Big BEAUTIFUL Wood for Uno!

Yah I couldn't live with his decorating style either its just to cold looking for a cozy log pile but the idea is awesome

Magdelan wrote:here's something "woody"
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Beautiful , but I have to wonder what made him do it ? Fame ? or to much time on his hands ?

Now that's a pile of cool ideas!

I wish I had the time to stack my wood like that, I roll into a pile under a tarp and dig it out when I run out in the house. I am thankful for the warm weather right now (plus 6 when I left home, plus 12 in town) as it means I won't have to burn much for a few days. I will be ordering a new log pile this spring, maybe I will get it all cut and stacked before winter and have a fancy pile to take a picture of  

We have been especially disgusted with our firewood this year. It feels cooler than normal in the house and we have been wondering if squirrels, over the years, have pilfered every last shred of insulation in the ceiling. Why are we cold?

Turns out that we are not big fans of larch (tamarac) as a firewood. Yes, we'll burn what we can get. THis year we bought a load of wood and it is mostly larch. Wet, slightly punky larch. We are unimpressed and under-heated.

For our home and furnace our preference is fir and pine. But, there is a formula. For a quick burst of heat to get things going, a few chunks of cedar, followed by fir or pine, and just before bed, another piece of fir and some birch. We'd all like to think it's as simple as just hucking a piece of wood on the fire. BUt we find, over time, that like crafters of wines, we have wood blends that we prefer and they differ depending on time of day and condition of weather. Really, heating with wood is an art.

we use larch, love it second to fir. but we don't use wet punky stuff and in combo with fir is best. pine schmine.    it is bad bad bad for our wood cook stove, too much creosote. The firebox burns differently to a furnace I am guessing. No double burning for us unfortunately but that stove is like a hottie that stays hot all night with wonderful big firebox. I know there is more to learn. would try birch if we could get it.

Magdelan, I think what you burn in, where it is located, how much you can load into it...all this puts each of us in a slightly different burning situation.

We find birch makes it so hot in here we can't stand it. A furnace full of birch will KILL us! That's why one piece at a time with the birch. But it makes the heaviest and most ash.

Larch might be okay if it was dry and sound. Ours is not. Pine and fir are by far the faves for our behemoth furnace.

Oh Uno you should post a pic of your behemoth furnace

No. I'm ashamed.   

uno wrote:Turns out that we are not big fans of larch (tamarac) as a firewood. Yes, we'll burn what we can get. THis year we bought a load of wood and it is mostly larch. Wet, slightly punky larch. We are unimpressed and under-heated.

I am with Magdelan
We used to use Larch when we had two mother cookers..one huge monster in the basement, and larch was such great wood, fir is my second.
We lived in Cranbrook at the time and Larch is their wood out there....find some good larch and you would use it over fir any day

uno wrote:Magdelan, I think what you burn in, where it is located, how much you can load into it...all this puts each of us in a slightly different burning situation.

We find birch  makes it so hot in here we can't stand it. A furnace full of birch will KILL us! That's why one piece at a time with the birch. But it makes the heaviest and most ash.

Larch might be okay if it was dry and sound. Ours is not. Pine and fir are by far the faves for our behemoth furnace.

I hear what you are saying   .  Or, as my son says "I feel ya, I feel ya".
Yeah Bigrock, our wood is basically larch - for as far as the eye can see, if there is a tree standing it is a larch tree (or pine or fir). We really notice it when the needles change in autumn, just golden everywhere.

I have a bit of big, beautiful wood to brag about.  I had a few trees cut down on my property and had it bucked and chopped.  All I had to do was stack it.

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I see something beautiful in all of those photos, and as I sit here sipping tea and watching the fire burn, I am warm again. I love wood heat, and am SO lucky to have some trees ready to come down that I was able to "put in the pantry" so to speak.

Tea?! That looks like a Caesar to me!
Nice wood!

That was weeks ago! The refreshment after stacking wood all day.

A suitcase? You bring wood along on trips? Most hotels are heated you know.

bigrock wrote:

uno wrote:Turns out that we are not big fans of larch (tamarac) as a firewood. Yes, we'll burn what we can get. THis year we bought a load of wood and it is mostly larch. Wet, slightly punky larch. We are unimpressed and under-heated.

I am with Magdelan
We used to use Larch when we had two mother cookers..one huge monster in the basement, and larch was such great wood, fir is my second.
We lived in Cranbrook at the time and Larch is their wood out there....find some good larch and you would use it over fir any day

Okay , what I think you're calling Larch ( Russian ) is in all actuality Tamarack , a common tree in almost all parts of Canada  which prefers a wet environment . and you're right if that is what you're referring to , it is listed as the best for heat , low ash residue and long burning . I only started hearing Tamarack being called Larch when the nurseries started selling them as a  accent tree for home owners a few years back .If you look up Tamarack you'll see why the confusion

uno wrote:No. I'm ashamed.   

