Heating with wood burners/fire places only?

[NH Homesteader]

So... You LIKE doing firewood?? I have never met anyone who likes doing firewood. I loathe it, we don't use wood now but I did as a kid and I hated nothing more than stacking wood. It is a lovely feeling to have it done though!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's pretty awesome! I don't guess I've ever had any experience with peat...except for peat pots to start seeds in, lol.

 

[sumi]

I had to wrap my head around this peat burning idea at first. Then I moved into a house where the previous tenants left some briquettes, so I burned them and found they burn o.k. Same as wood really, slow and hot and almost smoke free. It smells interesting though!

 

[sumi]

So far, though we had an usually cold winter, I've managed with only the stove for heat most of the time. I did turn on heaters in our bedrooms a few times, but it was usually only for a few minutes, to get the rooms to a more comfortable temperature. I found burning coal in the stove gives off a lot of heat, to the point where I cannot sit or stand close to it for too long without burning!

 

[Beekissed]

Sounds like an interesting house, CC! Got the shed half full here and with tons of wood yet to split.

We cut a hole in the back of the shed a few weeks back so we could build a door/ramp there....when up it will be a door, when down a ramp. We are building onto the back and side of the shed this year so as to have more wood storage capabilities.

Soon as the door is built I'll close it and start stacking wood in that area until the shed is full to the front door. Then I'll be splitting and leaving it in piles until the pole shed extension is completed.

Had a big cherry come down the other day, nice and dead....will be placed on the porch, along with some dry pine, this fall. We always like to keep a good supply right on the porch in case the snow is too deep for moving wood from the shed, but mostly we cart wood in each day from the shed all winter long.

 

[Beekissed]

Like my Dad always said "Firewood warms you up many times!"
Cut, split, stack, move, burn, clean out the ashes ...

Always. It's good exercise and it feels good to know the labor goes towards keeping the family warm all winter. It's also a nice way to clean up the woodlots of trees blown down in a storm and standing deadwood.

 

[CrealCritter]

Always. It's good exercise and it feels good to know the labor goes towards keeping the family warm all winter. It's also a nice way to clean up the woodlots of trees blown down in a storm and standing deadwood.

Bee is always looking at the bright side of things.

 

[Beekissed]

I miss the activity of cutting firewood - but not enough to actually go out and do it in 90 degree weather. Maybe this fall we will cut up a couple dead oaks for wood for the fire pit.

My dad used to wait until late July and August to start getting in firewood, when the lawn had slowed down on growing and we had time to get in wood~also after turkey season and before deer season . I always thought that was insane....more briers, more ticks, more biting insects and reptiles to be had, hotter and more humid weather.

So, around here we try to get in firewood in the spring and fall, after the garden is in and after it's harvested. I've got most of the wood shed filled right now, partly from wood cut and split this spring and wood split in late fall/early winter of last year that was tarped and left in place.

But, I'll be splitting more wood in the summer heat, mostly in the mornings and evenings, to get the shed filled entirely...won't take more than a couple of sessions of splitting to do that, as I still have wood tarped and ready to be stored in the shed from last fall's work. At least I'm not having to go out in the woods and fight all the elements to get it....it's all here in the yard now in varying degrees of being processed. For that I'm so very thankful!!!

I'll be working in the fall on the same endeavor, as we are wanting to stock the new extension on the wood shed also. Two year's supply of wood can come in handy if one of us is unable to cut and split the following year for one reason or another.