Kindlin' routines

[woodbooga]

Unlike you folks with OWBs and stoves that provide 12 hour+/- burntimes, we heat and cook with an old fashioned turn-of-the-20th-century cookstove. The old Glenwood sure throws off a lot of heat, but the downside is the small firebox, which will only provide a 3 hour burn.

I usually turn in around midnight, banking the stove before dozing off. The oil furnace kicks in around 4am and runs periodically until I get up around 6:30.

The morning routine always begins with starting up the cast iron monster and goes like this:

-Lift lid, open grate to clean previous days ashes, move back draft position from "bake" to "kindle," and open bottom draft to maximize air intake. Make sure key damper in stovepipe is all the way open.
-crumple 5 pieces of broadsheet newsprint into balls; if only a tabloid is avail, it takes 8-10 sheets.
-place bottom layer of kindling down, consisting of 2 pieces of finely split white pine. Then criss cross three more layers of 2 pcs. on top.
-light match (strike anywhere matches like they used in the old cartoons) and ingite
-when kindling is fully ignited, gently place slightly larger pieces of split white pine in fire box.
-One secondary kindling is in a full roar, toss in pieces of "woofah" wood, usually 2x4 ends, poplar/cottonwood types. Once stove pipe starts making its "tick, tick, tick" sound indicating that an adequate draft has been achieved, back draft position is moved from "kindle" to "bake."
-Load in a few more sticks of "woofah" wood. Bask in stove's increasing warmth.

I should add that the only thing I do before starting the stove is put on the morning pot of coffee. The procedure detailed above is the exact amount of time it takes for a pot of coffee to brew. The last step in the procedure is accompanied by a mug of joe. Little bit of milk. No sugar.

What's your kindling routine?

 

[woodbooga]

Ps...

Oftentimes, the lines of this poem are running through my head. Makes me think of my old man and gives me inspiration to be a good father in my own right:

Those Winter Sundays
by Robert E. Hayden


Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.


I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,


Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?

 

[Steve NW WI]

Somewhat similar here - 3 sheets of newspaper, half a dozen sticks of 1" square drops from a local woodworking place, a little splash of diesel to jump start the process (NEVER USE GASOLINE!!!), then slowly add bigger pieces.

Probably about 20 minutes to full fire. I don't have to do it often, as I have a big old Woodchuck that holds coals for 10+ hours.

I absolutely HATE the sound of the gas furnace kicking in!

 

[woodbooga]

I absolutely HATE the sound of the gas furnace kicking in!

LOL! Like fingernails on a chalkboard. If I were single with no kids, I'd probably keep it set at like 48 just warm enough so the pipes don't freeeze in the dept of night.

We were at my (non-woodburning) mother's house on Sat. Even at the height of the day with full sun, the furnace was running more or less constantly. I was just about a basketcase by the time we left. (My wife too, but for entirely different reasons. She has *ahem* mixed feelings about her MIL )

 

[chainsawaddict]

good thread!

I usually bank the blaze princess up at about 8 o'clock and run it wide open for about 30 minutes, then shut it down pretty good. Im usually i bed by 9, but up at two to reload. I load it light at two and open it up halfway. Then up at 6 to get the day started; i burn a hot fire for an hour, choke it down and off I go. Usually have a few coals when I get home @5ish, but if not, I just use some pine. No paper needed, just break some splinters up, pile them on two split pices, get it goin', then put another bigger piece on top.

Im hoping the jotul will hold the heat a little better through the night. Only one way to find out

 

[trax]

If I fill the stove after 10:30 or so it will make it to morning with some coals still glowing. I rake the coals to let the ash fall through then put on some splintered pine on top, give it a minute if it doesn't flame right away I throw in a pinch of gunpowder. I bought a large Qty of reloading supplies from a guy and there was a zip lock bag of unidentified smokless shotgun powder. I love the smell of gunpowder in the morning.

 

[wdchuck]

Yeah, I heard the gas furnace go on once around 4am, nudged the wife to get on the stick and get add some wood to the woodfurnace, I woke up to a warm house and weak coffee.

 

[wdchuck]

We strive to start one fire, then just add often enough to keep it going until the end of the season. On the odd time we are away so long that it goes out completely, then it depends on who does it:

My shtick:

lay the shreddy elm on each side of the firebox with the middle area vacant.
In the middle area, kindling from sticks, splits, cedar shingles, and crumpled newspaper or cardboard.
Light it with a match, wallah, its on its way.

 

[chainsawaddict]

Yeah, I heard the gas furnace go on once around 4am, nudged the wife to get on the stick and get add some wood to the woodfurnace, I woke up to a warm house and weak coffee.

You know you have a good one when you come down to put wood in the stove and find it full. I experienced the exact same this morning...warm house and weak coffee. Just fine with me.

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

Have only lite the fire once since I've ......

