I have been mostly burning ash this year and it has moved up my list of preferred firewood. We've had a fairly mild winter so far and I had no need to use my good stash until now. I have a rack that holds 1/2 a face cord on the porch and yesterday I filled it with oak and hickory on one side and ash on the other preparing for the cold snap starting Saturday and going into next week. It's looking like I have enough ash to finish this year stacked and covered so I won't have to burn oak in March.
I've always liked ash for most of the season. For the super cold snaps I do like locust but even that has some downfalls.
Same here. Stocked up with super dry sugar maple, less than 16% moisture, which burns hotter than any other wood in my stacks. We were also burning white ash and red oak with 18-20% moisture, which produced good coals, and slippery elm for the mild weather. The news is forecasting the coming polar cold spell to be the longest in duration since 1996, 25 years ago (we reached our record low temperature of -32 deg F in 1996).
It’s been awhile since we had some cold for any length of time. For the members that get the cold all the time they are going to think I’m crazy! But I’m pretty damm excited about it! I brought a tote of shagbark into the garage today. I love winter and I’m glad we’re getting some of it.
I brought in a mix bag right before the snow hit. There was maple in there, SBH, a couple pieces of elm picard and some big ol' chunks of oak. Last night I loaded up the box with nothing but red oak. I woke to a 1/2 full firebox of coals! So when I left @ 6:30, put a few more on top. Came home by 5p and I had about 3-4" bed of good coals and 74 degree house. Oak last so much longer for me. I split some of these pieces (except the elm, lol) and I had 11% on the maple and 12% on the oak. Can't hardly wait for next several seasons, it'll be 98% red oak.
Yep with it getting pretty cold I will have to break out with the Pine and Cottonwood. Will keep the house around 78*.
Actually Bang I would be burning some Ash if I could get enough of it around here. In these parts that is primo wood.
When it gets to mid 20s to 10* I' ll burn mixture of BL or oak with a mix of other hardwoods. If it hits single digits,its straight BL or oak. With our old farm house, and it being in a valley, I need to burn the good stuff at warmer temps than others would. Not complaining, I plan on it. I have some ash cookies and chunks I've been burning this year, and 2 cords of ash for next year. I need to hoard some more. Mixed with BL, it produces a nice fire IMO.
I remember the 1996 season here pretty well. Every single week we were getting clobbered with at least one significant storm, sometimes two. That dragged on all winter. Snow was being dumped into local rivers around town by the truckload because we ran out of room to pile it. I remember seeing the temperature maps for the upper Midwest and feeling terrible for those guys. It was single digits in my area but 20-30 below for those guys. We were all due for this I suppose. We can only have so many mild winters before it’s time to pay the piper.
We are going to "feel terrible" for folks in the Northeast soon since storms are forecast to ride the arc south of the polar air and up the east coast as "nor'easter" storms. Those wicked damp winds off the ocean can dump a lot of snow on the Northeast during the next two weeks. The polar air here is routing the storms south of us for now.
Some primo btu’s! I’ve been using it for 2 seasons now. The spark show is just a bonus, lol! Tis chilly this am. Had to open the draft a wee bit more.
Ash is one of my better woods. What I have is mostly silver maple, cherry, ash, and oak. With a small amount of just about anything else that grows here. (Elm, apple, hickory, popular, and locust. Combined less than a cord total of these)
I've saved the last of my seasoned oak for the up coming week of nasty cold. It will be another 2 to 3 years before my stash of white oak, and hickory is seasoned well enough to burn. So in the mean time ash will provide all the heat we need.
I have a bit of just about any species that grows around my area but if I could only get one species ash would rank close to the top. In my old smoke dragon it would have been locust but in the cat stove I think ash performs better because of the way it off gases. I still burn my share of locust but mix it in.
