Well I only need another cord of firewood and my woodshed will be full. Hope to get that done this next week. Today I got the chimney cleaned and the woodburner cleaned out also. So that is all done. Hopefully it will be a "normal" winter.
Aren't y'all cute--woodpiles and cleaning out wood burning stoves. We are still sweating, watering the gardens, and trying to remember what "cool" felt like! Thanks for reminding me that I need to clean out the stove pipe. We use our wood burning stove maybe a dozen times over the winter, but I always worry about soot build-up in the pipe. We burn mesquite and cedar--very fragrant!
I use our woodburner as a main source of heat. We have electric baseboard heat and wood is a lot cheaper. Have been burning it for the past 30 years. The wood is free, and I figure our winter heat costs me about $50 per season. And that is for gas and oil for the tractor, chain saw and splitter. Almost all of what I burn is dead trees, storm damage limbs or oak pallets. I do save wood scraps from my shop too. Most places don't want to pay people to haul off the shipping pallets and will give them to you for free if you haul them off. Most are made of seasoned oak and burn very well.
You are WAY ahead of me Capt! I haven't started yet, but it's been cool so I'd better get started I think.
It's good to know that your nearing completion of your woodpile for the months ahead CK. Let's hope the weather is kinder to us though that last winter was.
Last year at this time I already had most of my wood split and put away. This shed was stuffed until the walls were bulging The lean to on the side of the house was full too. The stack of cedar outside was split small for kindling. Cedar logs aren't burnt whole ... it burns too hot. I have another area beside the garage where we stack wood but no photos. I keep boxes of kindling in another shed. All of this should last the winter...about 4 cords of wood.
Such a lot of work but a job well done both of you. When do you usually get the first blast of winter weather? Around here people buy wood by the 8 (small) piece bundle at the grocery store and keep it on hand thru the winter just in case it might get cold enough to have the fireplace going one or two evenings. We still have upper 90's around here so preparing for anything other than heat stroke is beyond our comprehension at the present time.
This is my woodshed from a year ago. There are 6 cord of wood in it. Netty, I don't use kindling. I keep a small buckest with a lid on it on the front porch. I keep charcoal and kerosene in it. The charcoal soaks up most of the kerosene. When I get ready to start a fire, I put one piece of wood down and then lean 2 pieces across it next to each other. I put 2 pieces of charcoal under them and then light it with a match. In about 5 minutes I have a roaring fire going. Last year I used all but a 1/2 cord of my wood.Last year I stared using a fire the 3rd week of Oct. But that was just in the morning to get the house warmed up, then I would let it go out. Probably about mid Nov we were burning all day long. In the picture, there are bags an a garbage can. They have large pieces of bark and small pieces of wood. When I first start burning, I use those when not much of a fire is needed.
I like the sounds of a Texas winter Toni!! A bag of 8 logs wouldn't last more than a couple of hours here during the winter. Once I am finished work around the beginning of November, the woodstove is burning until I go back to work the beginning of April.
