door periodically, which produces a rush of 375 degree air into the kitchen.

The drawback is the small firebox, which can't sustain an all-night burn, even when banked with a full boxful topped over with a thin layer of wood ash to slow the burn. When it's hot and running during waking hours, there's not much difference, aside from needing to toss in a stick of wood with greater frequency. If I bank at 11:30 before turning in, the oil furnace usually will kick in at 3:30am and run until we fire up in the morning.

For someone absolutely dedicated to a petro-free method of heating, a cookstove is a great second stove to supplement an outdoor or cellar-type furnace.

Sincerely yours,
woodbooga
Lake Winnipesaukee, NH

 

[woodbooga]

Dad talks fondly of the smell of corn cobs burning in his Mom's cookstove. Of course all the corn was picked as ear corn back then, and after shelling, she'd use the cobs to provide quick, high-heat fires. Dad said he and Grandpa would always know when dinner was about ready if they could smell the cobs burning.

Those must've been the pre-Ethanol days when corn was plentiful!

Our Crawford Century stove is located in the rear kitchen ell of our connected farmhouse. For readers outside Northern New England, this is an odd architectural style that was huge here in the mid to late 1800s where all of the various outbuildings are integrated. Its great since we move our firewood each fall into two adjoining horse stalls that store a combined 5-6 cords.

If we were stoveless, the northwest facing ell would be a cold spot and suck the heat from the rest of the house. But in our case, when the stove is going, it does a decent job of heating our 1,400 sf of living space.

Actually, its interesting sitting by the kitchen door when the stove's going. The flow of air creates a rolling effect. If I'm at ground level playing with my toddler, we can feel cold air coming into the kitchen to be warmed. At adult height, we can feel the warmed air returning into the other aread of the house.

For more historical background on the New England connected farmhouse (affectionately called "big house, little house, backhouse, barn) visit:

www.aag.org/annualmeetings/2008/ boston/fne%20connecting%20barn%20dec%2007.pdf

 

[habanero]

Those must've been the pre-Ethanol days when corn was plentiful!

No, she was just burning the cobs, not the kernels. They fed all their corn back in those days, and most would get ground up cobs and all for feed. But some of it they shelled-maybe for the chickens, I don't know.

At any rate, they had two uses for the cobs. One was the cookstove and the other was to make a small pile to park the dozer on in the winter (my uncle did dozer work in his spare time). By parking it on the cob pile, the tracks wouldn't freeze down to the ground.

 

[Marc]

Here's my Household Honest B. I'm looking to get rid of it because I want to put a wood stove right where it sits. Plus I don't really have a need for it. It's from the 30's to the best of my knowledge. Right now the only thing I'm cooking on it is some tools...