I cannot tell a lie - seven times....

R

rogerbum

New member
Well, it was an absolutely stunning fall weekend in the Pacific NW and I had chores to do. The previous owner of our house planted 7 cherry trees about 2-3' away from a retaining wall. They've been topped and trimmed for probably 20+ years. The trunks were about 12-14" in diameter and the roots were starting to push out the retaining wall below (and grow along the surface into the grass. So after 2-3 years of procrastination on may part, this was the weekend they all came out. From 10AM -4PM yesterday without a break and 9AM - 4PM today without a break, I was outside with the Stihl chain saw chopping those babies down and cutting them into pieces small enough to fit into the pickup truck. The trees were about 30' tall overall. 7 trips to the dump (and one more tomorrow AM) and they're gone.

I've got much better views of the Cascades now, but I'm too tired to look at the damn things. I haven't done this much manual labor for a couple of years and every muscle aches this evening. It will be hard getting up tomorrow but my day job work will be calling early. Just thought Oldgrowth Dave might enjoy finding out that a fat professor can run a chain saw when needed (just don't call me to help around your place - you've got WAY too many trees for me to help with).

So - I cannot tell 7 lies - I did cut down those cherry trees.
 
It's almost too late - what size would you want? Most stuff I have gotten rid of but I still have a truck load to go tomorrow and the stuff I dropped off today and yesterday hasn't yet been chipped.
 
Roger,
Ouch, the dump for chips. Even for smoker chips they are $$$/pound. Back when I was burning wood, Cherry would go for about $150 a cord. And my father-in-law about had a heart attack when he found out I was burning it. He made lamps, bowels, and footballs, and got anywhere from $150 on up for each piece.
But you do what you have to do, right?
Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
Roger - I don’t think I would use the word “fat” to describe you.

I know just how you feel after your ordeal. Early this Spring Terri and I decided to cut down an old willow tree in the front yard. It wasn’t very tall because I had trimmed it several times in the last 25 years. It’s diameter was about the same as its height, (37 feet). It took us two full days to clean up the mess. I cut the trunk into 16 to 18 inch lengths and the heavier ones still weighed over 200 lbs. Terri used a section of it for a stool to get to one of her bird feeders and it continued growing most of the summer.

I sure wished it was another type of wood besides willow. Wood is still our primary source of heat and the house being an old farm house with old windows and doors, it takes 5-½ to 7 cords of firewood per season.

________
Dave dlt.gif
 
I bought a new Bradley smoker last X-mas so I have no need for chips (it uses biscuits), The fireplace I use most often is gas but I do have a wood fireplace. However, most of the trees were long scraggly branches and the firewood potential was low. There might be a few pieces that would be OK for firewood but I also have a huge douglas fir that is coming down in a few months that will produce 5-10 years of firewood at the rate we use it. I might be able to find some pieces worth turning for Dave though.

Regardless, getting rid of the trees was what my wife wanted and tell her why I should not toss it all would have been more trouble than just getting rid of it all. You know the look/questions - "So exactly when will you burn all that" or "Yeh, like you're really going to make something with that" etc.
 
Roger,
Sorry, didn't mean to get on you. I have heated with wood for 28 years, and much of that I cut my own trees. I have also, because I was cutting trees down, tried to be careful of what was cutting and also of replanting. (Having spent some years breathing oxygen, and promoting it to others, I felt I should try to keep a one to one ratio on the tree count.) Right now I have a couple of pear trees and a holly that may need to be taken out and I think I'm ahead on the cutting side already. But there is no heat like good wood heat.
Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
hardee":1c7jd6vz said:
But there is no heat like good wood heat.
Harvey
SleepyC :moon
Click to expand...

I concur 100%. The wood heat just makes the house warmer than any other method, other than the one day of summer we get here every year. I've been able to keep supplied with plenty of firewood, just with "blowdowns" on our place in recent years.
 
Next Monday we are replacing the POS wood stove that came with the house with a new Lopi stove. We are looking forward to finding out firsthand whether the benefits of a wood stove are all that you guys (and others) say. It's my first wood stove (my 2nd, if you count the one it's replacing.)

One thing I have been mulling over is where does wood combustion fit into the energy, CO2, particulates, etc. picture? Obviously, wood is a renewable resource, but beyond that I am not familiar with the specifics of how it pollutes (all combustion pollutes to one degree or another.)

Thanks,
Warren
 
Lori Ann":2r5itt1t said:
Next Monday we are replacing the POS wood stove that came with the house with a new Lopi stove. We are looking forward to finding out firsthand whether the benefits of a wood stove are all that you guys (and others) say. It's my first wood stove (my 2nd, if you count the one it's replacing.)

