Unlike some of you lucky guys, scrounging hardwood for free is pretty much unheard of where I live. However, I've been able to take full advantage of the "pine will burn your house down" phenomenon in my area. A few years ago I happened to see a local landscaper at the grocery store and his truck was full of pine. I asked him if he was looking to get rid of it, he said yes, I gave him my address, and let him know the spot to drop it. Now I call him my free-soft-wood-guy! I told him to keep it coming until I begged him to stop. And he's done just that! In another instance, I got 6.25 cords of poplar/pine and all I had to do was go over to the guy's lot and cut it off a pile! No brainer! Having so much soft wood in the stacks, I decided to see how far in the year I could burn my poplar/pine/fir mix in the Optimizer 250 in an effort to conserve the hard wood that I've paid for. Up until about a week ago, the weather has been soooo mild, I've had no problems making 12 hours on varying sized loads. Then a few nights ago, we got down to 7* and 12 hours was a definite no go, so I broke down and threw in a load of hardwood. The weather guessers are calling for -12* on Monday night...and so ends my 2015-2016 love affair with shoulder wood. I'll still try & burn it when the thermometer's above 15-20*, but I have a feeling those days are gonna be over for a while! Here's to making it in to 2016 on shoulder wood!
Do you need 12 hr burns? Could you run the shoulder wood during the weekends when you are around to tend the stove more often? Stretch that payed for wood as long as you can cause theres nothing like burning free wood!
Thats what Im thinking Sconnie Burner. It can also be used in the evenings. You can throw a load of pine or poplar in the stove when you get home from work and then use your hardwood for overnight (Fir is denser than pine so not the best for a quick fire). This system will even work if you are early to bed,,, just use smaller splits. I find that if its taking to long to burn down Ill open the air up a bit to speed up the burn. Im a pine lover to J1m and proud of it! Around here everyone burns lodgepole pine which is fine by me because its everywhere.
The softwood myth is pretty deep in this part of Maine too Jim. Trouble is there are so many campgrounds in my area that even the softwood is usually spoken for too. A couple thousand campfires a night every night in the summer will burn a bunch of wood!
Sconnie Burner, and Sean. That's a good way to do it! It's what we do too. Oak or locust or whatever hardwood overnight, then back to the softer stuff if we are around to tend to the fire a little more. The softer wood is curb side pickup around me. Most people that are ahead of the game simply don't want it. I still love it! It starts easy and burns hot, perfect for a quick catch up on the house temp. if needed!
We don't have a lot of oak here but do have a lot of soft maple and, of course, dead ash. So we save our oak to burn during the cold nights of January and February. Still I also remember a year or two when we didn't have much for the heavier hard woods and we got by. Seems I have no problem waking up during the night if the temperature drops. So, for a couple years I simply got up during the night to feed the stove. Then of course, we bought the Fireview and even with marginal wood we stay nice and warm but there have been a few times I fed the stove during the night, but not often.
As always, good suggestions guys! Regarding needing a 12 hour burn - yeah, unfortunately I do need it at least 5 days a week. I work 10 hour varying shifts with some very odd start & end times. Since SWMBO basically has no interest in my wood burning obsession, I'm the designated wood-furnace-feeder. On my weekends and at other times like when I need to burn down some coals, the soft wood still has a very useful purpose! Not to mention, I can still mix it in with the hard wood on milder days. My main point was: I'm really happy/impressed that I heated the house & hot water for almost 3.5 months with shoulder wood!
Right on. Sounds like its found a valuable place in your stacks! Im burning some spruce nice and hot right now until Im ready to pack the stove for bed. Currently 5F.
