Introduce yourself here !

Hey folks, my name is Andy Ford. I’m new to the forum! I’m from Pennsylvania and have a small wood stove in a small house as our primary heat source. We burn approximately 2.5 cords a season, all of which I harvest from our 9 acre property and surrounding area.

I have a stihl farmboss 271 saw, a 3-1/2 pound axe, a tractor with a wagon, and determination at my disposal.

Since our stove is so small the firewood is cut to about 8”- 10”, which I notice dries very quick. Our current stash includes black cherry, black locust, red oak, and tulip popular for early and late season.

We also have 2 Pygmy goats who like to eat the leaves from the fresh cut trees.

I’m excited to be a part of the forum and gain some knowledge.

 

Welcome to FHC Andy! Love your pygmy goats and your pygmy stove!

 

Welcome aboard Ford101


Seems you'll fit in here quite rightly.

 

Pygmy stove, I like that haha. I’ll have to use that


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Welcome Andy. Nice set up you have there. What kind of stove is that?

I just saw a Jotul Petite stove on FB marketplace yesterday and I was curious to what you have.

 

Thanks! It’s called dwarf stove, from a company called tiny wood stove. It’s 4 kw or about 15,000 btu which is plenty for our 1 bedroom ranch house. They are designed for small houses and campers but it works in our house great. It also can burn coal. They are expensive but the build quality is great, this thing will last my lifetime. The only downside is the small fire box which limits burn time and log size. Still works good for what we need.


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Welcome to FHC Ford101 you came to the wright place, lots of great info here!

 

Welcome to the club, Andy. Lots of great folks on here, sharing knowledge and humor. Looks like you will fit right in, with pics of stove, wood, equipment and pets. Good deal. Hey, don't sweat the short pieces, our stove is a bit bigger, but I stuff it full of 10-12" shorties and chunks all the time. Glad to have you on board.

 

One bonus is that 10" logs are super easy to split! Thanks!

 

Sure are...

 

Welcome Ford101

 

Hi Andy. We welcome aboard.

 

Hi All,

Been reading this forum for a while, so thought I ought to sign up. I'm brand new to burning--in fact I haven't started yet. We're having a Jotul 500 Oslo installed next month after we spent the last two winters on propane. There's someone at home all the time, so we plan to try and heat exclusively with wood.

I've got about 2 1/2 cords of ash that's been css for a couple of years (we've been hit by the EAB hard here), and I ordered and cut and split a tandem load in the spring that turned out to be about 70% ash 20% sugar maple and 10% elm. (I'd never dealt with elm before and it definitely provided me an opportunity to use some choice vocabulary.) The load yielded about 5 1/3 cords, which was less than I was expecting, but I have no idea if that's the regular amount. I also have no idea how much I'll burn.

Here are some pics of where I'm at so far. The hearth gate is up as we've got a bunch of little ones, and I thought I'd test how strong it was now, before there's a stove behind it. I look forward to hanging around. Seems like a great group.

 

Welcome to the club. Bunch of great folks on here willing to share knowledge and humor. Looks like you have a great start on your wood burning adventure. Nice equipment and stacks. Teach the little ones about the heater. Glad to have y'all on board.

 

Welcome to FHC 303Bourbon , stacks are looking great!!!!

 

Nice to meet you, 303Bourbon! I have the same stove as you, but a few years older. Will you try for 100% wood heat, or use propane as a supplement? We have natural gas as well, which kicks on overnight. It's either that, or get up to feed the stove in the middle of the night.
I'm in NH and burn 3.5 cords a winter. rottiman lives in Ontario as well, but I think he has a boiler.
Lots of good advice on your new stove here!
Modern EPA Stoves and Fireplaces
Looking forward to hearing about your wood burning experiences!

 

Thanks. I definitely want to make sure they understand the danger. The gate is more to protect against the accidental stuff, especially for the little ones.

Nice to meet you as well. Our goal is 100%, but we'll definitely have the furnace set to come on as a backup, and I expect it will kick on a lot as we learn how to run efficiently.

 

Welcome 303Bourbon !!
First let me congratulate you for having dry wood to start with.. you should at least have two years with eight cord in your stack. I can't really tell how big your house is and how it's laid out. You will find it a couple years you don't need the gate around the stove because kids learn real fast.. hot ouch burn.. when my daughter was little she go 3 ft to the stove put her hand out and say ouch hot burn made mom realize it was okay..

Now since I have to be a fan of bourbon what is 303?

 

Our house is about 2200 sq feet (1100 upstairs, 1100 downstairs). It's about 10 years old, open concept ranch style, with a fully finished walkout basement.

It's an old handle from an old site I used a while ago. Using the same one makes usernames easier to remember. The 303 is for .303 British, as I'm a big fan of Enfields. Although I guess I could lie and say it's because of Wild Turkey and it's 3 x 101

Bourbon pickings are a little slim up here, but I get by.