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

So, short sleepin' during -35C feels -47,48 or 50, depending where you look to keep the shack sorta warm and water lines running. Pulled a 3 hour sleep, a shack warm up, and almost 2 hours again. Water was running at 6, but not at 8. Bout lost my mind lol
Supply line didn't break (that I know of) but took over an hour to thaw with heat gun. Dogs had pulled some insulation blocking a hole. Today was not fun. Inside water lines are the wifes job atm. Thank God, spring will be here shortly. I hate you in the nicest way possible Camber.

 

Normally I take it in stride, but these winters (and this has been a nice one so far) are getting old. I'm ready to go anywhere warmer that'll take me.

 

We are completely exclusive to soft wood. Even after having burned hardwoods in South Carolina, I'd still pick ancient doug fir as my firewood.

 

I never had Doug Fir what makes that a good one and how would I know it from other pines ?

 

24/72 the Buck is cruising on red oak. Back yard security light bulb went out last night, took the ladder out and the wind was blowing the ladder off the pole, said forget it. Back yard will have to stay dark and I'll keep all my limbs in one piece.

 

Woke up to a much colder than usual living room. Brought wood up to the house in anticipation of the forecast.


71/28 wind is blowing outside. Nice and warm inside. Burning, white oak, red oak, cherry and ash in the Fireview.

 

15° out now. Still dropping. Going to get much colder Sunday and Monday. Low Single digit highs and negative temp lows.

Oak in the quadrafire. 73° inside

 

I don't believe you have it out there.

 

Currently 23f outside/ 70f inside. 20-30 mph winds. Temp steadily dropping to single digits by morning. Just loaded the BK Princess with sugar maple, black locust and Osage orange. Should be good to go until a morning reload.

 

Currently 26 degrees here in Western NC. It looks like the lows this coming week here are 12 Tuesday night, 11 Friday night and 7 for Sat night. That's cold for NC!

 

-2f/71f burning mulberry, aspen, oak and a few pieces from a black walnut I cut down in 2017 in the fireplace insert.

 

6 degrees here. Down to -1 tonight and a high forecast of 6 degrees tomorrow. I'm ready for warmer weather.
Red oak in the Lopi


Loading up the Lopi
Mike in Okla

 

expected subzero at dawn. boiler was letting me down on keeping both furnaces at temperature. the seem to be balanced now, but the downstairs furnace appeared to suck a lot of heat before moving to upstairs. Never had that issued before

The next seven days are high under 20 and low near zero. myself and my neighbor spend the "warm day" stocking up wood at the sheds to make sue we have enough. My Mule is loaded up, but i have doubts the battery will fire it up tomorrow.

Boiler was stuffed with maple and hickory late tonight to ensure i wont have to refill until noon or later tomorrow. Power is out in the other part of the townshop that is served by a different grid. Generator is ready if needed here.

Everyone hunker down and use good judgement until this passes. Monday next is predicted high 30's. until then, its a fight!

 

I have to agree with you Camber , very large, old second growth (very little true old growth to be found anymore around here) Doug Fir is an excellent firewood. I especially like fairly large 6"to 8" limbs which are very dense and the fibrous rounds near the butt. Many people around here leave the first six or eight feet of the tree because they are hard to handle and split. Processed with a hydro and allowed to properly season they make hefty, BTU dense firewood that leaves less ash than many hardwoods. It is easy to start. It cures rather quickly. Even the thick bark near the base of the tree coals up and provides glowing heat. Maybe not the absolute best wood available but it is very available and scores well an most areas in my book! My go to firewood. I am burning some now!

 

Quadrafire Pioneer 2 zero clearance fireplace in a 1920sqft ranch. House is newer so the insulation is pretty good. The blower is a beast and I'll be able to still hit and hold 80+ all day if I want.

 

31/73.
Last night I put a big block of 11yr old ash in the stove. 7/‘13 I had a big one taken down and I saved a few blocks because they had a wavy grain pattern. I hoped to make them into bowls on the lathe. Well, guess at this point it ain’t gonna happen. They sat outside the entire time, brought them in a few weeks ago.

Have a couple more for the cold nights coming up, hoping for extended burn times. Woke to a huge bed of coals but a LOT more ash than I’m used to. Real fluffy, almost like walnut. Weird, it’s been so long since I burned it I didn’t remember that trait.

 

-15 feels like -41 with 17MPH winds. High tomorrow is -9 and not sure wind chill. Idea Steel, mixed hardwood and 3000SF raised ranch built in 1960 with addition in the 70's. NG furnace running hard even with the stove. Did bring in some of my old locust stash but should have brought more in.
Need to get out and work snow in the morning as i sheared 2 bolts on the tractor today. Fixed and ready to go, but going to be cold. Also have 3' +/- drifts between me and my wood stash that the tractor can't get to.

 

Drolet Escape 2100

 

Bingo! I actually go hunting for dead standing fir about 300 years old or so. Growth rings so small you have to have a kid with good eyes just to count them. I can get giant balls of crystallized sap out of the first six to eight feet. Best stuff ever. It can drop a four inch ash bed from lodgepole down to almost nothing.