Wood Heat Thread ~ post pics

Humph. Now I feel bad about that piece of 4x4 Canadian Doug Fir I used as a header for the door to my workshop.

 

I don't see how that tree keeps standing through the next fall/winter wind storm with no protection around it.

 

It's been on it's own since 2012 and we've had some brutal storms this season , I hope it stays standing but it's definitely more precarious now

 

Yeah, no other trees to help break the wind...
They cut around 70 acres behind my high school when I was a sophomore and did pretty much a clear cut; just left a few big pines as "Seed Trees" to get the plot started again. By the time I graduated all but one of those big pines had blown over, and the one that was left standing was missing a lot of limbs and wasn't too healthy.

 

Swept the chimney this week.
This is why I hate burning unseasoned wood. But, that's what happens when the winter lasts forever. I dosed it pretty heavy with that Rutland Creosote Destroyer powder during the last few weeks of burning, so it scraped loose pretty easy, but still...it's a lot more creosote than I like to see in my chimney.

 

OK guys. I need to have some trees cleared for fire safety. They're all pine and fir.

Now, whether you're burning for heat in a fireplace or cooking in a smoker, everyone always says "Geez, don't burn pine/fir softwood. Burn Hardwood!"

But I just can't bring myself to have the tree cutters haul/throw away perfectly good wood. They're cutting it - and I actually would need to pay them *MORE* to haul away stuff I ought to be able to burn. That's just seems stupid.

So - any advice on burning softwood?

 

Whenever we have to burn pine or any softwood for that matter after we split it have a nice dry place to store it keeps really good if it stays dry but will rot if left out in the elements over time. We usually burn a lot of softwoods during the fall when it gets cool at nights but is nice during the day.

 

Well you wouldn't want to use pine or fir in a smoker because all of your food would taste like turpentine.
As for using it for heat, if it's properly seasoned you can burn some pine, but you probably don't want to burn pine exclusively. Pine takes forever to season. Until it's seasoned it dumps a TON of creosote into your chimney, and then once it is seasoned it burns really fast and hot, so it's really not a great firewood (IMHO). Seasoned pine is good for campfires, and dry pine makes a great firestarter or kindling, but I wouldn't want to try heating my house with it.
Buck it up, split it, and season it, and then tie it up in bundles and sell it to campers or campgrounds for campfires.

No experience with other firs, so I can't say much about them.

 

Everybody here burns fir almost exclusively

 

It will be fine. More sparky and less heat, but I burn about 3 cords of spruce/fir a year with no troubles. That is all we burn up here, mainly because there is no real amount of hardwood close by. The great thing about softwood is that it will season on one year. Where I live it takes at least two years to season birch or maple.

 

I went through quite a bit of pine last year to heat my house. i also had a chimney fire and didn't realize it until i had some people out to sweep the chimney. pine will give more of the crackling and popping fire.

 

I have a lot of Douglas fir in my area, I like to have a nice mix of that in my pile. It makes excellent kindling/fire starting material. I also like to use it for a quick hot fire, like a cold morning when all you want is some quick heat but not a long lasting burn. Fir/pine both burn very hot, just not for very long. I would defiantly keep it especially if it cost you more to remove. Like others have said it does spark and crackle (very pitchy) and will clog up your chimney faster if you burn tons of it.

 

I burn Fir , Alder , Cedar and Madrone

 

If it burns like coal (as you've said it does before), I imagine Madrone is a fairly effective way of keeping the flu clear. They always say not to burn coal after burning wood for a long period until you've swept your flu because of the risk of a creosote burnoff.

 

I clean my chimney once a year and don't get much creosote at all

 

How long do you have to season the pine?

 

1 year , same for fir and spruce

 

I let it sit for a year. Splitting it was interesting for a few pieces because they seemed to have the grain twist so I was getting some wide and thin pieces rather than a basic wedge.

 

They are like putting butter in a frying pan before cooking eggs. Do it right after a sweeping early in the burning season.

 

I don't know; I've never used them. I sweep mine every year, and usually there's only enough creosote in there to fill a couple of solo cups. This year it was closer to a gallon bucket's worth, since of the extra 2 cord I burned one of them had only been split for about 6 months.
It was a long, cold winter this year. Typically I set up 5 cord, burn 4, and have most of 1 left over to set aside for the cook stove (that way it gets an extra year to season up). This year I put up 5 cord and burned 6.