Knowing the fine difference between the beer traditions of the neighbours Cologne and Dusseldorf makes you an absolute insider. Order a Kölsch in Dusseldorf and you have made yourself some new opponents What is that what we see in you avatar "Schneider Weisse"? Can you purchase it in US?
Liked the beer in Germany, loved the countryside and small towns away from the tourist areas,didn't like the Kalbsnieren! Gary
Loving all this "other side of the pond" knowledge. Those stacks sure do look sturdy, I just can't see the Fiskars and my puny arms handle 3'ers! The top cover material is very intriguing.
+1! Is this your product Rolf? BTW Rolf, are you anywhere near Herschied, Westphalia? This is where my lineage is traced back to. http://www.bing.com/maps/default.as...870014190674&qpvt=Herscheid+germany&FORM=MIRE
Schneider it is. Yes it is available here. I got my local bottle shop to stock it. It amounts to me having my own private shelf at the store. They get me Aventinus also. Need to be careful drinking them.
Uh Kalbsnieren! No I don't eat this too. As you suggest …maybe the best way to meet the real essence of an foreign country is to avoid the tourist areas and so called typical foods and habits.
Yes this is my product. It was a long way, but finally I am ready for the market. I found a specialist supplier /reseller who listed it in their current catalogue. Now I hope for a little profit that brings my investments back. Mouldings are very expensive in that dimension. Herschied is 60 miles away from my house. Seems also to be a good wood heater region.
The type of splitters we use looks like this one. Mine is similar but I currently can't reach it because it's placed in the corner of my depot and 4 x 6ft palets with goods in front.
Welcome Corvus, really enjoying this thread! Thanks for sharing how things are done in a different part of the world. Those 1m splits sure do make nice looking stacks!
Stacks look great! It's quite interesting to me to learn a little bit about your processing methods. I also like to use the cross stacking method. Yours looks very stable with the meter-long splits. However, with some of the open grown trees you'd find around here, you wouldn't get many pieces that are nice and straight for a whole meter! Are the "screw" type splitters popular over there, for making those meter-long splits? Your stack looks nice and dry - bark peeling off - how long has it been seasoning? I've found that my south-facing stacks, which are always exposed to the sun, season the fastest. But my house is surrounded by forest, and pretty well sheltered from the wind. I was worried that might be an "American-ized" word. Yes it is a cylindrical stack of wood, covered with a "thatched roof", also made of firewood. I've heard they are popular on your side of the pond, but I've never been over there to see for myself... My cousin lived in Aachen for several years, doing postdoctoral research at the university. He's also an amateur photographer, and I very much enjoyed seeing the beautiful pictures of your cities and countryside.
You are right, sometimes it is hard to find enough straight ones. In the space between lie all the crooked pieces, although it doesn't look like this in the picture. I think this special stack might be 4 years old. I leave it like this to test the resistibility of the covers. Search google for: "Holzmiete" I think you will find your stack type. I heard/read a lot of stuff about building up a stack like this. And maybe it was a more common way to do here, but it is not so easy an it takes time. I tried it once, but was not very successful. Maybe the diameter was to small. The word seems to mean "Holzhaus" wich translates just to "wooden house". "Holzhausen" is the name of at least one small village I know in Taunus region. But i guess there are many others named Holzhausen. Funny – on Thursday I have a business meeting in a foundry near Aachen. The university of Aachen is famous all over the world.
@ Gasifier // Hi, I try to stay decent sir. Laugh out loud! (LOL) Rolf, that was just a poor attempt at humor on my part. We always try to stay "decent" here as well. Just have to keep a watch on smoke show sometimes! LOL Great pics! Thanks for sharing. What are temperatures where you live no Rolf?
