Any other woodburners out there?

[DrDan]

Allan,
Yes I love it! It is supposed to drop down to 10F tomorrow night and I am actually looking forward to it! I like it when I can really stoke my airtight up full. I keep it between 76 and 82 in here and just love being warm.

Beware however, a guy can get this "stoveitis" disease where yah get lazy and don't want to get to far away from the woodstove. I really need to get out and hunt coyotes and every evening I just hang out near the stove.

I bit the bullet last year and got a 30 ton gasoline splitter from Tractor Supply Company and it is a sweetheart. We had lots of cherry that had gnarly grain and I'll tell you, we'd have never got this split without the splitter. I also live quite near a tree surgeons place and he fills a gravel pit with the big stumps that he can't sell or run through his chipper. It's great stuff - lots of white and red oak. I have a little Kubota BX2200 tractor with front end loader so we put it on my flatbed trailer and go down there and cut big stuff all day and load the trailer with the end loader and haul it home and then go back and get the tractor. I am also a Stihl chainsaw addict. I got a 22" Pro Saw last year and it will go through the big stuff just like butter. I also have a small 12" Echo saw that is real good. We get everything sharp and go at cutting for a day and then spend a few days splitting.

I guess I'm from the old school. I'm quite proud of my wood pile which right now is low but it still must be about 5 full cords. I like it when I have about 8 to 10 cords stacked out there. I only know one other guy who has a bigger stack. A man's woodstack and number of cattle is a direct measure of wealth in my line of thinking. If you can eat and keep warm I really don't care what the government is doing.

We also garden pretty big time and freeze and can food all summer and fall. Only problem is that I really need to get another freezer. Mine is full of bear, venison, hog and it is hard to find the vegetable stash. I need one for vegetables and one for meat.

DrDan

[Curdog]

I have gas heat in the house, but in the basement is my secret weapon. I have a factory made wood stove, made of boiler plate, fire brick lined. Great stove, I can heat my whole house with it if I can keep it tended, but if I cant the gas kicks in. But this stove will hold fire for tweleve hours or more, no grate system, you have to shovel out the ashes, (which I carry to my garden spot), great heat, no cold spots, and so comfy in the morning when you walk on the really warm floors. Curdog

[Arkbow]

Wouldn't live without it!!!!

[Kenton]

We heat two houses soley on wood. One indoor and one outdoor furnace. The indoor feels better comming in from the cold, but the outdoor keeps all the mess outside and can take logs about 16" dia and 2' long. Pros and Cons. In high school, my best basketball games were on days when my dad would get me up early to cut wood. Something about cutting wood that makes the whole day go better.

[dsr]

I put an oil furnace in my house about 12 yr ago. Two yr ago its heat exchanger burnt out and could not be replaced as the co. had been sold and shut down. $3500 would put in a new furnace. Why did my heat ex, burn out? Mainly because of my wood stove.My stove keeps the house warm and the furnace was not coming on enough to keep the soot in the heat ex dried out so it rusted through (that's my thinking anyway). My solution was to re-connect my baseboard electric heaters and keep the wood stove going.My house stays cozy .The heaters come on once in a while--if a room gets below the lowest setting on the thermostat.Sometimes we turn a thermostat up if we are using a room that is a bit cool. My house is 63 ft by 30ft on the main floor and 45by 30 in the basement. It is fairly well insulated as it was built about 35 yr ago for electric heat. Last year I used about 2 cords--This year I am using less than last because of the very mild winter so far.The past week has been more winter like than earlier.
I enjoy gathering the wood from my property and I enjoy using the stove.I don't think that I would use wood if I didn't have the wood from my own place because of the cost of wood,the mess it makes inside and out and the cost of my equipment to process the wood the saws,axes,wedges,chains,tractor,trailer,ATV and trailer, wood splitter and sheds for storage.Getting ready to burn wood is expensive as well by the time you buy a stove,chimney,wood box,and tools As I have my own wood on the property I look at all the equipment as "toys" that are also used for other jobs around the place.
Getting rid of the ashes must be a bit of a problem for city folks.Living in the country I have an ash pile out back that I use when the ashes have cooled.Someone earlier mentioned putting the ashes on their garden but your garden will not take an infinite amount of ashes. I started my ash pile is at the base of a tree. The tree died within a season so I cut it down and used it for wood.

