Planning a Labor Day Party-Ideas for the Grill
Planning a Labor Day Party-Ideas for the Grill
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Ever Wondered how to Build a Wood Pile?
A fireplace or wood burning stove has a few advantages over standard gas or electric heating. First, they provide both radiant and convection heat. Next, they're environmentally friendly since they only produce carbon equivalent to the amount the trees removed in the first place. They also make an attractive addition to any home. Finally, if there are enough trees in the area, they can be an affordable source of fuel. Of course, before anything else happens, a proper woodpile needs to be established.
Which Wood Works
Before cutting even begins, it's best to locate tree species that work best as firewood. Generally, hardwood produces better results than evergreen species. The denser cellular structure means more combustible material per cubic inch, generating more heat at any given time. The compactness also slows the rate of burn, providing longer periods of time between replenishing the wood burning stove or fireplaces Pittsburgh homes often possess. Hardwoods also tend to have less of the characteristic sap of pines, spruce, and other conifers. This means a lot less smoke from the fireplaces Pittsburgh residents enjoy. There are exceptions, though, like hard Douglas Firs and soft Cottonwoods. The trade-off for these results is more effort at harvesting hardwoods.
Take-down
Because the best firewood is pretty hard, power equipment is the preferred method for harvest. The iconic image of the woodsman wielding an ax in olden days looks nice until someone actually tries to duplicate it. For bringing down the tree and sectioning it, a good chainsaw is best. When splitting pieces lengthwise, a power wood splitting will speed things up. Felling a tree is the quicker part of the operation. Cutting a tree up into usable pieces is the more tedious part of the process. To fit into either a wood burning stove or the fireplaces Pittsburgh residents love, like those feature in the gallery at the Ed's Woodshed website, it's best to cut the tree trunk and limbs into 16-inch sections. When further splitting them into individual logs, it's easiest to go with the grain and cut them into wedges. This shape also allows gaps between each log when they're stacked. Just remember to try and keep them uniform for a more stable stack.
High And Dry
Stacking the firewood allows it to both dry properly and provide a convenient cache for grabbing logs for the wood burning stove or fireplaces Pittsburgh homes are warmed by. Besides permanent structures like a couple of trees to stack firewood in-between in simple rows, there are two free-standing methods for creating a woodpile. First, the cord wood can be arranged with parallel pieces forming roughly square layers and each layer turned perpendicular to the layer below. This creates a secure tower that lets air circulate through each layer. A second method, sometimes called a holzhaus, arranges logs in a radial pattern with extra logs placed in a ring along their outer edge so they'll lean inward. A space at the center of this pillar lets air flow inward and upward.
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