Oh yeah Dave.....I was one of those the first and second years we were here. The 3rd year got better, but only because the first year, I got smart and started putting wood up in advance.
It always makes me wonder !! Heck...right now is time to enjoy the warm house...and cut and split for next
I was one of those. Got buckets of creosote twice a year out of the chimney (after the chimney fire). Was told Fall/Winter cut wood was dry. Now I know better. Now I get heat from the stove. Build a fire with dry wood, that just seems logical
I saw 3 people cutting last weekend in the National Forest. That was on one small road that I was driving on. No idea if they were going to use that for this winter or not. Of course, I was cutting too, because the weather is awesome now for cutting wood. I cut some red oak that should be awesome in 2018-2019! Just split some of it today while the snow was flying.
Now you're making me feel even worse than I already do, for being a lazy ignoramus all those years and trying to burn Red Oak that was split a few months earlier. Yep, once you commit to getting ahead, it really isn't all that much work if you peck away at it here and there. It always seemed like such an ordeal in the past when I did it all at once, and I'd end up putting it off. I am certifiable; Once my nerd-d0m latches onto something like wood-hoarding, I go entirely too far.
Mrs loon actually kinda said that to me when i got back from the deerhunt She only needed the stove a couple days due to the mild Nov we were having. 'not now' Said the Ash i had filled the watertroughs with before i left was pretty light and seemed to burn quicker than what she remembered from last year. Also said a window had to be open not too long after the fire was built. All the Elm in the carport is in even better shape!!!
It is almost that time of year for us to start cutting. Hum.... I wonder what people think? For sure most around here would think it normal....until they see our wood stacks. Such a shame though for all that wood sitting around rotting....
Yeah, something about less daylight hours, dropping temps, the sense of impending doom that accompanies another winter to get people motivated.
I'm going after a load of fresh cherry in the morning, maybe I'll split it real small and try burning it right away just to remember the good old days that weren't....LOL I could be a water boiler.
I had to burn what I could get the first year I was at my house because the guy who rented before me was lazy as they come, even to the point of tearing the siding off the woodshed to burn for heat. I still do see several folk in town gather up heaps of freshly cut oak in October for use in November, then wonder why the smoke is rolling out of the chimney faster than the fire is getting started.
Around where I live, there are quite a few people that burn wood. You get to know where they live when you pass by their homes and see their wood stacks. In the fall and winter you can see or smell the smoke from their chimneys. many have years of neatly stacked and seasoned wood, others are busy cutting and dumping their fresh wood outside their porches. To be fair, I think most are burning seasoned wood for the most part from what I see. In the early morning when I'm driving, I see a few people, that must have just gotten up and loaded the stove with fresh splits to get it going and then choked it down as they leave for work. Makes for quite a smoke show on my morning drive.
Yeah, I know where one of those guys is....about 250 yds. from our place. Fortunately, we are upwind of his choking smoker. I think I've at least got him talked into leaving the wet Oak sit for a while, and burning some of the drier stuff we found behind his place...
I live in a densely populated suburban area. I have about 6 cord stacked and at times I've felt bad because it might appear unsightly to the neighbors (though the stacks are orderly and as obscured as possible). But then I realized I am being a FAR better neighbor by seasoning my wood and not choking my neighbors out by burning wet wood. I can't say the same about my neighbor across the street -he's all about the black smoke! Very few burners here, but the ones we have mostly don't know what they're doing. I didn't either a few years ago when I started, but these and other forums helped me wise up!
We call them townhouses or row houses. https://www.google.com/search?site=...22terraced%2Bhouse%2522%2Fsearch.html;450;292
Fortunately, my neighborhood isn't THAT densely populated! Most lots are 1/4 to 1/2 acre. My home is on a 1/2 acre and I have a small "wooded" area where my stacks hide out.
One participant on another forum took umbrage at my simple statement that fuelwood can't be too dry, of course from the viewpoint of one who SLOWLY feeds an EPA stove. All he knows is open fireplaces, so he inclines to relatively high-MC wood, burned with lots of excess cooling air, to keep the CO & POM-level up. He can't see it -> no problema. Just delivered a load of wood to a noob fireplace burner: 1/2 low-MC oak to get it lit, 1/2 ash c/s/s this winter to avoid bootching. "Father, forgive them for they know not ..."
