Cutting FireWood Warms You Twice Unless...

... it happens to be 20°F outside while you are cutting. LOL

Brr... it was a cold day this day. But we still managed to have a good time cutting wood as a family.

Neat jungle gym.


Bundled up against the cold.

OK -- I swear -- I did not pick this photo... where is the neat one of Milo? Hmm...

Well -- here is the man using the chainsaw. I bet he kept warm. This wood will warm him twice.

We've learned this year to be picky on the type of wood we cut. Oak warms us nicely... slowly... less filling of the furnace! I get more sleep that way.

Thanks to the Kingerys and the Bebouts we are staying WARM this winter!

Wood Heat Part 3

The truck is full. That plastic garbage can is full of "kindling". That's the little pieces of wood chips and bark that I use to start a fresh fire. I hope to not have to start very many fires fresh. When we leave the house, or lay down for a good nights sleep, we shut the "nut". I don't really know what it's called, but it cuts down on the amount of oxygen the fire gets, so it will not burn so HOT. If it burns slow, then there may be coals left when you come back to the fire. If not... then you start fresh. Needing lots of newspaper, and kindling. If there are red hot coals left in the bottom of the furnace, you can just lay more wood on top of them and they will start to burn. I love red hot coals! Less work.

Here is the empty stackers. 2x4's in black plastic forms. It will hold 1 weeks worth of wood. We have a set outside the door as well. The one outside we try not to touch unless it NEEDED. Some weeks are more icy or wet then others. Then we can't get vehicles down by the pole barn for a fresh load of wood. But if it's dry... we go get another load and restack the inside pile. See the pretty new window in the wall? It's new because the old one got cracked last year by a stray piece of wood. Now we don't try to stack it so high by the window.

Once the supply is stocked up -- we start stoking. Stoking the fire! One of my favorite jobs.

You can see the stacker in the background -- it's full.

I should have taken a photo of my new gloves. They are long welding gloves. This summer my arms got tan and my burn scars really showed up. Nice... So this winter Dan put hinges on that metal plate on the front... so it can swing in when you put wood in, and the gloves will protect my arms even more. Last winter I put a piece of wood in -- it got stopped suddenly by another piece of wood already in the stove. So the forward motion stopped and my arm went UP... into the hot metal. My first reaction? I looked at the burn, it looked like my skin had melted, and I thought, "Wow -- that's going to hurt." I shut the stove up and headed upstairs. Finally on the stairs it did... it really started hurting. Did I learn my lesson? No... I've got 3 burn marks on my right arm. Only 1 was really bad.

My friend Robin asked, "Why don't you wear long sleeves?" Well -- I wasn't sure at first. But I know now. Short sleeves are my thermometer. When my arms gets cold in the middle of the night... it wakes me up and I know it's time to stoke the fire. Wouldn't want to have to start a fresh fire. Speaking of which... I'd better go check the furnace.

THE END

Wood Heat Part 2

After the wood gets split... the manual labor continues. This is where it pays to have more than 1 child. °Ü° If you don't work, you don't keep warm. Well... something like that. Tori is a GOOD wood packer.

Danielle is a GOOD wood stacker.

Dan is a WHA...?
He loves the smell of fresh split wood. He's teaching the kiddos just how it's done. Sniiiiifffff!

The pile is getting higher. We take split wood up to the house by the truck load. This little truck - not the "green wood truck" - will hold 2 stacks worth. What's a stack you say?

To Be Continued

Wood Heat Part 1

We heat our house with wood in the winter. The heat starts out looking like this. ACTUALLY... it starts out as a dead tree. We find them. Dan cuts them down with a chain saw. He then cuts them up into lengths that will fit into our wood furnace. If it is 4" thick or less... it's burnable right then. If it is wider... then it must be split. This is a pile of wood that needs to be split. We load all of these unto the "green wood truck", and bring it home. The burnable stuff gets piled into this pole barn where it stays dry until it's time to be used to heat the house.

The stuff that gets split gets piled just outside of the pole barn, where we do the splitting. I say WE loosely.

Say hello to the splitter. Dan got this used somewhere.. it's home made. It'll do.

One has to lift the wood up unto the splitter. Sometimes two have to do the lifting. Dan really lifts and I steer when they are HUGE. It gets balanced on the rail, then a hydraulic piston pushes the heavy log into the wedge. The wedge then splits the wood, most of the time. If it doesn't split... just wait until it gets very cold outside. Then the wood splits nicely. The splitter eliminates the need for an ax. Praise the Lord!

Success...

To be Continued.