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Even though I'm not an advocate of 'overnighting' or slumbering, I got downstairs @ 7:45am to find that one of our stoves still had some hot bits despite only having the last wood added to it at about 9:30 last night and no coal.
Who can resist relighting a stove that has done so well overnight? It's like it's waiting to be brought back to life!
So I addded some paper and a couple of sticks then went outside to get some more. By the time I got back it was already off even though I'd not opened the vents.
Makes my tea and toast even better. Off biking now but the wife will appreciate it 🙂
two tiny glowing embers about 20 minutes ago. added some sawdust from when the logs were chainsawed, going good guns now. out on bike in 20 minutes. manky weather though.
Yeah, love opening the vents and throwing on some feather strips - they catch in seconds - then stack it up for another round. Always been an 'overnighter' in this place, though. I'd probably wake up dead if I didn't...
Got ours going from the coal embers this am that, we put the last load on before going out for the day at around 2pm. It's roaring away now with a couple of logs and just dropped some coal on as heading out for the day again. When I'm back this evening it'll just need the vents opened up and some fresh coal.
Ours never last overnight. Chopping kindling and wheeling a barrow load of logs is a daily ritual. I miss it when I'm away from home.
Chopping kindling and wheeling a barrow load of logs is a daily ritual
I used to do it that way. The last few years I've been smarter about it...
Chop beef and sear. Rough slice some onions and carrots. Make a stock. Throw it in the casserole dish and into the oven for four hours whilst chopping and splitting a huge pile of logs, taking time to make a weeks worth of kindling at the same time.
😉
I love mine in the morning.
I turn the knob, hear the click, see the pilot light come on, turn the gas onto full and switch on the fan assist. Hey presto - instant fire. And the added bonus of no bloody logs to chop and ashes to clean.
iolo: that's just a machine.... a stove is a living thing and needs nurturing 😉
I had a log burner in my previous house.
I didn't have a forest at my disposal so mostly had to buy logs. That's not cheap.
I am considering a kachelofen now but that entirely depends on how cheap I can get it's fuel.
A kachelofen uses a lot less logs than your standard wood burning stove.
But I must admit, gas is bloody handy.
My wood is too dry and easy burning to keep in overnight.
But since I have to light the furnace every morning and evening and at least one of the stoves every night, I get plenty of practice.
The poplar is so well seasoned that I can light it with just logs and 3 balls of paper - if it's built well it doesnt even need kindling to take.
Despite always opening the secondary vent at night when I go to bed, I can quite often get a fire going again when I come home from work the next day. Only really saves a match, but seems quite satisfying!.
Nice and warm after a wet windy ride over a lot of horse path, so full o'"bull snouts". Ended with a couple of miles return on the riverside path, would have been less damp if the river were lower.
It's easier to keep a stove in overnight if the wood is dry, slumbering on damp wood is not good for the environment or chimney.
Still have embers 30 hrs after the last fill is my best to date, glass is still spotless.
Interesting.... the logs I was using last night had been in a stable for at least 3 years.
When I was a kid I had a stove in my room (a small jotel), we lived in a cabin in the woods built by gypsies in the 20's. I'd set my alarm for 1/2 an hour before getting up and light up, then leg it back into bed, knowing that the room would be toasty! My Dad would be up around the same time firing up the big stove and seeing to the range. Good times.
My aunt in Lewis who we visited on holiday in the late 60s and 70s lived in a croft house with an open peat fire and no central heating. Part of the art of living with a peat fire was banking it at night so that the embers smoldered slowly enough to be re-lit every morning.
Then of course on Saturday enough peats had to be brought indoor from the stack to last all Sunday as the act of bringing them in was work which couldn't be done on the Sabbath.
Even now years later when I smell a peat fire I'm right back there. The other task I remember was fetching water. The house had mains water but it was very peaty so we used to walk several hundred yards to get untreated water from a spring for drinking.
Our open coal fire would often have red embers in the morning, but our wood stove has nothing but cold ash; seems to burn out much quicker.