One thing I have been mulling over is where does wood combustion fit into the energy, CO2, particulates, etc. picture? Obviously, wood is a renewable resource, but beyond that I am not familiar with the specifics of how it pollutes (all combustion pollutes to one degree or another.)

Thanks,
Warren
Click to expand...

Hi Warren,
When we built our house in '93 we installed a Lopi wood stove and couldn't be happier with it! (I would say that you have made an excellent choice!). Our Lopi has an intake at the bottom of it that "pipes" outside air from the crawl space beneath the house. Although you can equip these stoves with squirrel cage type fans for disseminating the warm air into the house, I've merely chosen to place a fan on a mantle behind the stove which blows around the stove pipe and the stove top. Since, our Lopi is 14 yrs old, most likely some type of improvements have been made in that time to improve efficiency and decrease harmful emissions of the stove that you have purchased.

A visual clue as to how clean/efficient a wood stove is burning is to view the smoke coming from the chimney. If you can readily see through it, then it is efficient. The type of wood and how well seasoned and dry it is will affect the efficiency of heat/burning/emissions. If wood condition is not adhered to properly, a person is "courting" not only inefficiency but the likelihood of creosote formation in your chimney that in a worse case scenario can plug a chimney, ignite in a roaring flame (like a blow torch with the sound of a freight train running through your house) and ultimately a house fire. Additionally a creosote plugged chimney can create a "backdraft" effect and when the door of the stove is opened and fresh air (O2) is introduced a ball of fire can explode out to you (read personal injury and house fire). (I personally have been witness to each of these phenomenons). (Have I scared you yet? :mrgreen: ) That is not my intent, but too many folks don't take proper care of their wood stoves and chimneys and as a result, they call me out in the middle of the night to extinguish their house fire.

I've stated that I use wood off my own property. I try to have wood cut, split and stacked at least a year before I use it. Additionally, I supplement my stove wood supply with manufactured logs that I purchase at the CO - OP supply in town. There are two types available at our C0 -OP. (One is a hotter/faster burning log...like the old "presto logs" and the other is a not as hot/slower burning log). At night time we have one of the slower burning logs in the stove and at times during the day when we will be away from the house for extended periods of time. When we are home we do the combination of the slower burning logs with the natural logs or just natural logs alone.

When used as I have described, our stove pipe is always impeccably clean and I've NEVER had a chimney fire in it!

With a new (to you) stove, I recommend frequent inspection of your chimney until you feel comfortable that the combustion process is efficient and complete.

From the time we "fire up" our wood stove in the fall (ie: October) to the spring (ie: March). Our wood stove is constantly hot. (I let it die down occasionally just enough that I can actually open the door and VERY CAREFULLY remove the ashes. (Then I place wood in the stove and with the hand bellows breathe flame back to life and don't even need a match).
(One match for a whole winter season of heat).

Our home is a two story 2200 Sq ft home. With the fan behind the stove and a large ceiling fan in the upstairs hallway we manage to keep comfortable. (The large ceiling fan upstairs is an exhaust fan that sucks the warm air from downstairs to the second story). (We do have individual electric wall heaters in various rooms of the house, which on occasion are turned on briefly to remove any chill in a particular room).

(P.S. When you remove ash from your stove, take it immediately outside and deposit it in a safe spot far from your house.....I've been on a number of house fires caused by ashes in an ash bucket set just outside the back door of a house!)

I'm sure that you and none of our fellow c-brats would do this, but DO NOT through flammable fluids in a wood stove in order to start the wood stove fire. (Don't laugh....I've been on a house fire that was caused exactly by that!.....and by the way there is no house in that spot now!)

As far as your concern of polluting the air we breathe with unhealthy emissons/particulates etc. I try to be cognizant of how I affect "mother earth/air. We all pollute in some way or another, (I make shopping lists in order to spend less time driving and blowing diesel pollutants into the air, recycle cans, bottles, paper etc.) But I certainly enjoy the warmth of wood heat, and am fortunate to live in the country where my neighbors are some distance aways from me. (In some communities in this area aesthetic wood stove burning is banned at times during the year).

I apologize for the lengthy post that probably bores some of you, but remember this is the "pub" where we sit and converse over a beer or three about a myriad of subjects. Additionally, you never know when you might decide to throw your Wallas stove overboard and these comments I've made might prevent you from making any mistakes that might not keep your C-Dory a float when you install a wood stove on your fine vessel. :wink

(Cool, I even mentioned C-Dory and wood stove in the same sentence.. :smiled )
 
Roger , removeing trees with out a permit from the growth management act folk, did you get a enviroment impact statement/study. How about carbon credits to off set the chain saw.. just givin you a hard time.

