It's 27 degrees out tonight so we loaded up the Liberty with soft & hard maple. It's 71 up here with the basement temp at 75.
33 The boy and I refilled wood room tonite . Easy peasey with the snow gone. First year he's showed interest . He asked how many more times we will need to fill it .I told him about 2 half fills or 1 full refill should get us to spring. Looking the stack over just now on the nite loading it looks to be mostly oak and maple with a little ash. Packed it full ... I'm sleeping in tomorrow!!!
-10c/14f. We limped the stove through the day on coals but when I got home from work at 6 pm I loaded the stove with doug fir which brought the temps up in the house. Ive turned up the air now to burn down the fir a bit so I can do my reload of larch in an hour or so. Sure glad the cold air has left our area. It makes life easier when its not arctic out.
We're sitting at -18 C (around -2 F?) right now, a bit of wind, but it's probably the coldest we'll see for about a week. Poplar n pine same as always. Had some venison on the BBQ the other day though when it was -11 C.
Sounds like Iowa is back to winter. Its pretty quiet outside here, I haven't looked yet to see if I have a surprise or not!
I don't know about you guys, but I'm having a HELL of a time burning this year. It's so dang warm, I have to keep really small fires going, which means I'm constantly feeding it a piece or two. AND, I have to keep a couple windows open 6" or more. It's been teetering around upper 30's and mid 40's all season less a week hear or there it actually got cold. I wish it would just get COLD already!!
We had 25 this morning so we loaded the heater up with the maples. It's 27 out at the moment so we loaded the heater up with the maples.
On a sunny day just a couple of degrees warmer than today the fire would have to go out or it would be far too warm in the house and I'm not wasting wood opening a window when HHO is not an arm and a leg. But on rainy warm days it's a challenge to see just how long you can go and how few coals you really need to get a fire going again and not need firestarters of some sort. It's nice then to have some really dry pine. Of course all the real nice dry well seasoned wood ignites rather easy too. But it's nice to not make smoke. Pretty much have just primo oak left and except for at night have been and fill the stove just half a load. I haven't bumped a secondary air tube in a long time. A "long" time being a couple of weeks.
It's suppose to stay in the low 30's tonight so we'll load the Liberty with the first 8-10 splits I grab.
Im with you there. Ill bbq even when its real cold out. I just cant imagine not bbqing for 3 or 4 months out of the year. I do draw the line when its raining cats and dogs though.
I feel your pain althought I havent been experiencing the same thing myself this year. Its -10c/14f right now and I have the stove 3/4 full with doug fir and the house is 24c/75f with a few windows open a bit. I often have a window or two open a few inches because we love the fresh air (often its the kitchen window). My son also has his window open an inch all night as well. Once it gets any colder we close it because Im always worried it will be frozen open. Im less of a penny pincher when it comes to wood heat than I am when I hear the furnace kick on.
We usual park the BBQ late October, so I suffer greatly through winter! Supposed to have a -1 coming up on the weekend, so I'm going to drop some ribs or chicken on the charcoal grill. Sitting at -14 C ( about 6 F?) tonight, with poplar and a few sticks of willow.
Youre a bit colder than here which is fine by me! Im thinking since its gotten milder out I should bring out the bradley smoker and smoke some trout I caught recently. If it gets to cold out I have a hard time getting the smoker up to temperature so my timing has to be right. You ever put any wood on that charcoal grill for a bit of a smokey taste? The gang here has inspired me to want to do more of that. I have some apple Im drying out that I will cook over this summer.