Ah, gotta love it!

[Tesen]

Finally give into the alarm clock, I head downstairs, fire up the coffee pot and notice it is 4:55a (whoops running 55 minutes behind, damn did not realize I hit the snooze THAT much). 1st floor is 68F and upstairs feels like 64f . I head down stairs to the basement, open up the wood furnace feed door. Ahhhhh, what I like to see, a half gone log surrounded by a few coals (loaded at 9p night before, I know my wife did not cram it full, else there would still be a few logs not even touched if she did). Throw in a few smaller logs to get her fired back up a little more, the feed door damper is barely cracked, open it a full turn.

Head upstairs, drink my coffee grab a shower and get dressed. As I am coming downstairs to the 1st floor again, blowers kick on the furnace, ahhh nice warm heat. I fill up the stand alone humidifier (as you know wood burning dries the house out quick), head down stairs to the basement. Throw two more smaller logs in then about 2 bigger ones, should be good until the wife emerges from bed (semester is over, lucky girl, gets to sleep in every morning, well until the 9 month old wakes her up again ;p) close the damper 1/2 turn (should be about 1/2 turn open) and leave for work.

I love burning wood. Gas comp tried to tell me I owed them $120 for last month, uhhh I don’t think so. Wife called in the true meter reading, ha! A$$holes

2200 sqr foot, 120 year old house, leaky windows, poor insulation. Heated with a 1557 Hotblast furnace.

Don’t ya love it?

Tes

 

[ericjeeper]

Just think how comfortable it would be.

If you were not adding to the global warming by heating the outdoors.., LOL
Get some new windows with krypton fill.
I know wood is cheap.. But triple with krypton will be warm enough you can sit by them in the winter.. and cool in the summer..
I replaced most of my windows this year went from double pane with argon to triple with krypton.. Made huge difference in comfort level..Plus saves me a stick or two of wood I imagine.

 

[Laird]

Need Shower First

I wish I could take my shower after I loaded the OWB, but it hurts too much. I get up in the morning and hands, elbows, shoulders and back are just killing me. The last thing I want to do is get dressed, go out into the cold and wrestle with logs. A hot shower first thing gets rid of 75% of the pain and just getting active again take care of about another 20%. I then load just before heading off to work. I then listen to a few comments about my new "cologne".

Kind of ironic that due to cutting wood I am in the best shape I have been in the last 20 years but now I am experiencing more pain. I think it is the Army or Corp who say "Ignore the pain, it's just weakness leaving your body."

 

[Tesen]

Believe me it is on the list; when I built the nursery earlier this year, all new insulation and windows. That room stays warm 24/7. As I get the time and money, the rest will follow.

I need to redo my roof soon, going to tear it off and redesign it - turning the attic in to a master bedroom. SIPS panels on top with 30 year shingles, SIPS panels for the walls and yes new windows But before I can do that, I need to completely redo my basement and underpin the house properlly. All in good time. My new born set us back a lot, and redoing this house just got trickier because of him (he is worth it).

So it is not as simple as just throwing in a few new windows and possinly wasting money having to tear them out again and get others

But it is nice to be heating with wood ;-) Thought I'd share how nice it was to getting up this morning to it

Tes

 

[wdchuck]

Sounds like your system works well for you, especially to get that kind of burn time and heat output througout a two story home.

 

[Zodiac45]

I wish I could take my shower after I loaded the OWB, but it hurts too much. I get up in the morning and hands, elbows, shoulders and back are just killing me. The last thing I want to do is get dressed, go out into the cold and wrestle with logs. A hot shower first thing gets rid of 75% of the pain and just getting active again take care of about another 20%. I then load just before heading off to work. I then listen to a few comments about my new "cologne".

Kind of ironic that due to cutting wood I am in the best shape I have been in the last 20 years but now I am experiencing more pain. I think it is the Army or Corp who say "Ignore the pain, it's just weakness leaving your body."

Yep, I hear ya on the pain bit. Seems like a catch 22 situation. The more you do the harder it is too keep doing it consistently. I sure "feel it" more after a days physical work. It started about when I hit 48yrs old. Up till then, I still felt like an invincible kid. That was 5 yrs ago and no matter how I try, that feeling ain't coming back.

 

[Tesen]

Yep, I hear ya on the pain bit. Seems like a catch 22 situation. The more you do the harder it is too keep doing it consistently. I sure "feel it" more after a days physical work. It started about when I hit 48yrs old. Up till then, I still felt like an invincible kid. That was 5 yrs ago and no matter how I try, that feeling ain't coming back.

Hey even us younger guys get pain. I tweaked my back lifting two hickory logs (green 12 ft long, 6 - 7" diameter) this past weekend. They were frozen together and no amount of whacking with the back of the axehead and or kicking with my foot was working, so uhhh rather than cut'em I got stupid and lifted them up and carried them (20ft) and up and over into the trailer. My back has been rather painful ever since (getting better).

The fact you guys are 48 and older and still doing this stuff is awesome!

Tes

 

[avalancher]

I hear you on the pain issue, I turn 42 in a few days, and there are times when I get out of bed the old bones make more creaking than the old wooden floor beneath em.
Wood cutting has been good for me, no doubt, but I seriously wonder how many more years I will be able to continue at the pace that I am going now.