Christmas/New Year's cold snap 2017....what's on the stove menu?

Not too different from "kicking" on the furnace I would think!

And who wants to do that, right?

I wonder just how that started anyway....."The furnace kicked on"?????

 

My furnace just kicked on! it only runs for a minute...but...
That sound makes me cringe!!

 

I'm burning Scotty Overkill's mantle along w/some
Chinese elm for over night.
A very fine mix.

 

I've had to resort to white oak and locust for the past few days. It's been rough, but we're getting by. Lol

I need a kicker stove for the basement family room. Well, I guess I have one, but it cooks you out of the room, and the flu is damaged and needs a liner, so it's idle

 

Tonight’s menu selection: cold start of red oak, poplar, and jackpine. With a dash of kiln dried 2x4 and birch bark garnish on top to get things going.

 

We've gone through the SS Pine, and are just about through the SS Maple. I've been getting into the Ash a bit, and really started burning a lot of the Oak the last week or so.
It's been chilly.
I'll stay with the Oak until it warms up outside, the work with the Ash. Behind the Ash is more Maple, then Pine behind that.
Just about to load up with all Oak and go nighty night.

 

I've been burning Ash so far. Finally the cold is here and I get to chose between 3 yr red oak or mulberry. What would you guys chose? They are wrapped and top covered pretty good and secure. Hate to open up both stacks up.

 

Try both. If one doesn't do it, hope the other one does.

 

Well Papa, I tried both and the red oak is amazing.

 

Yeah.

 

Really? That works? The Elm that I have used is the coals makin-est stuff there is just about.
Been running a lot of Ash, Cherry, some Locust and some Hickory...a little bit of something as of yet, unidentified.
I'm one of those kicker stove guys. For me I have 3 heating levels...
1. Run the fireplace stove to take the chill off...the little Drolet 1400i won't keep up very well once the temps stay in the low 30s at night and 40s during the day.
2. Wood furnace, was running a Drolet Tundra, now playing with a Kuuma for anybody who knows what those are. I can run the furnace by itself down to single digit lows and maybe low 20s for highs.
3. Both together. Depends on how cold it is how much I load in and how often. Lately here the furnace has been getting 2 full loads per day to handle the base heat load, then the stove gets 2 small to medium loads per day as needed. Loading could be increased in both if thing got really nasty!

 

I used to live in an apartment in a house that my roommates family owned. Our furnace was an ancient coal burner that had been converted to natural gas, we called it the titanic....it was huge.

It usually ran with no problems, compared to the newer unit for the upstairs apartment which we always had to work on. The few times where it wasn' working, I kicked the crap out of a few components on it until it started.

Perhaps "kicked on" has something to do with that? Lol

 

American Elm burns good, you just need to plan on seasoning it for two years and splitting can be a biatch at times. Cold splitting worked well, warm weather just brings out its stringy nature. pizz Elm sucks. Not worth the time

 

First time I noticed this thread and the cold snap is about to end here for at least a week. Although tomorrow sounds ugly with sleet and freezing rain. Stove menu for the past couple weeks has been mostly beech, hickory & locust for the long stretches....Ash, elm & cherry for some of the evenings....I did have some red oak & sugar maple in the mix at times.