How do you handle shoulder season?

My general philosophy is that it's easier to keep the fire going than to restart it so, I don't mind running the thing on the odd 50 degree day if it's followed by a cold front. But I guess it's already shoulder season here in the mid-atlantic. I don't have a lot of wood left but I want to burn it rather than carry it somewhere else. That said, it's going to 50 here tomorrow (disgusting rain), colder for a couple days then back to 60(?!) on Thursday. It looks like thers'll be a chance to burn what's left before the end of the season but I guess I'm letting the log in there burn out now and it saddens me. I like my little project of keeping the thing going. Sorry if this is a newb question that's been asked a million times.

 

We tend to burn too much and open windows during the shoulder season. Also, let more ash build up in the stove. You can dig around for coals to relight at night.

 

Open windows---I burn like a boss-it gets lit in Nov...it goes out when heat is needed no more...no back-up, no slack-I test my back up in Oct...it kicks on no mo...gas heat is waste heat...my gas bill to the man is $10.10 a mo, the minimum-
I cook with gas n heat my garage with it, and that is ending soon... I have my old Lennox stove ready to either heat the garage or the new remote outbuilding....prob the latter-I need space for stuff!-The more we clear, the more we can hold dear,,,I have saws to keep warm! Later all and love ya!

 

We will start to hit 50's and 60's by mid April here, and then I'm done burning for the season. Of course, if we get a cold snap, I'll relight for a day or two. By then I am totally driven to be c/s/s all day. We want build up wood by then, and are racing to do so before the Black Flies hatch. Plus we're on to gardening (indoors) and yard prep. After 6 months of stove, I'm done! At 60 deg, we have the windows open if the sun is shining.

 

Shoulder Season eh? ... I didn't know that was open already. Explains why I've been shot twice in the shoulder this week.

My answer then is that I don't handle it very well.

 

You need to learn to duck better.

 

To deal with the shoulder season I burn wood, but deep in the winter I burn coal.

This year it was just plain a roller coaster. Every time it stormed, it got warm and it rained so wood was fine to burn, but during the cold snaps I burned coal. This was a strange season in that I did not burn a lot of coal/wood or propane. between the 3 heating types, I have plenty of everything left.

 

Until it's duck season.

 

We tend to heat “on demand”, even during regular season. Between my wood shop, the splitter, and all the junk mail I get, we have a seemingly endless supply of firestarter. Plus Amy has gotten pretty good at lighting and running the stove too.

What we do change up is the quality of the wood we’re burning. Shoulder season the stove gets fed mostly red pine, with maybe a little hardwood mixed in if we need a few more btus out of it.

 

There are times when we build 2 fires per day during shoulder season... one in the evening after we’ve lost the solar gain to the temp on the house, and then one in the morning to take the chill out of the air.... the drier your firewood gets, the easier this is to do.. smaller splits for a shorter duration fire would help prevent overheating your house.. I have, in the past, filled paper shopping bags with twigs and sticks specifically for this purpose... one paper shopping bag full of sticks is enough to raise the temp in my house 5 degrees when it’s in the low to mid 50’s outside...

 

Touche'

 

With the OWB, about all I do is not put as much wood into the stove. The quality of wood may vary slightly on occasion, but generally, I try not to have any scrap species in the stacks.


Don't like willow basswood hemlock and tend to pass up any conifers as well.

 

Burn too quickly? Plus you probably lose coals that way?

 

For me, I have a couple acres of red pine on the east end of my property, and I’d rather burn it than let it rot. In fact, I’ve got 2 full cords of it in my “for sale” stacks ready to be pawned off to unsuspecting campers this summer. They’ll probably rave about how great it burns since it’ll be nice and dry.

So I guess it’s like they say, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

But if I can’t manage to sell any, I don’t really mind cause it’s just the ticket here for shoulder season. My airtight non- EPA stove likes to have a fully belly or else it doesn’t run hot enough for a good clean burn (which I consider an important factor.) The pine allows us to do that without roasting you out of the house.

 

I'd rather let the stove go out and restart then waste my fuel out the window.
Must be a waste not, want not mentality.
Course I find starting a fire pretty darned easy.
And we're NOT smoldering a fire to try to keep it going during the day or at night. Hot and clean or not at all.

 

In New England when get 50 or 60 it's time to go out for ice cream. All the stands open up in April.

 

It is hard to set a precise pattern, every year is different. We have been done by the second week in April some years and burn all through May in others. For the most part, if the house is chilly I light a fire and let it go out when the house gets too hot, wether that is a 12 hour or 3 month burn.

However, always a hot fire! I never let it lay there and smolder, bad news there.

 

Crouch at that point.

 

It's shoulder season here already! 60 today 70 a day or so this week. Not really shoulder just a warm snap. Lol

 

Uh I’m burning mostly cedar now. Some birch too. Sometimes I’m just letting the stove do its thing. This morning its cold enough outside but warm enough inside for enjoyment not to need to start a fire. But I haven’t opened many doors today that lets the outside air inside.