Last year, I fed my stove a steady diet of ash from from the first until the last fire. This year, I have about a half cord of maple & birch in the porch bin. This should get me about 6-8 weeks at this pace. Then I have two cords of oak for the coldest part of winter, then ash & cherry for the spring.
I have plenty of "primo" hardwood available to me so ill just have a smaller fire. I like the concept of "shoulder season" wood, and if all i had was lower btu stuff then i would use it, of course. My reason is if i have to expend the same amount of energy to process say silver maple vs beech, id rather have better btu wood. My storage is limited too.
I'm converting to over to getting softwoods just for October and April since I have the room on our property to store it. Too much competition for maple and hardwoods up here. All the beech in central/western Mass is 10-15' tall twigs. Very few decent beech trees. Relying on sugar maple and red oak for the cold times - which I have a decent stock of for next year.
If I could burn one wood the rest of my life it would be ash. Easy to split with a rewarding break, quick to dry, amazing smell, and some good heat.
Yea. Birch burns & heats good. I guess I’ll never know what a full load of shagbark will smell or heat like. But bet my burn time would be impressive. ..... Shoulder season for me is, 30 hour burn cycles & 75% full loads of birch. Open the doors now & then. .... 48° this am, light rain , breezy...35 mph wind gusts
i used those two species as a hypothetical example. Lots of EWP to be had around here. Silver maple too if one is ambitious.
I cut off of my own property and only cut dead wood. We burn Ash, Red Oak and Hickory. A maple tossed in here or there but they are pretty hardy here.
I second that!!! I think after last year ash may be my favorite wood too.... for all the reasons you listed Jotuller .
I like cutting a bunch of poplar off our land in late March for heating our cabin during October grouse camps, November deer camp, and outdoor campfires.. It is plenty dry by August if I get it split, stacked and top covered. I am not above taking a few black spruce, balsam and alder as well. I pick off a few black ash and paper birch that are in the vicinity to add to the sugar maple we use for deep winter heating over our weeks up there in December, January and February.
I third that! It is so much lighter than oak and splits easier. Dries much faster. Never burned much ash before last year but unfortunately with the EAB dead ash trees are everywhere now.
Pretty much only have maple, oak and pine here. In the past I've had mostly oak so used maple when it wasn't too cold and/or during the day. But then I found I was using pine to have some fires on top of oak coals every afternoon for some heat. Then pine was convenient to get the stove hot again quick in the morning. And again maybe to have a quick fire supper time-ish if the fire was let go out when solar gain kept the house warm <--- that's only a few hours usually. I'll even burn pine all day if I'm stuck in the house and keep the stove loaded. This year I'll be burning mostly maple as I have little oak and saving the oak for really cold weather . I have a bin by the back door for pine and a bin for hardwood that hold about 4 - 5 days of wood each. Carry in about a half day of wood to have by the stove. So I just watch the weather to keep the outside bin full. I can fit a few days of wood in the garden shed too which is about half way to the stacks of wood. One thing I don't like doing is mixing oak and pine splits. If I adjust the air for the pine the oak sits there smoldering like mad taking forever to get going good and smoking like mad. Like fires often do if you cut the air back just a little too soon. If I adjust the air for the oak then the pine burns awful fast with a bit more flame than I'm comfortable with. This might be a small stove problem but one I avoid nonetheless.A load of oak on top of what is left of a pine load is NBFD.
Ash has smell? This is new to me. I’m hearing a lot about Ash being just ridiculously popular but the only Ash I’m aware of is Mountain Ash and I don’t believe I’ve ever had the opportunity. Cedars, cottonwood, pines, alder and doug fir are the main woods here but there’s others I I’ve got oak for those parts where it doesn’t feel like it’s cutting it. The parallel is the amount of space that’s getting heated is often taken in thought of which wood to choose.
I've found similar when burning pine mixed. The solution I've found is to get the slower catching wood to really cook first. It sounds backwards, but for me that means putting it on top to even out the load as the IS likes to burn top down. The fire starts at the bottom on the coals of course, but the real serious burning starts at the top when secondaries get going. By the time the heavier stuff gets rolling, the whole thing can be turned down "evenly."
If I have low BTU wood and it is dry, that is always my preference. Try to replace it with higher BTU wood if I can. I have only so much space in the pole barn for firewood- maybe 3-4 years of pine but 7-8 years if it is oak. So I try to upgrade. Someday I may be too feeble to put up firewood and I want it to last as long as possible when that day comes. Pine keeps me just as warm as does oak. Just have to load the stove more often.
I like ash....it dries pretty quick...but i personally wouldnt give up my oak.....i really like how it holds its coals....
Yea, good idea to keep the oak all nighters around til the witches go in for their winters nap. Otherwise burn the light stuff in fall and early spring .
