The wood stove keeps earning its keep here. Again the only source of heat for the entire season so far, the stove serves as the heart of Hardwood Hermitage.
Each fire starts with some excellent, dry kindling, some newspaper and/or birch bark, and the simple strike of a match. Here is today's fire shortly after its beginning.
Kindling makes all the magic happen. A variety of species and sizes are used. Kindling of relatively large diameters starts burning better if birch bark is used. The bark burns very hot and fast, with way more flames than a bunch of newspaper. Our kindling comes from brush cutting operations, or the trimming of smaller branches on downed trees.
Near the stove, a copper boiler holds the supply of bigger wood for the next fire. This was a picture of today's supply prior to the start of the fire.
As with the kindling, several species of hardwoods contribute to the wood supply. Except for some wood gained from helping our neighbor, our wood comes exclusively from Hardwood Hermitage itself.
Nearly three hours since the match was struck, the fire continues to go strong.
Most often on winter days, two fires a day are started. Today, the inside temperature at 5 a.m. was still 65 degrees, so only one fire will occur. The match to start the fire was struck shortly before noon. In three hours, the fire had added 12 degrees to the temp on the main thermostat. And the burning day is only half over!
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