The Three Amigos... Sage, Dixie & Wingnut!!!

[Coastal Redneck]

Kittehs & I are drinking beer and watching Monday Night Football... WTF, the "kneeling tard" scene ain't gonna ruin my love o' the game, AYE??? Haven't seen much of that kneeling b.s. lately, maybe the owners cracked down on the tards when revenue dropped like a f#%g rock, LOL.

P.S. Must be tough, earning millions in the NFL... "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

 

[Coastal Redneck]

Kittehs ordered a truckload of firewood for the upcoming winter... if my knee were in better shape, I'd rustle the wood in the forest, but today it's easier to just have the firewood delivered. The kittehs like a warm home on chilly nights, and that gas furnace can rack up a big bill in a month's time. Meh, this way we'll be set for winter, and we can have campfires out front in the stone ring I built... nothing like a fire and BBQ out front on chilly nights, especially with friends over to enjoy the warmth and good food, not to mention all the stars in the sky. At this elevation(6300' to 6400', depending upon where ya are in Show Low), we have a million stars overhead on clear nights, WOOHOO!!!

 

[69ST]

The knee will heal...slowly...ask me how I know this.

As for wood stove heating vs GFA...no contest. There's nothing quite like the feeling of radiant heat, upon walking in from the cold. If your wood burner has ceramic glass doors, even better...like bringing the campfire indoors...your inner troglodyte will thank you.

 

[Coastal Redneck]

The gas furnace is convenient for warming the house when I did NOT have a wood fire the night before, but the wood stove cranks out the heat like nobody's business. In fact, I hafta be careful not to get the wood stove too hot: last winter, I found myself in the ridiculous situation of breaking out an industrial fan to cool off because the goldurned thermostat in the hallway read 90 degrees and I couldn't get to sleep, LOL. Snow outside at twenty degrees, and I remember thinking, "This is stupid, running a fan and a fire at the same time..." I gotta be careful not to load too much wood late at night, especially since my bedroom (converted den with all those beautiful picture windows) lies right on the other side of the wall from the wood stove. It's a good-sized stove too, so it really cranks with a fire blazing away inside. I swapped the remaining single-paned windows for dual-panes, which makes a BIG difference in heat retention, which in turn means lower bills... I'm learning, don'tcha know? Remember, despite a lifetime of field experience, I spent decades as a city slicker, and a coastal city slicker at that... we didn't even have a heater in that old beach cottage, not one that worked anyway, LOL.

 

[red69]

I've never had a wood burning stove, so does it make a difference as to the type of wood you burn? I would think some soft wood would leave too much residue in the chimney.

 

[Coastal Redneck]

Correctamundo... hardwood like oak burns well in a wood stove, soft wood like pine can gunk up the chimney, depending upon how much resin is in the wood. I have a load of oak and alligator juniper (called "gator wood" by local rednecks), same as last winter, and it left virtually no residue in the chimney... I just swept the chimney a few days ago, and it was clean as a whistle, which was good news. I like the oak for fuel, it burns very nicely and produces mondo heat, LOL. Pine burns more quickly in fits and starts, whereas oak produces a steady burn with consistent output. Of course, good oak is more expensive, pine is way cheaper but it doesn't burn as cleanly, 10-4?

 

[69ST]

I've been doing the wood burner thing since the early `80s, got it scienced-out as much as it going to be. I won't burn pine, too resinous...makes a &^#$#@ mess and can be downright dangerous. You almost have to babysit light hardwoods, like poplar, with the draft control. Even then, opening the doors to refuel can result in a big flare-up if there's enough unburned wood after a few hours, or overnight, when that big hit of oxygen gets in.

In this part of the world, white oak, hickory, hard maple, walnut and beech are the real btu champs. Fruit woods (apple, cherry), and other species of maple & oak are pretty good, they smell nice too...they're just less dense and you have to burn more of to get the same heat output from the stove. Locust and ash are cheap junk woods...not many btus and they stink. Other than avoiding resin-laden wood, the biggest issue is moisture content. Well-seasoned, dry, wood (at least 2 summers old) lights quickly & easily, makes lots of heat (plus an hypnotic blue flame) and very little creosote. A steady winter diet of that and a single end-of-season chimbley cleaning is plenty. Get a load of wet (inadequately seasoned) logs and the chimney brush might be getting a workout every 1-4 weeks.

