A "cord" is 3.67 "cubes"
I have 2 chimneys on this house, one for the house and one for the kitchen, but the stovepipe outlets were covered years ago during a refinishing of the wall paneling, so no wood stoves in the house. I'd have to relocate the flue holes, cut them open, and clean the chimney of decades of bird and bee nests.
Years ago when I was growing up, all of our heat was wood or coal. I designed a wood stove for the living area that was a monster, and dad built it out of 1/4" sheet steel. We had both a wood cooking stove and a pot-bellied stove in the kitchen, but never used them at the same time - that would have gotten hot enough to run us out of the house.
That stove dad built was pretty efficient. Too efficient in the beginning. I had designed it with 3 baffle plates at the top to to retain the heat as the smoke navigated the baffles, but it put too much of the heat into the house, and cooled the smoke before getting to the chimney too much. That allowed creosote to build up in the chimney pretty fast, making it a chimney fire hazard. To control that, we occasionally pulled the pipe out and set the chimney on fire intentionally, to have a controlled fire before it got built up enough to be dangerous.
After we'd burn the chimney out, I'd climb onto the roof with a spear-shaped contraption we made by welding two coal mine roof bolts together and then welding a 4-way blade on the end of that to knock out the crud from the chimney, and we'd clean the ash out at the flue inside the house.
Eventually, dad cut one of the baffle plates shorter to allow the smoke to escape faster and take some of the heat with it, and we mitigated that creosote build-up problem that way. Didn't have to fire it and clean it as often that way. Before it was lined with fire brick, that stove weighed in around 300 pounds. I forget how much the fire brick for it weighed.
It had no ash grate, just a firebrick lined firebox. If it hadn't had a door on the front, it would have just been basically a free-standing fire place. So to clean it out, you cleaned it just like a fireplace - clean a spot of ashes, shove all the live coals into a pile on that spot, then clean the rest of the ash out. The door had two drafts on it, one at lower left and one at lower right. They operated by screwing them open or closed, as needed.
Coal ashes and clinkers went into the driveway to improve winter time traction. Wood ash generally went on to the garden patch, to enrich the soil for next spring's planting. Had to leave off dumping ashes there a couple months before the planting, though, to allow the weather to work it into the dirt before plowing.
We didn't have any fancy machinery in those days other than a chain saw. We'd cut the woods - usually, hard wood like oak and hickory, occasionally a sycamore or a walnut - and then drag it out of the woods with a horse in logs 12' or so long. Then we'd cut it to length, and I had the honors of splitting it with a double-bitted axe. We made some wedges out of hard wood from the branches, but I seldom ever used them. The axe just went quicker on all but the most recalcitrant chunks to be split. I once got 3 wedges stuck in a Black Gum chunk, all at the same time, due to the twisted grain of that tree. Wound up having to split that one with a chainsaw anyhow. I never got an axe stuck, however, so I figured the axe was really the way to go.
We kept two face cords stacked on the porch all winter long for easy access. One on either side of the porch entrance. If we weren't snowed in, we usually left them alone for the times when we were. The rest of what I split I just stacked right there at the splitting block, and that is what we burned at all but the worst parts of the winter.
We used to say that burning wood warmed you 3 separate times - once when you cut it down and hauled it out of the woods, once when you split it, and finally when you burned it. I've been out splitting wood on a sunny but 20 degrees below zero day, with no wind blowing, and had to take off my jacket and roll up my sleeves to keep from sweating and freezing stiff.
I've got 3 trees down in my yard right now, taken down by last fall's storms and thrown over the fence into my yard, special delivery. But I've got no chainsaw at the moment, and am going to have to cut them up with an axe to remove them. No point in splitting and stacking, since we have no wood stoves any more.
.
I have 2 chimneys on this house, one for the house and one for the kitchen, but the stovepipe outlets were covered years ago during a refinishing of the wall paneling, so no wood stoves in the house. I'd have to relocate the flue holes, cut them open, and clean the chimney of decades of bird and bee nests.
Years ago when I was growing up, all of our heat was wood or coal. I designed a wood stove for the living area that was a monster, and dad built it out of 1/4" sheet steel. We had both a wood cooking stove and a pot-bellied stove in the kitchen, but never used them at the same time - that would have gotten hot enough to run us out of the house.
That stove dad built was pretty efficient. Too efficient in the beginning. I had designed it with 3 baffle plates at the top to to retain the heat as the smoke navigated the baffles, but it put too much of the heat into the house, and cooled the smoke before getting to the chimney too much. That allowed creosote to build up in the chimney pretty fast, making it a chimney fire hazard. To control that, we occasionally pulled the pipe out and set the chimney on fire intentionally, to have a controlled fire before it got built up enough to be dangerous.
After we'd burn the chimney out, I'd climb onto the roof with a spear-shaped contraption we made by welding two coal mine roof bolts together and then welding a 4-way blade on the end of that to knock out the crud from the chimney, and we'd clean the ash out at the flue inside the house.
Eventually, dad cut one of the baffle plates shorter to allow the smoke to escape faster and take some of the heat with it, and we mitigated that creosote build-up problem that way. Didn't have to fire it and clean it as often that way. Before it was lined with fire brick, that stove weighed in around 300 pounds. I forget how much the fire brick for it weighed.
It had no ash grate, just a firebrick lined firebox. If it hadn't had a door on the front, it would have just been basically a free-standing fire place. So to clean it out, you cleaned it just like a fireplace - clean a spot of ashes, shove all the live coals into a pile on that spot, then clean the rest of the ash out. The door had two drafts on it, one at lower left and one at lower right. They operated by screwing them open or closed, as needed.
Coal ashes and clinkers went into the driveway to improve winter time traction. Wood ash generally went on to the garden patch, to enrich the soil for next spring's planting. Had to leave off dumping ashes there a couple months before the planting, though, to allow the weather to work it into the dirt before plowing.
We didn't have any fancy machinery in those days other than a chain saw. We'd cut the woods - usually, hard wood like oak and hickory, occasionally a sycamore or a walnut - and then drag it out of the woods with a horse in logs 12' or so long. Then we'd cut it to length, and I had the honors of splitting it with a double-bitted axe. We made some wedges out of hard wood from the branches, but I seldom ever used them. The axe just went quicker on all but the most recalcitrant chunks to be split. I once got 3 wedges stuck in a Black Gum chunk, all at the same time, due to the twisted grain of that tree. Wound up having to split that one with a chainsaw anyhow. I never got an axe stuck, however, so I figured the axe was really the way to go.
We kept two face cords stacked on the porch all winter long for easy access. One on either side of the porch entrance. If we weren't snowed in, we usually left them alone for the times when we were. The rest of what I split I just stacked right there at the splitting block, and that is what we burned at all but the worst parts of the winter.
We used to say that burning wood warmed you 3 separate times - once when you cut it down and hauled it out of the woods, once when you split it, and finally when you burned it. I've been out splitting wood on a sunny but 20 degrees below zero day, with no wind blowing, and had to take off my jacket and roll up my sleeves to keep from sweating and freezing stiff.
I've got 3 trees down in my yard right now, taken down by last fall's storms and thrown over the fence into my yard, special delivery. But I've got no chainsaw at the moment, and am going to have to cut them up with an axe to remove them. No point in splitting and stacking, since we have no wood stoves any more.
.
“Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage among his books. For to you kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned with the flick of a finger.”
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake