Top halfs of these are good to go JW, the bottoms i block and throw in the pile outback for a year or 2. All the dead standing that was cut the other day is in the house and burns very slow and hot.
Yes, it's bitter out there, with the strong wind coming down the length of the lake. Was that ironwood ready to go??/That represents great BTUs. One of those 12 inch rounds will provide you with two good overnights of fire. Nice heat on these unspeakable days.
Was gonna split the big ones Sherwood? They are all dry dry but didn't want to melt the stove. You throw them in that big? Going down now to grab the rest and will take the camera.
Nice work there Loon! Always good to get out and get some fresh air. No matter what you are doing. Well...... unless your a cat who happened to walk under some paint.
been letting my boys watch old cartoons as I find them. I love it. Man the stuff they used to say and do and no one batted an eye.
, I'd split those 12 inchers into 4 --and have two nice size splits available for each of two very cold nights...like last night....and burn them alone in the stove. Or, alternatively, use one each of four nights with other splits added. Either way, the 6 inch Ironwood splits will burn a nice long time, not quite as long as unsplit logs. 7 or 8 inch unsplit is as big as I go. Nothing bigger than about 9 inches will comfortably go through my stove door (side door) or be light enough to comfortably load. Those ( 7-8- inchers) logs are great. I keep a few that size indoors at the bottom of my round cast iron rack for a few years, to keep for horrible, blizzard weather when I don't feel like going out. After few years inside, when they are already long dead when I bring them in, they make great firewood unsplit. When I cut an Ironwood just the right size a few years later, then I either add to my rack, moving any remaining older logs up, or burn the older logs if the weather is right. Sometimes I end up with almost a full round rack of great Ironwood logs. (Only keep good, bug free logs that way, but most standing dead or recently fallen Ironwood is beautiful wood in my experience.) Last year I burned them all! I have two of those 3 foot cast round racks. Right now one is full of the remains of my 37+ year split sugar maple, previously stored in the basement. I've burned one piece of it this winter. So, on my other rack, I only have a few rounds of the larger Ironwood -4 - added late last winter, plus one that has been in the bottom of my large copper trug for 11 years; I pretend it doesn't exist...my emergency wood! Mind games.... I was cold last night...couldn't get comfortable after a too long stint outdoors, so loaded 7 small ash splits at about 7 PM to have lots of surface area for a quick hot fire. Quickly raised the room temp about 8 degrees. Toasty. About 11, when there was one split still in split shape and a big bed of large coals, I opened the bypass, opened the air almost all the way. About an hour later went to sleep. Stove was burning away, top about 420 degrees. 3:40 this morning only a good size bed of about 1 - 1 1/2 inch coals left, and lots of light gray ash. Flue was down to 100, stove to about 140, Raked, took a few shovelsful of ash out, and loaded again with small ash and a few small hickory splits. Here's a picture of the stove 15 minutes later, flue at 500, stovetop 340 and climbing. I see the temp is supposed to be 0 degrees F, wind chill -24 F, at 8 am. Have to take the garbage out to the road, a long walk. Ugh.
Got side tracked lastnite Sherwood Lots of great info thanks. This is the biggest tree I've found on the property and will probably split them like you were saying. Emma didn't seem to thrilled about it though!
