It's getting a little bit chilly here in East Central Portugal - we've just had a couple of days rain which has taken the edge of the end of the summer's heat.
Thankfully I've got LOTS of Firewood to see me through winter, of various sizes.
I've got a dozen piles of this sort of 'kindling to mid-sized wood':
And another dozen or so piles of this sort of 'proper' firewood:
And yes, it still needs prepping, or chopping to size and I need to buy and axe, but that'll all be good exercise for this autumn.
I've got some like this ready to go, several weeks worth dotted around the land, mainly from wind damaged trees:
And this is my initial kindling pile:
Clearly this has served its shelving function and is now firewood in waiting - perfect kindling, dry, mostly cut to size already and very dead!
Tonight is the first going time I felt like I could legitimately fire up this bad boy - now THIS is what I call a stove, one of the best features of the house - this just says slow release heat all over it:
With the temperature forecast to drop to 14 degrees tonight, it's not exactly cold (and it's certainly not damp-cold like it is in the UK) but I think a fire is going to be great.
Jus one pine cone required for the initial kindling phase (these things are great.....)
And in full flow in no time, and just look at the embers on literally just one cone within less than five minutes, nice!
I've never lived in a house with a fully functioning fire place before, it's going to be an interesting autumn to early spring keeping this beast fed and the house warm.
MMMMM - Fire, dinner, dick about on Hive, bath, bed, what more d'you need out of life?'
That is a nice fire place. Looks like its very thick and you won't have to worry about replacing it for years to come. I lived for years in a place with a wood stove and in another place that had a coal furnance. My advice to you is whatever wood you think you need for the winter/ make sure you have double the supply because if this is the first time you have had a fireplace for your main heat you might underestimate how much wood is burned in a 24 hour period. Trust me, you don't want to run out of firewood. On the flip side to that, whatever you don't use this winter you can use the following winter.
I think I should be OK - 2 HA of woodland's worth!
There should be more posts about fire!
How cool is it to cut and prepare one's own heat source? I remember doing this as a kid back in the day and the hard work makes sitting in front of that fire all the more enjoyable.
Nice work Karl, and legit stove.
You know I was thinking I could easily write a post a week about this!
It's a slow process getting the house heated up though - when the walls are two feet thick!
Hmm, yeah, thick walls can be good when it's hot, until they heat up and start radiating the head inside and the same in reverse. Still, get that fire lit early on and you'll be right to go.
I'm not too bad here re the heat - in the shade, so not too much scope for the walls to soak up the sun, but i've heard plenty tales about people's stone houses just venting HEAT for hours in the evening in August, inwards!
Yep, if there's shade that's fine, otherwise the brick/stone just heats up and it takes a long time for the heat to dissipate.
There's just something about fire places that makes home at least 10x more cozy! :) Love it!
I know fires are great, but I think it's going to take a good couple of hours for the house to heat up!