Twas too cold to shoe horses yesterday; so I stayed home, and caught up on some things. Billing customers, pay bills, run to post office, laundry, vacuuming house, etc. Once my pooches and I got all settled around my 13NC around 3:00pm; I got to thinking/philosophysing....................................Isn't it amazing when taking into account the size of our stoves and the size of our wood stacks how little ASH is actually produced???? I know some dump their ash into a larger garbage container that can be a pain to move when full; but if'n you get rid of your ash via dumping into your gardens like I do, it's not such a chore. Amazing how once wet and compacted, how little space all the ash takes..................and which was once your firewood stack. You can think about it this way too..............................Load your stove...................see the volume of wood inside...............................amazing how long it heats, and how much heat it produces for us. Truly a gift from God. Dudes!!!
I like compairing ash from different species. Like , ash, for instance, produces a lot of fluffy ash. I usually have to clean the stove once every several days to a week if I'm burning it exclusively. Now oak or locust, I can run two weeks or more between cleanouts. The denser, higher-btu wood seems to produce less ash! Good post, MightyWhitey.
I've often wondered what percentage of the wood goes out the chimney as ash. With a non-airtight furnace like I have It's probably pretty high, but yet it doesn't show on the snow outside. Could my eyes be lying or maybe it's not much at all?
Fact: any wood with "thickish" bark will produce much more ash than wood with thin bark. If you burn with bark on. Fact: Dense wood like oak, mulberry, hickory will produce less ash per volume of wood of less dense wood minus bark. Fact: If you're willing to put in the work to CSS wood you will be blessed in the long term.................
Come to think of it, There is still some Wild Turkey in the cupboard. I'm beginning to feel philosophical myself!