 

[Coastal Redneck]

"Si, Senor... ees correct!!!" LOL. I won't burn pine in the wood stove, the buildup of resinous gunk can lead to a dangerous chimney fire... my home is insured, but there's no reason to test my luck, LOL. However, pine is great for the outdoor fire ring, so I'll readily use it when friends visit for a BBQ and campfire session under the stars. I also have a dead apple tree out front which I will slowly take down this winter, I'll probably just burn the wood outdoors, maybe cook some dawgs or brats over the fire, 10-4? In every load of firewood, there will inevitably be some chunks of wood that look a bit moldy, have bug boring holes in 'em, moss on the bark, whatever... I don't even bring those inside, they go straight to the fire ring out front, I stack 'em on the pavers under the wrought iron furniture, LOL. I might even have a pic of that scene, lemme see what I took yesterday...





Hmm, guess I took that first pic before I hauled the junk wood down to the BBQ area. Those other shots show some of the load I scored the other day, prior to stacking... the good clean stuff goes for the house, the rest goes for campfires out front. BTW, the gas meter is farther from the stone fire ring than it appears in that first photo, LOL. KA-BOOM!!! No more Sidewinder...

 

[scooter]

Sidewinder - can you start a fire with just sticks like those outdoor guys on TV

 

[OLD CT]

Like Bear Grylls can start a fire with damn near anything, like when he knifes a old cell phone battery and cranks up a fire! Sidewinder couldn't light a wet fart!

 

[kirrbby]

LMAO

 

[Coastal Redneck]

Like Bear Grylls can start a fire with damn near anything, like when he knifes a old cell phone battery and cranks up a fire! Sidewinder couldn't light a wet fart!

PFFFFFFFT... that poser, a REAL MAN starts his fires with GASOLINE, 10-4?

 

[OLD CT]

Hey Sidewinder, remember when Beavis and Butthead visited Show Low?

 

[Coastal Redneck]

They got the stars right, LOL... looks like my fire ring out front, minus the stone ring and the tall pines. I may have a fire outside tonight, depends on whether friends come over, otherwise I'll fire up the wood stove indoors and crank the heat in the house. Got a cold front passing through, temps are rather chilly at night... it's nice outside when you're standing in the sun, but temps drop quickly once that sun sets behind the trees. Right now I'm watching college ballgames and enjoying a tall rum & eggnog, probably switch to beer in awhile. The rum & eggnog is delicious, but the eggnog is rich, 10-4? Had a bowl of hot (leftover) turkey soup this morning for breakfast, that warmed me up nicely... later, after a few beers, I'll put together a huge spicy-hot homemade chicken burrito with heaps o' fresh jalapenos, onion, vine-ripened tomato, etc., all wrapped in a big tortilla with melted cheese, and plenty o' guac & sour cream on top, WOOHOO!!! HEALTH FOOD, BABY, HEALTH FOOD!!! LOL The cats will be in for some serious gas later under the covers... f@rt blasts like a hurricane, don'tcha know???

 

[Coastal Redneck]

Holy Cow!!! This wood stove is kickin' out the heat, I had forgotten how well it works, LOL. At least I had the presence of mind to change into shorts and a tank top, it might be 40 degrees and dropping fast outside, but it feels like Tahiti inside the house. Feels damned good, steppin' up to the stove and warming both front & back, like having a campfire right in your living room, LOL.

 

[Coastal Redneck]

Temp dropped to around 20 degrees last night, had ice in the birdbaths this morning...





Kittehs like it better inside the nice warm house:




Shots of Sage the Tyger, taken the other day:






Football today... beer for breakfast, WOOHOO!!! Well, I had a fruit smoothie earlier, so I guess that qualifies as breakfast, but this beer tastes pretty darned good, LOL.

 

[Coastal Redneck]

Shots I took yesterday:

 

[Coastal Redneck]

Okay, the site botched that last upload, here's Jingle Belle atop the birdbath on the West Side:



Crackhead likes to stand and drink from the birdbaths, but Jingle Belle jumps up to get a better angle, LOL. You can see that Jingle Belle has been rolling in the dirt... the little dirt cat!!! Takes after her master... er, I mean butler... minus the pit bike, of course.

 

[Coastal Redneck]

Kitteh pics, WAHOO!!! Here's Crackhead rolling in catnip and playing with "the tail thing"---a fake tail tacked onto a plastic stick or wand, don't know why the kittehs all love messin' with this thing, but they do, LOL. Of course, I'm the "enabler" who gets 'em all jacked up chasin' that thing... meh, SOMEBODY has to do it, might as well be me, 10-4??? Y'all know how much I LOVE my kittehs, the BLASTED VARMINTS!!!

 

[Coastal Redneck]

Hmm, what next??? Kittehs on the dining room table, WOOHOO!!!



Kittehs eat in STYLE around here, yeah??? Y'all see that circular brass table leaning against the wall in the background??? That's my GONG, I'm gonna buy a buffing pad for my drill and polish that thing till it GLEAMS, then hang it between two Ponderosa Pines out front and BANG THE HECK OUT OF IT while we're PARTYING round a BONFIRE, LOL.