Well I was gonna say I'll post a pic of my ridiculously huge ugly stove that doesn't look anything near as pretty as farmchiq's but know I'm ashamed of my ugliness. On top of the fact that it under the house in a crawl space with our now oodles of wood that we have been working at stocking.

Yes I know I should have had this done already but with hubby's hand being so looooong healing it really did set us back a good couple months.

having just now googled images for tamarack, that is what we call larch. It is an amazing tree actually, you know the snow is not far when all the needles on the larch have turned brilliant chrome yellow and then fall to the ground to make it look like you live in a golden world and walk on golden carpet   . We live in a semi arid area here, not far from the alleged desert that Osoyoos is situated in. I am sure they love water too but they really thrive here where there is often no rain all summer (well, maybe some but not much - last year was quite wet actually, now I think about it). The ground is so dry by the end of summer it is like dust unless has been watered. I would say more than half the trees around us are larch and probably 80% of the trees on our property are.

Yeah, I was going to photograph my big dull painted black rectangle that is quite possibly the least aesthetic wood cook stove you can imagine, and it is plonked right in the center of our kitchen/entryway to the lounge - it spends the day with its oven door open because that is how it acts as a space heater, unless we are using it to bake with. I loooooooove it. It is ugly as ugly but it is my pride and joy, works so well for us. We took the very beautiful and shiny shiny pacific energy huge wood stove that was there out in favor of the wood cook stove because it is dual (and could be hooked up with water jacket at some point) purpose - I think it probably heats better than the Pacific Energy (which I couldn't bare to pass on so it sits wrapped in plastic in the barn under a load of wood and the dust that the blessed chickens have managed to spread around so thoroughly. I want to build an earth bermed home one day and see that in there. ooo, dreams :-).

Magdelan, is your stove CSA approved? I have a cook stove from the 1800s, and once I leave htis home, that stove will NEVER be cleared for home insurance again. We jumped through hoops 22 years ago to get home insurance with that stove in my kitchen. I have now been warned that if we ever move we better take that stove to the landfill.

This makes me extremely angry and is a glaring example of corporate ignorance at its worst! This old woodstove has a firebox literally the size of a shoe box and burns at such a rate that if you are not present to put another piece of wood in ever 11 minutes, it goes out. It poses pretty much NO FIRE RISK since a person must be in attendance at all times, if you want to keep a fire going. But being of solid cast iron, once it heats up, it stays warm for hours. It sits on a slab of exposed aggregate on a floor that is SERIOUSLY reinforced to support its weight. I light it about 10 times a year and pay $600 a year MORE for house insurance than any of my neighours because I have it in my home. BUt in a power outage they would all have to leave their homes for warmth and food. Not me. Hot water, coffee, soup and warmth in one outlawed package.

yeah, it is CSA approved  -  not an antique and not cast iron either  -  I love cast iron.  I always like those AGA cookers in the British Isles and probably all through Europe.  Here is a link for my stove with all the specs on it, the firebox is just the shizzle.  I know you can get wood cook stoves that have much bigger fireboxes but we had a budget to work with and this one fitted well.  I would love to have it set on a proper plinth but right now it is on an approved cheap protector that works until we go any further with flooring stuff.

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If we pack it correctly we get sometimes 10 hrs burning from one load.  It is not pumping heat out like crazy but enough to keep the house warm while we are out and a trip to Kelowna can be a long one for us because kill about 50 birds with one stone  -  that's a mission.  Coming home after that to relight the stove is pretty suckful.  I'm going to be the brave one and show my ugly stove and messy house too   .  I can't believe I am doing this, no cleaning or anything, here it is.    Its not packed for a 10 hr stint, those logs in there have been in for about 4 hrs already and will go for another 2 or 3 I guess  -  I'm making it burn fastish for the warmth (although it is zero out there so not really necessary).  I need to clean out the ash actually  -  not just for efficiency of heat but for the chickens dust bath!  [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
We get such good burn times because it is airtight I guess.  So Uno now you can do it too, put your furnace on here.  It can't possibly look dirtier or more shameful then what you see above.  I am the least house proud person out there but still feel aware that I have a messy picture there.  we are our own worst critics, dog gone it.

That's pretty cool Magdelan. Meh no worries about the mess we all have our own messes. I was only really interested in the stove, lol.   

Woa! Nice cook stove!

ah, tanks very much. it is pretty plane though. really, not as aesthetic as it could be but for the price very hard to find one that will perform the way it does. This is the stove I would love to have:
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It is in Ausie but they sell in the UK too and I believe there is one called a Heartland Artisan wood cook stove (Lehmans sell it) on this continent that can be bought so one day it could be mine.

And because I think I hijacked this thread about big beautiful wood, thought I'd revisit with another version of the concept, can be seen from space even, and it is in Alberta:
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funny, one of the comments below the pictures is that is what happens when you give beavers adamantium teeth.   

Another addition to this woody compilation...

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