I have bunches of pine branches that I am tossing into the stove to get rid of and also for some heat. It lights up quick and can help boost a dying fire as Scotty pointed out.
Since recently, when we do spruce trees, I take a machete and knock all the small twigs off of the big limbs and cut the limbs into rounds......have a copper tub of them sitting right by the stove as I type this! Great "pick me up" wood for sure.....throw a couple on the coal bed and in minutes you are off to the races!
Those are about the size of what I'm burning. Some bigger...some smaller. The big logs are seasoning and will be ready for next winter.
Spruce vs Pine? I don't care for Spruce, but I burn mostly Pine by choice. In fact I get a lot longer burn times out of my pine then I do from the "hardwood" that we have around here. Of course this is based on the premise that if we can use the terms pine and spruce interchangeably for soft wood, we can use cottonwood and oak interchangeably for hardwood too.
Are you the member with the really nice woodshed? Post some pics if you haven't already. Love seeing that thing.
Thanks Firecracker, I have posted a few pictures, and videos, of my woodshed in this forum before already. But at your request here is my favorite video (a few years old now) of my boys working away at filling up the wood shed, with lodgepole pine.