Have only lite the fire once since I've started burning this fall.

When I get up I have hot coals so that I can put some dry wood on them and have a blazing fire in ~ 15 mts.


During the warm up a few days ago, I fired lightly and didn't have a fire all night. The house was still 71 deg. I have the propane set at 70. We have a 9 month old little girl so we try to keep it a bit warmer.

Dan

 

[woodbooga]

Have only lite the fire once since I've started burning this fall.

When I get up I have hot coals so that I can put some dry wood on them and have a blazing fire in ~ 15 mts.


During the warm up a few days ago, I fired lightly and didn't have a fire all night. The house was still 71 deg. I have the propane set at 70. We have a 9 month old little girl so we try to keep it a bit warmer.

Dan

The in-laws have pretty much the same set up as us - old cast iron cookstove. Their sleep schedules are ideal to keep it burning constantly. MIL's a nurse who's up at 4am. FIL is retired and turns in around 1am.

They refer to the early morning coals as "legacy coals" since they're still on the same fire they started weeks and weeks ago.

 

[willsaw4beer]

I normally make a trough in the ashes, set a few 1'' dia. pieces crosswise, then light a piece of tinder and get a few splinters burning. I set the burning splinters in the trough leaned straight up and down on the crosswise pieces, then I add another layer on the crosswise pieces and close the door almost all the way. Once this catches I add another layer of kindle and then add bigger pieces. I leave the door cracked until this catches and I get a small bed of coals, then close the door. I wait until the fire has really started raging for a bit then damp it down.

 

[wdchuck]

You know you have a good one when you come down to put wood in the stove and find it full. I experienced the exact same this morning...warm house and weak coffee. Just fine with me.

I see that you, me, and Peter Pan live in the same world....makebelieve.:hmm3grin2orange:

coffee might happen on a sat or sunday.

couple of ' keep it going' pieces of wood on a weekday is typical.

We strive to maintain an active fire/coalbed throught the heating season.

 

[coog]

I absolutely hate the sound of a gas furnace kicking in

Number one reason I burn wood.I am hooked up to NG and can afford to heat with it, but that sound brings me back to a time when it was oil leaving the tank that couldn't be replaced.A thief in the night.I will somehow always feel guilty getting "easy heat".

 

[Dalmatian90]

What's your kindling routine?

Get up at 4am and stuff the stove again

I've gone a couple weeks at times this year without having to start from scratch.

 

[maplemeister]

Most nights the Downdrafter gets it's final meal around 11pm. Around 5am my wifey usually gets up before me out of long habit, and discovers that the Black Beast has devoured it's late night meal completely but regurgitated a wonderful bed of red hot coals about 6" deep. All that is required at this point is to add more fuel, open up the downdraft tubes to max, and let her go for about 15 minutes. At that point you will have a rip roaring blaze and will need to cut back on the air about half and just let her chug along for the rest of the day. If it's above 35 degrees F. outside, you will have to cut back even more on the draft but keep it just above smolder stage. Truth be told, usually this entire process has unfolded before I make my first appearance of the day. She is indeed a wonderful woman. I do however make my own
cofee, straight up black, no cream, no sugar. I make sure my wood is well seasoned, one year minimum, and for the last load of the night, I usually put in my best rock maple or oak to insure the longest burn time I can get.

Maplemeister:

 

[Dok]

I hate the sound of the furnace turning on so much this house doesn't even have one. Here is my routine: Rake ashes and coals to the front, ashes drop into the ash drawer. Put a stick of pine in the back of the box, put a Lightning Nugget in the middle and light. Once that is going, open all the dampers and the ash drawer. Place pine over the nugget, about three pieces, close door. The pine is usually going within two minutes, close the ash door. Let the flue temp pass 200F and close the start-up damper. I'll let the fire rip to 1000F for a couple minutes then damp it down.
Dok

 

[JONSEREDFAN6069]

i found if you use dry birch bark instead of newspaper there's alot less ashes than using news paper. i can light the birch bark, throw 2 peices of kindling on each side of the burning birch bark and put a split onto of the kindling and away she goes. burns longer and hotter than newspaper, i can have it going this way in under 2 minutes full roar.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

+1 A buddy's mom uses bark to start her fires. Says it starts like paper and burns like small wood.

I have a learning curve ahead of me, but I have a bunch of fire starter "bricks" made of old candle wax and sawdust to try. I melted the candles, mixed in enough sawdust so that there's just enough wax to hold it together and then pressed the warm mixture into an old cast iron cornbread mold. Turned out pretty good and starts easy with a match.

Ian

 

[J.W Younger]

pull in the shop at 6:30 shut door as I'm pulling in, shovel ashes and fill stove with seasoned wood throw some noodles and splitter hair on top, hit it with the propane torch and go in the house. this takes about 4min cause door opener is on a timer and light kicks off just as Im on the way out.