Firewood stacking day

Bri in Chi

Bri in Chi

Joined
May 28, 2003
Messages
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The day of the year I least look forward to! A dump truck leaves a pile of firewood in the alley and Alice and I get to stack it neatly in the garage for the coming winter. But, then it does give a seasonal rhythm to our urban lives.
The newly-arrived neighborhood yuppies in their gigantic SUVs look at us as if we're crazy. What are those old farts doing? They apparently don't know the comfort of a wood fire in the stove on a frigid winter night. Lots more they don't know.
A few years ago we bought a Woodstock soapstone wood stove, and we love it more every year. Expensive, yes, but well made and beautifully designed. Recycling dead trees for heat makes us feel good too.
Blossom, the coon hound laying on the rug in front of the fire...priceless.:)
Any wood burners out there?
:rolleyes:
 
Bri...You may want to reconsider storing it in the garage. None of that wood is inspected and termites would be thrilled to be delivered to nice new habitat!

FWIW, I purposely had a woodburning fireplace put in when we built our house...took about 3 seasons with that white carpet to decide gas would be better. We just replaced the white with a nice mottled green (there's some chic color name my wife knows for it) so woodburning *may* be back in the picture here.

I wonder what harm it could cause to use the gas burners with an occasional log for effect?
 
Bri,
We have always liked heating with wood. The place we currently live in has an open hearth fireplace. Even though we have mild winters here in the Sacramento Valley, we burn about a 1/4 of a cord a year. But, because of air quality concerns, this type of burning is becoming illegal in populated areas.

However, we are building a place on the Washington Coast where there is no gas, so the only alternative to electric heat, which can get very expensive, is wood. We have been looking at various wood burning alternatives, and it seems like the average price for a good sized, efficient, clean burning, wood heater is around $1.5K

We haven't yet looked at any Woodstock models. Where do they fit in efficiency and price wise?
 
Bri,

My parents are building a new house with an outside wood furnace. You fill it up with a bunch of wood and it uses water to heat the house, barn, certain floors, and to make hot water for showers and such. It may not have the soul of an indoor flame, but it sure is nice when the power goes out :) .
 
With all our power outages here, a wood stove or fireplace is a must. Our house is a contemporary saltbox with the fireplace at the low, one-story end. The heat rises naturally to the bedrooms on the second floor. The fireplace has a steel liner with intakes at the bottom and outlets at the top, so we get some convective heating even without power.
 
We love our Woodstock stove:
http://www.woodstove.com/
We generally order 3 face-cords, but last winter was so mild we were stuck with a half-face cord left over. So we ordered 2 face cords to supplement.

Thanks, Nasty. We make a point of not keeping wood over a season. Last year's leftover wood will get burned up this fall. Hopefully before the termites take over the house. Appreciate the concern, pal.
 
don't fergit to get the ol' smokestack cleaned evry once ina while as the build-up of creosote & soot causes a dandy stack fire when you least expect it. watching dad climb up on the roof with the garden hose to put out the garage was priceless...firemen arrived in time tho. dad converted us to gas shortly after & the pot-bellied stove was history - i didn't mind not having to get up at 5am to light the dern'd thing every morning to have hot water. mom liked not having soot on the sheets on the line out back. ah, well the joys of country life...
 
Burned wood in Oregon 20 some odd years ago in a Ben Franklin open face stove. I had rented a 10 X 65 mobile home and the small stove worked well but cut down on what room there was in the living room.
I wish we did have a wood burner in our house, but gas is still cheap here in Oklahoma and a helluva lot more convenient although it doesn't smell as nice, let alone being able to watch the fire.
We still go through a lot of firewood but it's to heat rocks for the Sweatlodge.
We haven't bought any wood for the last four years anyway. Our wood comes free for the picking up. The windstorms and the electric company provide enough for our use.:D
 
When I was single and out on my own for the first time, I lived out in the country. My fondest memories of that time were saturdays spent out in the woods with my neighbors cutting up "laps", heavy branches up to 12" that the loggers had left. We would load their old Ford pickup, and my little Datsun pickup down with wood, drive back to the house and stack it on their porch. After that someone always produced a bottle of Ancient Age, and we passed it around. Fitting payment for a hard days work. In the fall, they would invite me to their annual fish fry, held in a barn. Didn't even like fish back then, but ate it and loved it. It was great, hanging out with the old timers, swapping tales, having a drink or two, eating spots and hot hushpuppies with our fingers. Those were the days.

Steve
 
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