There are less warm days and more cold days at this point, getting into the freezing temperatures during the night and mornings. Feels like last year this all started a few weeks earlier, but now its late November and its time to turn on the central wood boiler. Gonna start getting my firewood workout on.
It begins with adding some small twigs and branches, along with some packing paper I saved for this. It makes great tinder, and once the fire gets going its time to throw on bigger logs and get the furnace up to temp.
When I turned it on the water was 70F (21C) inside, but I will get it all the way up to 185F (85C). This takes a few hours but eventually the firewood inside the wood furnace will warm up the water jacket that surrounds it. 420 gallons of water needs to be warmed up, so it is not something that instantly happens.
We piled up a nice pile of wood, could have stacked it but did not.. oh well.
Over by the barn where I keep extra firewood there is much to cut up, and many logs in the back ready to be brought over.
Having firewood of all different sizes help, as when building the fire I may need small, medium or just large pieces.. Depending on what it looks like in the furnace at the time. My second year in I am learning about all of this stuff.
I was surprised when I found a mint plant growing over by the wood pile. Not sure if a seed blew over here or maybe my foreman or his wife planted this here. I certainly did not plant it.
All of this wood is well aged now, cut nearly a year ago. It should break up nicely and make for a nice fire.
It is quite the stack, once I get to the bottom it will be time to build another stack. All of this wood comes from scrub trees so its all slender logs and branches.
I see no point to cut up more wood until I go through this. Otherwise the ants and termites will eat it before my wood furnace can burn it.
We keep a pile of what I call "emergency firewood". It is some well aged wood that is split. So in the case the wood furnace is having trouble burning something that is a little too green or damp. I can throw a couple of these pieces in and keep the fire going well. Also if I use up all my firewood we have this to use.
I bring my Kobota UTV over and its time to start loading up wood to bring over to the wood furnace.
Using tools like a sawzall, lobbers and some glasses and gloves is all I need.
Eventually I will go through this entire pile of brush.
We have a collection of bigger logs as well. May need to cut those up as they weigh a good 100 or so pounds each.
Another pile of wood ready to go, this year we are ready. Any time we cut up some trees we brought it over since last winter.
A chair just chilling in the back of the pile. Oh man its quite the mess, but rather have this than no wood at all.
To stack it all I would need to cut them, so I did not do that.. Just piled them up.
About an hour or so of cutting up wood, I have a UTV bed full of firewood ready to go over by the furnace.
I need to bring over a few of these a day when its cold. When its warmer we tend not to use as much.
Loving this UTV, I got a second one on order and should get here by December. Really excited for it, but in the mean time I will use this workhorse.
After cutting for an hour, it barely put a dent in the pile.. Thats a good thing..lol
And the cycle repeats.. Burn firewood > Shovel out ash > Collect more firewood > Start over to step one
I will be doing that until April I am guessing. The more cold it is, the more wood we use, so depending on how cold we get is how long this pile will last. And as soon as its almost up its time to find more firewood. Luckily I am surrounded by forest and there is always massive downed trees caused by storms, the question is how easy is it to get to that wood.
But for now I have a messy pile of wood to go through, but it will not last forever.
the endless fire cycle :D
Hah yup.. then when spring comes around, its grow, grow, grow grow... lol
Wow, that is quite the stack of wood. I used to have a friend that used a wood stove in their house. They would get the bug chunks of wood that were cut off ends from a pallet factory and those things would burn all night if you loaded the stove up with them.
Ah nice, most of our wood is collected from near by farms with permission and from my own forest I own. But I am sure I could find places like that to get some as well. Luckily where I live there is no shortage of fallen trees to collect and cut up.
That's good news! You should be set for a long long time then!
Having your own wood supply is useful. We have a few trees, but they would not keep us going for long. We just have a bio-ethanol burner in the lounge that provides some extra heat and the rest is mains gas.
It is nice, where I live its just a sea of trees.
I have never been to the UK, but when I played Forza Horizon which 4 which is based in the UK I was really surprised to just see a landscape of large fields with small separations of trees.
When I looked further into this I learned during WWII the UK went through large amounts of timber during the war. So much of the forests are gone there.
Amazing how the landscape can be affected by demand like that.
Our landscape is mostly artificial after centuries of farming and industry. Used to use lots of wood for ships and buildings. Forests were cleared for crops and livestock too. There are some new forests now, but a lot is commercial with little variety.
We looked at a wood stove when we built the house, but it was expensive and now there's concern about emissions.
I'm glad you've gained experience on how to prepare for the winter season and how to make better use of the firewood for the boiler.
You have a good amount of firewood stored and excellent heating equipment
Good luck, you're going to have a very warm winterGood morning dear friend @solominer
Yeah it has been quite the learning experience. Glad I got it.
I think so, should be a warm winter here.
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Necesitamos con urgencia una cocina así en Venezuela no hay gas domestico
I would think wood fire would be the way to go where you live.. lots of wood. Just need dry wood to use it well.
If in fact we use a lot of firewood these days, there are great trees in the Venezuelan plains
In fact, you are a systematic farmer. You always have perfect plans.
