45 degrees this morning. Some Ash burning for DHW. What was that keystroke combo for the degree sign again?
Alt+167 on the number pad. Num lock needs to be on. We've been having an 'indian summer' here - 70º+ during the days for about a week straight. Which was awesome - let me haul probably my last few loads out of the woods for the year. Got a buddy doing some bow hunting back there now; there will be snow on the ground before hunting season is over. I'll need better equipment if I want to do any hauling after that - lawnmower ain't gonna cut it then! Got about a cord of poplar for shoulder season. Had a couple fires since about mid August. Soft maple will be my main fuel; hoping to get by with about 2.5 cords of that, but if it looks like I'll be short, I have some ash I'll dip into for the dead of winter. All tops from a massive tree that was standing dead and came down this spring at my neighbor's house. Last I checked, about a month ago, it was in the mid 20's, so it should be good to go if I need it.
How is the Elm? I got about a face cord of that delivered in logs for free this spring. I was spraying water as it split 4 mos later, but it looks damm pretty.
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First off, if I didn't have a hydro splitter then I wouldn't touch Elm but we already know that I cut down a standing, very dead S Elm in my back yard early in the summer and this stuff is sitting around 10-12% MC. It actually burns pretty well if I add it to a bed of really hot coals but I wouldn't start a fire with it, even with a good stack of kindling as it takes a lot longer to take off then just about anything else I've burned. And that's not due to density, like O Osage or other hard to start, really dense woods, it just seems to be characteristic of Elm (burns like churchyard mold). All in all, if its free and really well seasoned, I don't mind Siberian Elm and certainly wouldn't turn it down.
60 degrees outside... 67.9 inside.. Just a hair too cold for the little one (one month old). Burning a mix.... of sticks... oak, maple and black birch.. We always get paper grocery bags when we shop so I can take the Fiskars Loppers and fill some bags with some well seasoned sticks.. Can throw the whole bag in or just a few sticks at a time. Allows for a small fire without over heating the place as well as preserving my stacks for the REAL heating season.. Nice secondaries going now..
Down to coals... Outside Temp still 60.. Inside temp now 72.5 Will run the blower for another 10 minutes for a grand total of $0.035 of electricity.. Burned two half bags.... Of sticks if smoke show is reading this.. Everyone is now comfortable..
Still plenty warm here 81 deg. as of now, Got another big load of oak rounds on the truck waiting and these temps don't help the mood…
October and November are transitional months. We can range from darned cold to shirtsleeve weather. A couple days ago we had highs in the 50s but today it was high 60's. Expecting some big rains tonight and tomorrow and that will be followed by a big cold front which will probably have many of us burning a few fires. I have noticed that starting in October our average temperature drops by 3 degrees every week until January when it slows down a bit. One thing that always amazes me is during rifle deer season it is not uncommon to start out warm with daytime temps in the 50's then turning really cold and sometimes some good snows. But Thanksgiving and/or later it usually warms up again only to drop fast in early December.
I like that idea Always end up with some brown bags from the package store - GF likes to save them for breading/frying catfish(by far the best way to do a fish fry), but when they start overflowing the cabinet I now have something to do with them
Still have highs in the 70's and lows in the 50's. Not burning yet but that may change this weekend. Looks like we'll be down into the 40's and only reaching 60. Might have to warm things up a bit on Sunday morning. Last year at this time we had a fire every night.