When the barn was empty it was hard to imagine ever having a reserve of firewood. But truck load after truck load its building up. We have a few weeks supply at the moment, and hoping to increase that before the winter is over. Though soon it will be and I will take a break from wood collection and focus more on the gardens, crops and other farm tasks. The end goal is to have enough firewood to last the entire winter. But sometimes we go through it faster than we collect it, on rainy cold days we usually just use the reserves. But when the weather is good we tend to cut up and use what we collected that day. Put some away in the barn and burn the rest if its not green or wet.
Honestly its been nice collecting firewood in the winter, things are pretty slow during that time so its good to have a primary task to focus on. When spring comes around I will be quite busy with other projects, then can return to wood collection in the autumn when things start slowing down again.
Some of the logs need to be split, others need to be chainsawed. But we have been stacking them in the back of the barn, hoping eventually I can build up more stacks all the way to the front of the barn.
Wet firewood does not burn well, so getting it under the barn and start drying is important. Otherwise with every rain the wood needs to sit again to dry out more.
Sometimes we have evergreens like pines that we cut down, the pine needles make a great fire starter. They are better when dried but even the green ones burn well once they get going.
We also keep a supply of smaller sticks, we build a what looks like a birds nest in the furnace and then once lit throw the bigger logs on them.
I keep my cutters near by so if they do not fit well I can trim them down.
Keeping a few big rounds near the furnace they are good for night time when I will not be returning to check on the furnace until after I sleep. They weigh a good 70 pounds but I am getting better and lifting them into the furnace carefully.
Pretty old tree judging by the rings.
My view in the mirror while driving back, just a bunch of logs.. lol
After every storm we find new downed trees to collect, its constantly happening. So I am really not worried about finding enough downed firewood.
Getting the fire going I wear a face mask and some gloves.
We can see the fire starting paper at the base that helps to start that nest of small sticks.
There is a button on the side of the wood furnace called ignition air, it allows the fans in the machine to blow more air inside stoking the fire while I supply it with more wood.
Finally the pile of sticks is catching, sometimes the fire goes out and I need to start again building with fresh sticks and lighting the fire again. But this time it got going with one try and I am thankful for that.
As the flames start licking the top of the furnace, I throw on those big round logs and then close up the furnace. It will heat hundreds of gallons of water that circulates between my homes and workshop to keep everything warm. Its a good feeling going back inside from the cold weather after working outside and feeling warm from all my hard work. Then taking a shower using hot water that has been heated by the wood furnace feels good and is a nice way to wrap up the day.