Ah thank you
The great work they do to accumulate firewood to get through the winter season is impressive. The fact that you have all this equipment is a great help to get through a more conditioned winter
Excellent work @solominer
Thanks, it has been a lot of work but it all pays off at the end.
Indeed having the right tools for the job makes all the difference.
I love cut wood to have when i need start the fire for cook steak
Ah yeah, tastes so good over wood. I have had many camp fire meals and always have that special taste so it.
Greetings @solominer ,
Well done! Such an organized methodology.is quite impressive.
Wishing you and your good lady a lovely Sunday.
Bleujay
Thank you, hope you had a good sunday too.
So your furnace also heats your water, that is so cool. I hope you will not run out of wood.
I saw an old building that you are stacking wood under, is this an old place where people lived many years ago? If you can find where they buried their trash you might find all kinds of old treasures like old bottles, I have been seeing where people are digging up old outhouses and bringing out old bottles. I do not think I would go that far but an old trash pile is different to dig in. That is, when you find yourself with nothing else to do, (insert sarcasm).
When you have a farm, there is always work to be done.
Yep, we turn off the electric heater on the water heater when the wood furnace is going as it circulates hot water instead of using electric heating elements.
Ah yes, the trash. We have found lots of that. I have removed at least three full sized dumpsters full of trash from this property. Seems the previous owners would just dump all kinds of terrible stuff in the woods. We have yet to find anything cool like bottles though. Maybe one day we will find something nice in the trash. But for now its mostly plastic and other junk.
So true, can only get so much done in one day.
When Dad moved us to Missouri that is what the people did, they burned what they could and the rest went into a hole or just piled in the woods. I do not remember seeing a dump like we have here in Florida and there was no garbage service so what were they to do with the trash?
Especially towards the end of autumn.
Bless your heart !!!
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Hah sure is.. lots to do around here.
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STOPIt's awesome that you kill two birds with one stone and that in providing heat for your warmth with the logs, you also are able to heat up a whopping 420 gallons of water on. It's really so nice.
A lot of wood stacking and I can see you are ready for the Winter cold.
Yeah it is quite nice having my house warm and heating my water heater using wood.
Hah yeah I am quite ready now.
I can see that sir, I wish you all the best.
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Preparing for the heating season is an annual ritual, as important as Christmas and Easter. You have to take part in it.😊
If I were you, I would split the thick pieces from the trunk in two. They still have moisture in them, so they'll be useful. The stove and chimney will thank you. I opted for a combination of wood gasifier and solar thermal energy. This guarantees reliably heated water above 60 °C (140 °F) all year round (especially in winter). This temperature is important to prevent bacteria from forming in the water pipes. 😎
It does have a very ingrained feeling to it collecting firewood.
Ah yeah, I have a hydraulic splitter. But had a hard time getting it to split some wood I tried. I think the wood was too green at the time. So maybe its worth trying again.
Oh cool. I have seen those solar water heaters, when you say wood gasifier.. does that provide power or heat?
You have a much higher efficiency with such an oven. In combination with solar thermal energy, the stove can always be kept on a low flame.
https://www.mofga.org/resources/green-building/wood-gasification/ https://www.atmos.eu/en/products/
Winter has arrived in the Himalayas and we are all busy collecting wood these days and it is a very laborious job
Ah yeah I feel ya. Sometimes I am quite sore and cut up at the end of the day from all the firewood collection.
It reminds me of how important it is to take care of our environment for the long run, like using renewable resources instead of relying on things that can't be replenished easily.
Yep that is the plan here, we want to be as sustainable as possible without importing things like gas, or power and such.
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I remember the days of cutting and hauling wood to heat the house just last year.
All I can say is we are loving Florida right now. :)
So many great memories, I love being outside and just collecting the wood sometimes. Oh man.. quite mild. Gonna drop into the teens here in a few days...lol
Someone is so prepared for winter 😁
Hah yeah, its gonna get cold soon.
Wow, it's really cool that you use wooden branches for the fuel you use. Where I live, my mother also uses wooden twigs for cooking
Ah nice, yeah they really light up quick.
Wow... Collecting dry wood for this winter is great, you have so much wood and branches and you keep it in the shed it's cool when you need it.
Yep, got lots of it ready to go. Compared to last year I think I am quite ready.
I am still cutting, dragging and burning. Every frikkin weekend it seems. 4 major named storms in 14 months on top of a 192 logging removal of old growth 30 year lop lolly pines last September has left my 12 acres a disaster zone. Another 100+ trees lost to the hurricanes.
I also have been helping the neighbors with their cleanup.
I used to like doing what your doing with the stacking, splitting, sorting and organizing. Now not much.
I am burned out on dealing with the wood. <--- Pun intended 👀
Damn that is a lot of fallen trees to deal with.
Well glad your helping out your neighbors, they will owe you one back one day and its good to have.
I have stopped trying to split wood for the moment, its such a pain to me compared to all the other tasks. Rather just cut them in half if I need to.
Hah well hope you get a break with some mild weather soon.
At least those pines will burn hot.
You have quite a lot of wood stacked up for the winter, do you use electric heaters over there or does it consume too much power?
Yeah we sure do.
We have electric heaters but only use them when everything else fails. Its not too much power for us to use, just inefficient.