RBHarter
West Central AR
For 30 yr I burned pinion pine cut as late 6 weeks before the first fire . It's affectionately known as pitch pinion because any injury to the tree is covered or oozes thick gooey turpintine fueled pitch that's never really down . It rivals oak for burn time and heat just not as clean .
We only brushed in October and April if the fire seasons ran that long . Every reload we would just leave the dampers running wide open for 5-10 minutes then shut them down to run settings sometimes you could the crackle and pop when it was really good and the loose stuff falling . We just reburned the scale if it was needed mid season .
Shoveled out about a 5 gallon bucket of ash once a week from just before Christmas through January with the wood heat as sole heat source on 19-2200 sqft . Burned 512-640 cuft so stacked that a rat could run through but a cat couldn't follow . In truth a common rat would have been mostly ok but the desert kangaroo variety wasn't gonna make it .
I took a load of 2 of oak back to Nevada with me . One trip stands out because I had a pickup bed full and a case of Lone Star in the aluminum tool box . It was 114 when I came through Vegas and still 109 at Indian springs . I don't remember what I got in the tool box for but I remember that the beer and infact the whole tool box was cold . It may have only been 60° but when I walked the trailer the load was easily 400# lighter . That is why swamp coolers work so well is the heat exchange through evaporation under 25% humidity .......and why this is the green hell ..... It like the moss grows on you after a while .
We only brushed in October and April if the fire seasons ran that long . Every reload we would just leave the dampers running wide open for 5-10 minutes then shut them down to run settings sometimes you could the crackle and pop when it was really good and the loose stuff falling . We just reburned the scale if it was needed mid season .
Shoveled out about a 5 gallon bucket of ash once a week from just before Christmas through January with the wood heat as sole heat source on 19-2200 sqft . Burned 512-640 cuft so stacked that a rat could run through but a cat couldn't follow . In truth a common rat would have been mostly ok but the desert kangaroo variety wasn't gonna make it .
I took a load of 2 of oak back to Nevada with me . One trip stands out because I had a pickup bed full and a case of Lone Star in the aluminum tool box . It was 114 when I came through Vegas and still 109 at Indian springs . I don't remember what I got in the tool box for but I remember that the beer and infact the whole tool box was cold . It may have only been 60° but when I walked the trailer the load was easily 400# lighter . That is why swamp coolers work so well is the heat exchange through evaporation under 25% humidity .......and why this is the green hell ..... It like the moss grows on you after a while .