Leather Gloves, Buy Some!

Stock up on a few pairs of inexpensive leather gloves. Your local hardware store will have them for $5-$10 a pair. With Winter brings dry air, and painfully dry skin. As you move firewood, collect kindling, break sticks, etc. you will inevitably scratch or scrape your skin. Buy a few pair today, your hands will thank you!

Firewood Kindling, Kindling Collection

Unless you plan to keep your wood stove going 24/7, there will be plenty of occasions when you'll re-start a fire from scratch. Start stocking up now on dry sticks and twigs blown down from Summer storms, you will go through them very quickly. The same goes for newspaper. Have a paper birch near-by? Use the sheddings as a great fire starter.

Burning Wood Pallets for Firewood

For most businesses wooden pallets are a menace. They add up quickly and are expensive to haul away. As such, you'll often see "free wood" signs close to factories with stacks and stacks free for the taking. Pallets are generally pine but you'll often find oak as well. Out of curiosity I took a few home for my stove. Let me tell you, it's a pain in the butt. The pallets are full of nails and by the time you saw away the un-nailed sections, you aren't left with much! It's like picking a scrawny chicken, not much meat. Don't get me wrong, the wood is extremely dry and burns nicely, but I question the time/effort to benefit ratio here. Unless you have a stove designed to burn the entire pallet nails and all (you can find these!) there's not much value. You can however use old pallets to keep your good firewood off the ground. Why use good split firewood as a base when you can use pallets? If you're really lucky you'll find some old pieces of plywood, these are great for covering the tops of your pile to keep the rain away.

Happy heating!

Prep for the Winter with Yard Sale's

Spring is upon us and so is yard selling season. This is an excellent opportunity to find some cheap gear, including firewood rings and firewood tools like shovels, brushes, pokers, etc. Never buy new unless you have to! People convert their fireplaces from wood to gas or buy a new home and have no intention of using the fireplace. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Happy hunting!