At Home In The Woods

[vtsnowedin]

The one stick at a time and throttled back routine is fine if you are home to tend the fire but don't over do it. At least once a day let it burn for a while wide open to get the pipes and chimney hot all the way to the top. This burns off the soot your slow smoldering fire has let condense on the sides when they were at temps less then 250F. You will see the difference the next time you stick a mirror into the chimney. I've lived in 100% wood heated houses all my life and would faint away the first time an oil truck stopped by and dropped off a tank full of $3.50 fuel. It sounds to me like you are paying attention and picking up on the essentials rapidly and will soon be an old pro at it.

 

[Obed]

The one stick at a time and throttled back routine is fine if you are home to tend the fire but don't over do it. At least once a day let it burn for a while wide open to get the pipes and chimney hot all the way to the top. This burns off the soot your slow smoldering fire has let condense on the sides when they were at temps less then 250F. You will see the difference the next time you stick a mirror into the chimney. I've lived in 100% wood heated houses all my life and would faint away the first time an oil truck stopped by and dropped off a tank full of $3.50 fuel. It sounds to me like you are paying attention and picking up on the essentials rapidly and will soon be an old pro at it.

Yes, this morning I built a hot fire. I haven't been doing it every day because it gets the house too hot unless things are fairly cold outside. It got down to the mid-20's last night.


Obed

 

[Obed]

I recently got to grill my first steaks on our deck using our "new" $25 grill. I'm looking forward to the springtime.

 

[Obed]

My wife is tending her cool-weather vegetables: cabbage, spinach, brocoli, turnips, and turnip greens. An adjacent county has free leaf mulch. If you bring your truck or trailer, they will load the vehicle for you. My wife got 3 truck loads and put them on the garden.

 

[Obed]

Our fireplace has a mechanical timer mechanism that is supposed to let the fire burn hot for a while then eventually throttle down the air as the timer winds down. I haven't particularly liked the mechanism. It recently got jammed up and wouldn't let us adjust the air. Therefore we took the faceplate off and my wife removed the timer linkage that was jamming. It was jamming because of a faulty factory installation. I didn't really like the thing anyway so I'm ok with just disabling it and getting it out of the way.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Our fireplace has a mechanical timer mechanism that is supposed to let the fire burn hot for a while then eventually throttle down the air as the timer winds down. I haven't particularly liked the mechanism. It recently got jammed up and wouldn't let us adjust the air. Therefore we took the faceplate off and my wife removed the timer linkage that was jamming. It was jamming because of a faulty factory installation. I didn't really like the thing anyway so I'm ok with just disabling it and getting it out of the way.

Beautiful home you have there and a pretty assistant helping with the flashlight. I don't see a place to stack wood close at hand. How far to you have to bring each armload?

 

[Tororider]

I recently got to grill my first steaks on our deck using our "new" $25 grill. I'm looking forward to the springtime.

View attachment 290372

I do have to say, that is the nicest $25 grill I have ever seen. Very nice find.

 

[Obed]

Beautiful home you have there and a pretty assistant helping with the flashlight. I don't see a place to stack wood close at hand. How far to you have to bring each armload?

Thanks vtsnowedin.

I was putting a pallet of wood in the garage. However, I saw in the wood some beetles of which I didn't like the looks. So now I keep the wood pallet about 75 feet from the house and carry about a day's worth of wood from the pallet into the garage with a wheelbarrow. To add a piece of wood to the fireplace, we just get a log out of the wheelbarrow in the garage.
Obed

 

[Obed]

I do have to say, that is the nicest $25 grill I have ever seen. Very nice find.

Thanks Tororider. It was a great find. We were fortunate. I found it on CL the first time I started looking. It may have helped that I was looking in the autumn time when demand was probably low.

Obed

 

[vtsnowedin]

Don't worry the beatles will find their way into the house on their own. :thumbsdown:
They don't mind the walk if there is someting in the house they find tasty. Drives the womenfolk nuts to see a few ants or beatles in the wood but there isn't anything you can do about it and unless you have some wet soggy wood somwhere in the house the ants won't find it hospitable enough to set up shop.