“Intellectually I know it’s fine, but…” But it scares the hell out of me. I’d better get over it if I hope to spend a comfortable winter. Sooner or later it’s going to get cold and stay there.
So this is Day Nine with the new stove, and I pulled down the stovepipe just to see how things were going in there. And then I swore luridly and got out the brush and poles. Everybody tells me the same thing: Burn it bright and hot, and you’ll have no problem. I can rarely bring myself to do that, which means I’m still getting all sorts of gunk in the pipe, which in turn means I’m setting up the very situation that spooked me so badly in the first place. I KNOW that. I know a hot fire won’t do any harm. I know small, cool fires ARE doing harm – in addition to not keeping me as warm as I’d like.
And yet…
Hint for future hermits in the boonies: Being not much more than the sum of your fears is not a path to success.
We’ve heated exclusively with a woodburning stove for 21 years. One trick is to start your fire with a bunch of kindling and let that kindling burn like mad before adding some more kindling and the real wood and damping it down. A kindling fire can get good and hot but won’t burn long enough to be a danger. Burning what you do(mesquite? juniper?) will cause you more creosote, but if the stovepipe is good and hot to begin with, less will stick.
And if it’s easy enough to take the pipe down just for curiosity, then it’s easy to clean it as often as it makes you comfortable. Our inside pipe is 3 pieces with a separate 4th piece with the damper in it. I take the damper piece out to clean about once a month because during the really cold season the fire goes all day and night set fairly low and the damper gets really creosotey. I brush out the whole pipe 2-3 times during the fire season, which is really a bit obsessive, but better safe than sorry.
PS. I think you mentioned having your thermometer just 6″ above the stove. We keep ours about 2 1/2 feet above the stove. I think I read that in the library book we got about heating with firewood when we first moved to Colorado.
Far from being the sum of your fears, sir, you are the sum of your courage and successes, which are many. That poem I wrote back on 1/1/2008, when we found out about daD’s cancer, applies to all of us. We have marvelous courage. Story tellers, truth tellers, and creators of the new culture. You are planting memes in the cultural matrix, one mind at a time. Thank you for your courage.
So, yes, start with a hot fire, and when you add wood, let the fire burn open for a little while to get a hot fire going prior to shutting it down a bit. Burn it hot for a few hours at a time, which is what I do. We have a little stove like yours at a place in Fairbanks, and when I am going to be around, and because it has a long stack, which collects more birch and willow creosote than shorter stacks, I burn it with small stuff and hot for a couple of hours, while I also cook things on top of it for lunch. 🙂
Have fun, stay toasty, and for gosh sakes, get the cat and mouse game out from under your desk. Out of the house, preferably! I’d be ON the desk!
🙂
feralfae