Roll Call

[oldmatelot]

Been putting a fire on in the late afternoons for about 10 days now -- which keeps us nice and warm all night - use the electric the rest of the day - at least for now - have to watch the wood as I did not get enough done to go the whole winter due to illness and equipment breakdown -- wish our son lived closer so he could help us out a bit - but he is a 8 hour drive away each way.
Getting old really sucks at times

 

[DFK]

It was 40 degrees when I got home yesterday at 5:00PM.
This moring at 6:00 AM it was 22 degrees.
Way cold for this time of the year.
Fire Place insert is chugging threw some White Oak and Hickory.

David

 

[slowp]

We are warming up. The mountains protect the eastern part of the state from our rain, and the mountains protect those of us in the wet part of the state from the extreme cold. It's warmer this morning and in the 30s. I've been burning since October, but when the wind is howling out of the east like it was, the fire is kept going all day, if I'm home. Usually a fire in the morning and one in the afternoon keeps the house warm. The power stayed on throughout the windy weather--yay for our socialist power company!

 

[TheAbyss]

Southern ontario Canada 26F @ 8am 140 year old farm house and here if you want heat you better light up the stove because in Canada electrical and gas rates are sky high.

 

[Whitespider]

Cold here this morning, colder then "they" said it would be... 8° by my digital, electronic gadget, thermometer.
Looks like more of the same for tomorrow morning, then warming into the mid-20's in the afternoon... bringing snow
I don't want snow... I'm not ready for snow... I've officially decided I don't like snow any more.

zogger.... just wonderin'... any chance that room above your chicken house is still vacant??
*

 

[svk]

It's 1 degree right now here so we definitely had sub zero overnight. Colder tomorrow night.

 

[philoshop]

Been burning since mid-september. It's getting pretty old already, but only 5 more months 'til bug season comes back.

 

[zogger]

Cold here this morning, colder then "they" said it would be... 8° by my digital, electronic gadget, thermometer.
Looks like more of the same for tomorrow morning, then warming into the mid-20's in the afternoon... bringing snow
I don't want snow... I'm not ready for snow... I've officially decided I don't like snow any more.

zogger.... just wonderin'... any chance that room above your chicken house is still vacant??
*

It's cold here too! And most likely we'll be getting snow pretty soon. I was reading they are calling this blast the "omega block" Polar vortex is yet to come yet.

Man I bet that naturally air conditioned room over the coop is a bit chilly....Both ends are open and a couple roof panels are sorta non existant.....

 

[UpOnTheHill]

Had our first fire in mid September. Burned on and off from September through October. Been burning almost 24/7 in November with all shoulder wood. I try to get to about thanksgiving with shoulder wood and make the switch to the primo hardwoods. I'm right on track so far. My shoulder wood is all ash this year. I've burned about 1/2 cord and have 1/3 cord left. Primo wood for this year is 60% black locust, 20% linden (light easy, burns fast for getting fires going), 10% hard maple, 10% white oak. Hopefully I have enough to get me through. I'll cut more standing dead ash throughout the winter so I can always fall back on that.

 

[shorty2000us]

21°, south central WI. Long time lurker of AS, 2nd post. Been burning for about ~2 weeks now. One picture showing all secondaries burning, something I've personally never seen with my stove. Since I'm re-insulating the basement, all furnace ducts are unhooked, so strictly wood right now.

 

[morewood]

Finally replaced the temp probe and controller on the CB and fired it up. This house is the unchallenged definition of no insulation. We hope to build by the end of next year and cut the wood usage dramatically.

Shea

 

[taskswap]

28F overnight, 42F daytime high here in Western CT, deep in the woods. We went from summer to winter almost overnight because of that "vortex" - a week or two ago we were regularly seeing daytime highs near 70 and had the windows open. I'm still finding storm windows I've forgotten to close. Today is "winterize everything" day.

Insert and IWB here, pics posted in the other thread ("Post pictures of your..."). Not running them together yet. At this temp range, the insert is good enough to hold the house up during the day, and we switch to the boiler overnight. We'll be running both more or less constantly once temps get below 20 consistently. This house is very badly insulated, and it's a priority to fix that... but priorities are weird when you heat with wood. It's still WAAAAAY cheaper than oil so you kind of hit diminishing returns, you know? It's mostly the wood processing time I'd like to cut down. I expect to go through nearly all of 12 cords this year - we call my wood pile "Mount Wood". (Get it?)

I'd love to cut that down, but since I'm averaging 120/cord (I buy rounds/log and process myself) you have to get a REALLY good deal on windows that REALLY save you a lot of heat before you get even a 10-year payoff...

 

[srb08]

Eight degrees this morning, 30 at the moment.
74 in the house.
The fireplace supplements propane heat but rarely does the furnace kick on when I've got a fire going.

 

[theswampthing]

On and off for about 2 weeks. Strange weather

 

[zogger]

I think you can just see it, earliest ice on the creek that I remember, from this morning.

 

[Old Doug]

Monday it was 68 tuesday morning it was 34 and later in the week it was 24 one morning . I started burning the midle of the week at home. I need to work on the shops flue so i can use it. I sure hope its not like this all winter.

 

[kljahnz]

I was using the heat pump and the boiler two weeks ago, using the boiler only for the last week.
This is the same river as in my avatar.

 

[svk]

-7 F last night here.

 

[4seasons]

Been burning here for a couple of weeks, the last couple of days all day. I don't keep the fire burning if it is going to get over 50 during the day, and I won't start a fire if it is not going below 40 at night. Currently 32 here on its way to 27. Been as low as 19 already. Just about to fill the stove for the night.

What I find most interesting about this thread is I can tell what area people live in by what they are burning. Like those in the NW are saying stuff like; burning the last of my pine right now, waiting on the cold weather before I break into the fir. Those in the NE are burning soft maple now, holding back the hard maple and oak. The guys in the mid-west are starting into the oak already, and the guys in the SW are burning oak because it isn't cold enough to start into the locust and hickory yet.

 

[stihly dan]

-7 F last night here.

Really? Already? C'mon your joking! Right? Oh God that sounds terrible...