Into the Fire
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One of the things we’re learning the hard way is that if you heat your home with wood, it is very important to get it cut and drying long before cold weather hits. This is not new information for us, but unfortunately, we didn’t really have that opportunity because we moved in the late fall/early winter. The weather was nice here but it had been cool and the house needed heating. There was a little bit of wood available but we needed to obtain more wood. We’re farm sitting for the winter and this property is mostly pasture. There isn’t a lot of dead wood available. Luckily there is public land close by and I’ve been able to get a permit to cut dead wood there.
I’ve found plenty of dead wood, but not all of it is good for burning right away. In Utah, things dry out very quickly! We are still getting used to how wet things are here! It seems that it has rained at least once a week so any wood that is sitting on the ground begins to rot pretty quickly. The hardwoods are rot resistant but when they sit on the ground and get rained on so frequently, they soak up that moisture and it makes for an inefficient burn that is difficult to get started.
At one point we even decided to purchase some wood. I drove about 30 minutes to pick it up and we were not very happy with it. It had even more moisture than the wood I had been cutting. It was also cut in very large pieces that didn’t fit very well in the wood furnace.
To add to the challenge, this house has lots of air gaps, poor insulation and very little southern exposure for solar gain. The air gaps and insulation could be solved with some renovation but the solar gain is something that usually needs to be considered in the design of the home. Because of all of this, we go through quite a bit of firewood.
I feel like cutting, splitting, and stacking firewood has become a part time job! I do actually enjoy it as long as my saw isn’t giving me trouble. It’s a good excuse to get out into the woods for a little while and it’s given me some good education on two stroke engines, sharpening saws, etc. The issue is that we go through it so fast that it doesn’t really have a lot of time to dry before it goes into the furnace. So whatever structure we end up in next winter, I want to make sure that we have a good stack of firewood that we have setup to dry long before winter sets in! Luckily by then, we’ll be on our own property with plenty of wood of our own to cut. Hopefully, we’ll have a more efficient building and heating system in place as well!
I’ve noticed that with more wet wood, there are a few tools that have helped us. One thing that has been helpful is to have lots of kindling! Otherwise the larger chunks of wood just don’t’ ever catch. Before we even moved, Mary bought me a kindling splitter. I honestly wasn’t sure I would like it. However, I do like this tool. It makes it easy to make kindling and what I especially like about it is that it allows the kids to help with that job as well. Of course, they don’t stay on it very long and I usually end up having to do most of it but I like giving the kids an opportunity to help. I like this style of splitter because it has the guard ring around the top which makes it so the kids don’t slam the hammer directly into the blade. They can use it safely and contribute as much as they can. Another helpful tool is a cheap heat gun from Harbor Freight. I have gone through a LOT of heat guns while working at Unshoes. Honestly, I’m impressed at how long the Harbor Freight gun has lasted! When the air is cool or humid, it’s sometimes difficult to know what wood is has more moisture content and what is more dry. We purchased a moisture sensor to test the moisture content of the wood. For some reason, I kind of forget to use it sometimes! It would certainly be better if I used it more while out gathering wood. Lastly, we purchased an inexpensive chimney sweep kit and made sure that the chimney was clean. More moisture means that the wood doesn’t burn as hot and creosote can build up. We wanted to make sure that we cleaned that out to prevent chimney fires. It was a dirty job, but it felt good to know that the flu and chimney were cleaned out!
This is not a professional photo but it was 100% candid! I came walking around the corner and the 6 year old had been teaching the 3 year old how to use the kindling splitter!
The wood furnace also needs a little (or a lot) more attention than just turning on a thermostat. As I write this, I can smell a little smoke which means that the fire I started before I sat at the computer hasn’t properly caught and I need to go stoke it up. Although it does require more attention and patience, there is something wonderful about heating with wood. It brings back memories of staying with my grandparents as a child. I love starting a fire and then sitting in front of it for a little while just watching it! There is something very primal and comforting about hearing that crackling sound of a good fire! I love it!