I have heated with wood in many houses in the past, several of which are in areas that no longer "allow" you to do so. I always felt that allowing people to clean up the fallen trees in the national forest for free wood was a good idea. Kept the floor clean and was a free sourse of energy. to bad more homes are not heatted with wood today.
 
DaveS":n8o5y6y7 said:
(Cool, I even mentioned C-Dory and wood stove in the same sentence.. :smiled )
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I have a cord of year-old wood waiting in the shed, which is next to the driveway where I park my C-Dory Tom Cat when it is on the hard (keeping the topic on C-Dories backatcha! :smiled

Thanks for all the tips. I did a lot of reading up on the subject when we bought the house and had the chimney cleaned, etc. Never successfully got a fire going in that POS stove so am hoping that our Lopi will be as easy to use as yours seems to be.

Warren
 
Of the 23 different homes we've lived in since starting married life 39 years ago the majority were heated with wood. Several were heated exclusively with wood and with temperatures down to -50 F Burned up to 10 cords a year which was a family event in the procuring. Heat our home now with a combination of wood, coal and propane. The wood is for the fireplace and mostly of aesthetic value. Love that open fire place reminds me of evenings when I was a kid and the family gathered around one reading, talking or other wise sharing the days events. Jo-Lee and I also enjoy the process now of going out to the mountains each year to cut a few cords of wood.

On a note concerning wood burning emissions. Only relation to c-dorys is during this time of our life our main dream was owning a c-dory and escaping the high stress job I was doing. That job was being Plant Manager of a large Waferwood Plant that produced 10,000 4'x8' sheets of waferwood every 24 hours using mainly aspen trees as a source of raw material. In the production process the aspen had to be dried down from over 100% moisture content to approximately 3 % using wood dust as the heat agent. The cutting of the trees and the emissions from the process drew the ire of the more extreme elements of the eviromentalist and resulted in this plant and another, its twin being shut down. The irony of this is these plants were built to help the aspen trees survive the encroachment of the conifer in Colorado. The aspen tree has a very short life span and without cutting, fire or some other type of rejuvenation they either die out or are overcome by the conifer type trees. The previous answer to this problem by the federal and state governments was to pay workers to slash and burn these trees. And yes since the successful demise of these plants it is back to that process now.
When the plants were in operation the cutting of the trees was on a sustainable yield basis. Meaning no more trees were cut in a year then would be able to grow back naturally. The emissions from the plant were minuet compared to the slash and burn policy. On the other side the company I worked for had a very poor environmental record and had to be brought kicking and screaming into our more aware era. It was just a shame that an overall sound policy, better paying jobs, the tax payers dollar and a good product needed for new homes and remodeling had to suffer the way it did.

Jay
 
Warren,
One of the things that has not been mentioned (and I liked Daves thriftiness, and saving the environment by only using one match per season :thup ) is that different woods burn differently. Harder woods like oak, walnut or apple or cherry will burn hot and long if properly attended. Softer woods, lodgepole pine, alder, some firs will burn quicker, produce more ash, and less heat and more work. There were many winters that I only started one fire per season. Cleaning the ash out, after raking hot coals to one side, and then re stoking the stove and letting it burn across, generally only adding fuel once in 24 hours. My favorite trick was to lite a cold stove with one match, and 3 pieces 12 - 14" diameter and 2ft long, and no kindling. Yes it can be done, if you are burning juniper. It is a nice oily wood, with raggy bark, and burns hot and long. Once I learned that I never split kindling again.

Start your stove fire with small pieces, graduated up from very small, even shaving size up to 1" diameter, then gradually larger. Give it lots of air, and let it get to be roaring. While it is doing this it is warming the stove. Once the stove is hot, you can add the large pieces, and let them get burning well then close down the dampers and flue and let them continue to burn slow and hot. Heating the stove will also heat the stove pipe and chimney, and prevent creosote buildup. This works especially well if you have well seasoned wood as several others have mentioned. As Dave said, go outside and check your smoke. If your fire is burning hot, you should see very little smoke. A smokey fire is depositing creosote. That means you are going to need the chimney sweep more often. I used to do my own, and would check it every 2 weeks, but rarely would I need to sweep more than once a season.