[LeGrand]

The semi-detached I live in (two storey 24' x 24') is heated with electrical baseboard, so when we purchased it in 1990, I had an energy efficient wood stove installed in the finished basement , and have been heating the house with it ever since.

Neighbors can't believe how low my electrical bill compared to theirs. We even had two clothes lines installed in the basement, so we save on many loads of clothes having to be dried with the drying machine (still use it).

You just can't beat the warmth and feeling that the heat from a wood stove provides, and it does smell nice.

[A.W]

I used to own a 3 bedroom, 2 car garage sidesplit. Being a sidesplit the rec room was not huge. It had an oil furnace.

The rec room had a fire place in it and when I bought the house I had a Napoleon airtight fire insert installed. It cost about $1700 along with the installation. It was also eqipped with heavy duty blowers (2).

I didn't have access to any property with trees but I did have just about unlimited access to hardwood pallets. About as much as I wanted/needed.

I'd pick these pallets up on the way home from work and run a chainsaw through them to fit into the firebox. By the time the winter came I had a good supply which I would keep topped up.

Before going to bed I'd stoke up the fire and turn on the blowers. I'd leave the furnace fan on and the heat in the rec room would be sucked up and pushed through the house.

Some times the oil furnace would click on as we were getting ready for work then on the way out I stoke it up again. Once a month I'd let the fire cool down and take the metal staples out.

We saved a lot of money with this set up.

[shurite44]

I use to have a zero clearance wood stove, (fireplace) in the basement of a duplex I owned. I put in two floor registers, one to my room and the living room with rheostat switches. I also have an efficient small wood burner in the living room. Kept the house nice and cozy.

I love a fire also to set and stare at, in the Air Force survival school they use to call the fire, "survival TV" because the way people stare into it, LOL.

[mblaney]

I heat mainly with wood. Have an Olsen oil/wood combo furnace and an airtight woodstove. Last year I cut and split a "full load" (logging truck with trailer) for myself and a half load with my dad. I only split by hand; nothing like a good axe or maul!

The best part for me is that if I cut and split the stuff my wife insists on doing all of the piling, and she "keeps the home fires burning"! (Ronnie Milsap song...)

Cheers,
Mike

[jay73]

I started my ash pile is at the base of a tree. The tree died within a season so I cut it down and used it for wood.

I like that one dsr.

I use oil solely. I was seriously thinking about a woodstove, but I think I've turned to putting in a propane stove in the basement. Just to mainly use when we're down there watching TV and stuff like that. Just cleaner, next to no maintenace, cheaper exhaust vent than putting up a chimney, insurance reasons. The pros just outweighed the cons for me.

We always had a woodstove when I was growing up, but really, it was more work for me then than I actually appreciated it.


Jay

[taureau noir]

I heat maily wood,I'm living in a mobil home and I use about 3 cords of wood per yearand maybe a cord of 2x4 hard wood pallet.
Taureau noir

[Cedrus]

We burn wood.,,lots of wood. Maple, ash and cherry. It's -5 F right now at mid-day.
We cut, split, haul and stack ourselves.

Have a basic one of these in the big fieldstone fireplace, http://www.vermontcastings.com/content/ ... .cfm?id=91

And one of these in the spam..(actually a 602N..it's pretty old,..but still a great little stove.) http://www.jotul.us/content/products/Pr ... _3105.aspx

[Hipwader]

My parents have a wood furnace with oil backup. Also a wood burning cook stove. I love going home and feeling that penetrating heat of the cook stove in the spam. Sure warms you up after being outside in the winter weather.

Man you bring back some good old memories, my friend. Now where did I put that Alpine

[Hoss]

yep DrD I burn wood as well..I have a nice wood burner that keeps the whole house just right.. In my back room far from the stove is my bedroom...I love to sleep in the cool air with my feet sticken outa of the toasty covers so I warm the frt of the house up with a nice fire at bed time with a big overnighter log and then I stir and stoke the coals in the morn to get it going again for the girls.....I love it..

[kendo kid]

I'm a country boy living in the city. I brought my glass fronted wood stove with me and use it nearly every night from October through April. Wait until you try apple wood. An old Vermont saying goes, " If Ash be the King of wood then apple be the Queen." I have not paid for wood for 20 years. People just do not know what to do with wood in the city. They give it to you.