Colder here. What's your temp? What ya burnin?

32º at 4 pm, 20º now at 8:30 and the wind is howling. 78º in the upstairs living room, I love the way this stove burns when it get down in the low 20's and below. I also checked the door seal with a bill and found it was a bit loose on the latch side, adjusted the latch and squeezed the sides of the gasket a bit. Good tight seal now and burning like a champ. Cat was at 1700º and stove at 600º, expecting close to single digits tonight. Did I hear somebody say winter has arrived.
Coming Thanksgiving and most on here can be thankful for a good warm home.

 

34º right now. Warmed up. But suppose to go down to near 18-20º. I'll go with a load of Ash and Pine about 70% full firebox in the boiler.

 

-8c = 17f right now and the same old boring elm in the T5 right now.

 

It was 23 degrees last night at 8:30 and I put a full load of pine in the stove it is 16 degrees right now, the house is sitting at 71 degrees and I am burning down coals for the next load of pine. Just in case I haven't said it enough insulation in the attic ROCKS!!!!

 

We are probably going to be wishing we had these temps in January when it is -40 lol

 

-40 a couple of nights would be good. Kill those friggin EABs! The death rate goes way up when it starts getting below -27.

 

Somewhere around 22 and the wind is blowing here. Ash and Pine going in the boiler.

 

23º with 25mph winds, started on some BL this morning, two splits, 3 of ash, the rest of load oak.

 

OK, we got our cold snap, and we all had a chance to test our stoves. Is everybody happy? Can we please get on with shoulder season now?

 

27 degrees here - 16mph wind - wind chill feels like 15 degrees. I made a fire before work - same wood I've been using all shoulder season - red maple and black cherry. I refuse to tap into my white ash yet. I have 2 cords of white ash and a half cord black birch stashed away for January and February. I figure I'll burn cherry and maple until around Christmas time, then start tapping the heavier stuff.

 

17 degrees here this morning on the Radio Shack Special, we had some nice coals left from last night so we loaded it up with dead Elm.

 

LOVE ME SOME BLACK BIRCH!

 

75° in the living room @ 11:30 last night, 60° this morning. It was 3° outside with a decent NW wind when I took the kids to school, brrrr. Plenty of coals left in the stove though so I pulled them up front and stuffed the little Answer full ash/oak/maple for the day. Already back up to 72° before I left for work 40 minutes later. Had to get it warmed up so the wife can work from home comfortably today!

 

I can't WAIT to burn some in the stove. I had a small amount last year when I all I had was my open hearth and I could tell it was a special wood when I burned it in there. I'm saving that half cord to mix in during the deepest darkest days of winter.

 

People dont even realize. Doesnt hold coals but burns hot and dries quick as long as you get it split shortly after its down.

 

Well yea I mean its identical if not higher in BTU content than white oak on most BTU charts. Almost on par with shagbark hickory. And it dries a HECK of a lot faster than white oak! My stash of it was CSS back in May of this year and it is currently sitting at 16%MC. I'm chomping at the bit!

I can kick my azz for not getting more of back when I had access to it. The land I used to harvest on was LOADED with it, big ones too, don't have access to it anymore.

 

I about found the limits of the Dutchwest in this place last night at 10* with a light breeze. It was 66 in here about 6 hrs. after re-loading, but opening up the air and burning coals I can get 350 or better on the stove top to maintain room temp, or gain a couple degrees. That's not the case with the Keystone; Coal heat is a lot slower to work its way through the stone and into the room and stove top doesn't get much above 250. Maybe it will do better when I can get the air leak fixed in it, but that will be a while. Gotta re-gasket my SIL's Dutchwest, do auto repairs etc. before I can get to the Keystone. I could put the blower back on the Dutchwest to help me recover room temp faster, but I think that may slow down the convective air flow through the stove when not running the blower. If I could get some more air leaks sealed in this place, the Dutchwest could obviously do better...

 

right on brother. i have dropped them up to about 26". funny thing is some split fine by hand and some are really stringy and i need the splitter. either way, i would murder somebody to get a rootbeer by the time i am done!

 

Haha I know right!? I love that smell, I wish I could distill my own black birch oil and use it as a fragrance in my house. Makes me wish the log was a giant round of chewing gum sometimes, black birch chewing gum would be awesome.

 

At 26º here this afternoon and the wind has been howling all day! Cold wind. Ash splits and some chunks and uglies of Maple and Pine burning in the boiler.

I took some time off from work this afternoon, because I had a doctor's appointment, and was hoping to work outside after I got out of the appointment.
But it is too dam windy! Not going to happen. Oh well. I guess I will relax.