Friday, March 20, 2009
why you should use a fireproof ash container ; )
We all know the wood-burning safety rules, like always removing ashes in a metal container. (I didn't actually remove any tonight.) I try to alternate between the kitchen and the living room stove, and tonight (just before sunset--solar heat adequate on this nice sunny day) I went to start a fire in the living room. The last time I had one in there, this enormous knotty chunk of oak refused to do anything but smoulder, and when I got up the next morning a lot of it was still there, but the stove felt cold. Tonight I thought "That stubborn piece burned down more than I thought" and then I reached in to rearrange it as a base for another log and felt warmth. More than a day and a half after the stove felt cold, the wood was still warm to the touch, though not hot. It wasn't burning enough that I could have started another fire without a match, but it amazed me nevertheless.
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Yes and have a tight fitting lid for it too. A woman I used to work for put her hot coals out on her balcony and the wind came up...burned down the neighbours house - at Christmas! She wasn't very bright.
ReplyDeleteI edited out the paragraph about getting a Christmas present at work several years ago, one of those cans of popcorn, when I puzzled everyone except my boss's farm-raised husband by saying "Now I have an ash can with handles!"
ReplyDeleteWow. Gotta be careful with those things!
ReplyDelete- Sagan
We have let our stove burn day in and day out since mid December. Sometimes if we put in a huge piece of birch, we find that it didn't really burn through. It's amazing how many hours a piece can smoulder away. It does help with the heating bill because we usually burn it until the end of March or into April. Once in January, our bill was $2.05. I framed it!
ReplyDeleteOh, and I used to use a galvanized pail, but found that it really got hot when removing the ashes. Now I have a pail built for fireplaces, much thicker!
ReplyDeleteOh, yes - I've had that experience, too. It's amazing how long a thick piece can smolder! We have an old metal oil pail that we use. Of course, most of the time when we empty our stove, we take the ashes out and dump them in the snow... or into our burning barrel outside.
ReplyDelete