After two solid days of hunting (and not seeing) I slept in this morning (I am off this week). Started a fire with some very dry punky oak which took like paper! I now am enjoying my coffee with a nice fire of oak and sugar maple fuglies (yep, still have lots of those). It's 30 out. I'll be back out this afternoon to try to thin the herd.
I started in August burning wood 24/7. I have always burned between 15-20 cords a year, I am on my normal trajectory.
Trick is , white cotton tube socks over the liner socks and wool socks. Change the tube socks half way thru the day. They pull the sweat out of the wool and thin liner socks. Your feet feel dry and comfortable all day long. And that's a 12 hour Slope day.
-16 at the moment. Gonna load the stove and go to bed. Will load mostly Aspen. It makes such a nice big bed of coals for in the mornings. I plan to hoard as much Birch as I can get this winter. And top off with Aspen/ poplar for next winter. If it's CSS and covered . It will be fully seasoned next winter.
I remember many moons ago when I worked in the woods thinking about buying some but never seemed at the time to have the dollars. But maybe I should give them a try. I've also been looking at the Baffin line and have heard good things about them.
17F out this morning, wind has finally died down. Mix in the OWB of basswood,maple,cherry and oak. 69F inside.
We finally had a night with temps in the teens. Perhaps this is the turning point of getting back to more normal weather. Shoot, we've even had a good amount of sunshine lately and we don't usually see a lot of that this time of year.
Dropped to 14 overnight; woke up to hear the gas furnace running. Just may hit 40 today! (guess I should have waited to plow yesterday) Still no ice on the lake.