Great thread! Very interesting information. A question if I may, what species of trees make up the German forests from which you get your wood? Do you burn mostly hardwood/deciduous trees? Do you ever burn conifers and pine? There is a stigma about pine in the U.S. dating back 100 years. Some people think that burning pine will cause a chimney fire so they never burn it. The consensus is that the people who believe this usually burn unseasoned wood and get creosote buildup. Once they burn hot, seasoned pine, they ignite the creosote in their chimney and cause a fire. They then think that pine must cause chimney fires. We, on this forum, know that this is not the case and as long as it is properly seasoned, it is a great wood for hot, quick fires. Also, what type of wood stoves do you have in Germany? In the U.S, we usually categorize them into 2 groups. Pre-EPA stoves and EPA stoves. EPA = Environmental Protection Agency. The Pre-EPA stoves are mostly pre-1993 and are pretty much just a big steel box with adjustable air inlets on the front door to allow air into the burn chamber. They are usually lined with firebrick. The modern or "EPA" stoves have secondary burn tubes and catalytic convertors or combusters to re-burn the volatile gasses emitted by the burning wood. Do you have both types over there as well? If so, are there still some who prefer to burn the older style wood stoves over the newer, modern stoves?
Good pictures Shows your system well. Nice to see all different the stacks, Something about a nice stack of wood is universal "They Just look good & give you a warm feeling"
About time we had a member from the land that perfected beer and chainsaws...both of which are discussed occasionally here. Welcome. I know there might be a stigma that Germans carry with Americans...but we forgive you for David Hasselhoff.
I never looked very deep into my family tree on my fathers side but now I'm intrigued, so I may do that and I'll let you know what i find....
Been to Hamburg , Berlin Lots of trains thru the country. Took the fast one to Copenhagen. A slow one into Poland. Saw lots of farmland on the Poland trip. Not much "old growth" forests that I can remember. Tree farms there ? Saw several deer (elk ? ) Pretty country & well kept farmlands .
The species of trees that grows here are different across germany. From north east where we have sandy ground (Pines) over the middle with mixed hardwood sorts (Oak, Beech, Maple, Ash-tree and so on) to the south where you find spruce and fir. And cause we use regional wood, all these species are used for firing. In my region we have the mixed deciduous forest and so we prefer beech and some others in mix. I know the creosote buildup problem as well. Our chimney sweepers are good in consultations and for that reason the owners know about the real reasons. You find all stove types as you described, here too. We have a cockle stove /tiled stove build in the 1990th. It keeps the heat for a long time and the house stays warm over night. In the last decade another type came up, high-tech carburetor stoves that additionally heats A water cycle. With automatical ash output, online control, sensors and controls for emission reduction. Engineering marvels. You load it once a day and the whole bunch is placed in the machine room not in the house or living room. You see no fire at all. Not really my world.
Greetings, Rolf. Glad you have joined us; Always good to have another like-minder hoarder on board. All the better when it's someone with a different perspective. The meterholz idea is intriguing. I've re-stacked my share of crashed stacks in the past. I have less, now that I take more care to build a stable base, but I still have to go out and pound splits with a hammer to re-align a stack if it starts to lean. I cut to 16" stove lengths, but a 32" log would fit flat in my ATV trailer. All I'd have to do is figure out how to split them... One advantage to our way of stacking stove-length splits might be slightly faster drying. I save short lengths that I end up with (8" and under) in a separate bin, and these seem to dry more quickly than standard lengths, even the fat ones. Many where I live can claim ancestral links to Germany. As you might guess, this is 'Stihl Country;' I would pass several Stihl dealers before I arrived at the first Husqvarna shop. I grew up in the state of Wisconsin, where many folks also have German roots. Well, maybe I never did really grow up but I've got different toys now....wood-gathering and wood-burning toys. I'm mostly German stock, with a little Swiss thrown in...pretty much the same thing, I'd imagine? You might have guessed as much from my username, "Stover." I'd like to visit Cologne some day, for the smell if nothing else. I'm interested in this as well. If you are in the Black Forest, is it mostly Black Oak, Black Cherry, Black Ash, Black Birch, Blackgum, Black Locust and Black Walnut? Or do they call it that because it's dark in there from all the chainsaw smoke? OK, I'll quit with the 'jokes,'....for now. I'd like to hear more about this cockle stove... Also, are there any wood stoves of the type we're most familiar with, that are made in Germany?