One other item, just in case you are parking the TomCat down wind and you happen to have a canvas cover on it. A good spark arrester on the chimney could save the C-Dory cover from looking like a holey blanket. (There I got C-Dory into this one too :roll: )

OK, one more one more, Make sure you keep Carbon Monoxide detectors in your house. That goes for anyone burning any fossil fuel too.

OK, My $0.02 worth. OH, another good thing about wood heat. is that one piece of would can heat you up as many as 5 or 6 times, and that is before you put it into the stove to burn :)

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
I'm not sure what kind of wood I have. I sure have a lot of it, though! I bought a cord from a guy advertising in the paper. I think it might be alder -- I will ask.

Thanks for all the tips, everyone!

Warren
 
Warren - most wood (around 55-60%) sold by wood cutters in this area (Western Washington) is Alder, then Doug Fir and Maple account for about 15% each. Other common woods sold by wood cutters in this area are Hemlock, Ash, Grand Fir, Cottonwood, and Wild Cherry.

Rated from best to worse would be Ash, Maple, Doug Fir, Wild Cherry, Alder, Grand Fir, Hemlock, Cottonwood.

Ash, Maple and Doug Fir burn clean and leave very little ash build up in your stove.
Wild Cherry is good but leaves a little more ash than the first three.
Alder will leave more ash build up in a week than Doug Fir will in six weeks.
Cottonwood is not worth burning. Grand Fir and Hemlock are close to Alder for heat with a little less ash build up than Alder.
BTU’s would follow my best to worse ranking above.

Oak, Madrona, Apple and Pines are rare around here for firewood, so I did not include them above. In my personal opinion Oak is not what it is built up to be. While it gives slightly more BTU’s than Ash, it produces just as much ash build up as Alder which can be a pain in the but.

If you want the very best burning wood, burn Vine Maple. Large Vine Maple (3+ inches in diameter) will burn just about as hot and long as coal. I have seen Vine Maple as large as 13 inches in diameter. The next best is Doug Fir Limbs (3+ inches in diameter). DF limbs are not as good as Vine Maple but better than any of the other woods I have listed above.

In the mid to late 80’s I had a firewood business. I had a partner and the two of us would put out 15 to 20 cords in a long day, from standing timber to cut split and loaded on semi trucks. I would fall the trees and yard them into the landing with a skidder. We had a wood processor that he ran and it would cut, split and load the firewood onto the trucks.
________
Dave dlt.gif
 
oldgrowth":3vt1v2o4 said:
<stuff clipped>
In the mid to late 80’s I had a firewood business. I had a partner and the two of us would put out 15 to 20 cords in a long day, from standing timber to cut split and loaded on semi trucks. I would fall the trees and yard them into the landing with a skidder. We had a wood processor that he ran and it would cut, split and load the firewood onto the trucks.
________
Dave dlt.gif
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Dave,
Thanks for the advice on different types of firewood. I have a roughly 70+' Douglas fir coming down on Fri that will be cut to firewood length and left on my property. I'll be renting a splitter at some point to deal with that. I'm guessing that your current line of work is a lot better on your back than the firewood business!
 
Dave

Very good advice on the different types of firewood and there burning characteristics.

When I was 15 and my brother 16 we spent one whole summer camped out in a tent cutting black oak for firewood to sell. The nearest home was 30 miles on a dirt road. If my brother and I could have cut a quarter of the volume you did while in the firewood business we wouldn't ended up just breaking even after a whole summer of work.

When that young and younger in our own home Mansineata (don't think thats the correct spelling) was used in the kitchen stove and black oak in the fireplace. Don't know for sure, but bet the Mansineata would be close in burning characteristics to the Large Vine Maple and the Black Oak almost as good. What we knew as the Valley Oak or Mush Oak wouldn't be used for fire wood unless the land needed to be cleared anyway, because of just what you described.

Jay
 
oldgrowth":3a6obd67 said:
most wood (around 55-60%) sold by wood cutters in this area (Western Washington) is Alder, then Doug Fir and Maple account for about 15% each. Other common woods sold by wood cutters in this area are Hemlock, Ash, Grand Fir, Cottonwood, and Wild Cherry.

Rated from best to worse would be Ash, Maple, Doug Fir, Wild Cherry, Alder, Grand Fir, Hemlock, Cottonwood.
Click to expand...

My problem is that I have not lived here long enough to develop sources of wood other than what is advertised in the local paper -- and that has uniformly been alder. Would love to get pinion pine as that is what my dad got for his fireplace, but that comes from the high desert. A long way from Anacortes. How can I get ash or maple?

Thanks,
Warren
 
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