Firewood?

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Off to get after it tomorrow morning (our pile is getting scary low).

My project over the Christmas weekend was to build more cubes for the Studebaker;
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I've been heating with wood my whole adult life and it just got a whole lot easier. My Son and Son in law cut trees for a living and call me to get the wood, no more cutting. I had a furnace in the basement for years and finally bought a outside furnace. Day and night difference, if I can pick a piece up and throw it, it will fit in the furnace, no more splitting small stuff. Here's my pile and what I use to split with, Monster mauls, 16 pounders. They tend to bend after time. :) After I retired, bought a hydro. splitter for those huge pieces.

That Studebaker trailer is the cats meow! Nice.

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It's a shame, but around my part of the world, we burn mostly oak and hickory. I burn some walnut, too. The guys on the job, doing the cutting, really don't care about it and I wind up getting pieces 3' to 5' long.
 
This oak was a challenge to figure out..
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Actually a time consuming pain in the butt to take down safely. Filled the trailer with some of the smaller material before we go back for the large rounds.

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Overall, super happy with the 40/trailer combo..

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Just wondering how you guys like to manage your pile from year to year. I like to burn last year's cut wood. Starting a new pile for next year. I believe for oak, the best BTUs come from @ 8 month drying time. Having a years worth in the bank is good insurance for me. We put in a propane furnace 18 years ago and never hooked it up.
 
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I really need to cut some wood away from eastern Nevada. The biggest trees we have around here are Pinion and Junipers. Which work well for fenceposts, but it takes about 14 trees to cut a cord. At least they smell good...

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scrapdaddy said:
Just wondering how you guys like to mange your pile from year to year. I like to burn last year's cut wood. Starting a new pile for next year. I believe for oak, the best BTUs come from @ 8 month drying time. Having a years worth in the bank is good insurance for me. We put in a propane furnace 18 years ago and never hooked it up.
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Due to the drought, everything that we cut is already seasoned so it's whatever fits in the wood stove (if it gets burned before I have to stack it, all the better):) . I stockpile the larger rounds till I have enough to warrant renting a splitter. Hands down, oak is our favorite with Juniper coming in a close second (agree with Mace, great smell, low ash, and easy to split). Mesquite is one of my least favorites, usually gets infested with borers and turns into a pile of sawdust.

Previous season's hauls with the Duke..

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All to feed this little dude..:rolleyes:

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We have that ^ exact same stove. Works really nice. Burn mostly oak and hickory, all downed wood. Haven't cut any trees for burning yet. Use my(thanks D'Animal) Stihl 025.
 
Splitshot,

Nice stove! I like the walk through. We have a lot of Red Cedar here, it smells and burns good, but has a creosote problem. Does the Juniper have that problem. Don't want a chimney fire.

Here's our living room fireplace, it's got a four foot opening, but I don't use that long of logs in it. Run you out of the room.

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I cut a year in advance. Most of what I cut is oak that has died a natural death, due to the drought, and fallen over. I also cut up a lot of wind damage.
The winter was not cold last year so we didn't burn a lot of wood. I have more wood now than my wife could burn in 3 years.

scrapdaddy said:
Just wondering how you guys like to manage your pile from year to year. I like to burn last year's cut wood. Starting a new pile for next year. I believe for oak, the best BTUs come from @ 8 month drying time. Having a years worth in the bank is good insurance for me.
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I just used up last years wood last night which is a week or two early. I have to wait till dear season is over so I don't bug our hunters. Last year I think I cut 4 trucks loads (f350 long bed). We don't use it for 100% heating, just to help lower costs and give the living room a nice ambience. I don't like it when the wife buys wood.
 
scrapdaddy said:
We have a lot of Red Cedar here, it smells and burns good, but has a creosote problem. Does the Juniper have that problem. Don't want a chimney fire.
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If it's Eastern Red it's technically still a Juniper (J. virgininiana). Maybe it is loaded with more resins, I have no clue. The Western group are mostly Alligator, Oneseed, and Utah. All clean burners if burned alone. If you buy it it is sometimes mixed with Pinon pine which is essentially wood soaked in tar.:eek:

The only problems I have with the stove pipe is times like we have now, burning damp wood. I suspect I will need to do the "Poppins thing" in the near future.;) 6" becomes 4" at where the top foot meets the cold air.
 
warpdriv said:
We put this in two seasons ago and absolutely love it. We made sure we bought one that has a top so we could use as a stove top in case there was a powder over outage.
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Nice. I've wanted to put a stove insert in since we moved in. What's your wood consumption compared to the previous fire place?
 
Mr Cimarron said:
Nice. I've wanted to put a stove insert in since we moved in. What's your wood consumption compared to the previous fire place?
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Probably about 70 to 80 percent less consumption. If you get one make sure it has a fan in it. The fan makes all the difference. The biggest challenge I've had with this fireplace insert is to learn the nuances of how it reacts to the wood, coals, and air. The other night it had a perfect storm and it reached 670 degrees before I got it throttled down. Needless to say it was toasty in here.
 
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