Babes you are a model posing. No one lights a stove with a timber like that,
unless you got a Star Trek phaser.
(Nice comforting breasts though.)
As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
From my childhood there are memories of scents, some delicious and some just a joy for the season. I think one of the most splendid scents there is, is smoked German summer sausage, hanging in a closet to cure. It is just perfect.
I like the smell of a trapper's skinning shed too. The heavy oil scent of hides from muskrats to fox is like none other. I like the smell of fuel oil when you first light up a stove, and it is burning off the dust and lint, because it meant something cozy and Christmas.
In burning wood, I am learning a new joy, the joy of wood smoke that keeps on giving. In the barrel stove we have in the cellar, it is a matter of the smoke that keeps on giving. I was telling TL that I hated that cellar. It scared me as a child as it always had spiders, was dank and musty smelling of potatoes and there were rumors of skunks. It just seemed filthy for me and not fit for humans.
As it fell out of use with the mother, it just kind of was a place I had to go to spray for spiders or put mouse poison. I always had dreams though of a woodstove down there to make the house warm.
TL and began building one 3 years ago which was a major construction marvel all by hand. Thank God, He directs my hands as everything turned out wonderful, and His fine tuning in new ideas made all the difference in the draft lighting the stove, instead of an east wind smoke filled house.
All wood smells different. It smells as different when it is burning too. As I have stated, I have no luxury of burning oak or other pretty woods that are burned in the South. Trees are kind of rare here and are stuck with burning what you can get, as the elm I prefer is mostly dead.
All wood burns differently too, different rates and different heat.
When we burned the first time this year, I chose Aspen an Ash. Aspen burns faster and Ash burns slower, so the mix was designed to get the stove up to heat and keep it up to heat. It was an interesting scent though in the first burn, as I had spicy scented smoke, which should not have been. That usually come from an Apricot or something like that. Then there was nice smoke, and then there was the acrid smoke which is mostly Box Elder. It seemed the Ash was auditioning for a unique presentation.
So we had a rather acrid scented house for 24 hours after as I had left embers burning and closed the flue to save the heat. By the third day, we had wafts of pleasant wood scent. See in this old shack we are in, there is a potato shoot in the porch, under the freezer. So smoke comes up there. There is nothing that tight so smoke finds a way up the cellar steps in the old entry we had and just wafting as it pleases in the kitchen. It is nothing strong, but like outside on the right days, that I get scents of wood smoke from the chimney without anything burning. It is a rich and lovely scent, almost like summer sausage without the meat included. There is substance to it, as the chimney is now seasoned and impregnated with lots of different woods, from Ash, Cottonwood, Aspen, Apricot, Elm and Elder.
Like Indians I am outside doing chores and I smell the wood other people are burning. I discover those who made the plunge and enjoy knowing others have decided to burn some wood as it is cold in their homes.
It seems most people have the luxury of burning nice wood as the scents are always pleasant. I just burn the mix the Lord provides and am happy it is burning to keep us warm.
JYG's wood wagon was full of wood in October, thankfully to God. That wood will not be touched as it is dry, and I will work on wood under the tarp, or wood I have in the basement which would not last if it was a real cold spell. When it is in the 30's I can butn about 8 sticks of wood and keep the house warm. When it is 20 below it is burning big blocks 24 hours a day, just to keep the furnace from running non stop.
The pleasant part of last winter's HAARP attack upon the world, was that the chimney was scenting the air for months afterward. That is the way it is with wood smoke, even the house will produce wafts of smoke scented delight as barometric pressures change or the wind or humidity. Smoke is an amazing scent in the gift it keeps producing to remind you of cozy memories and good tidings of great joy.
The cellar to me is inviting now. I still have to shoo out of the way the Grand daddy long legs, the black racers are gone. The damp is gone as the drought has appeared. The air is pleasant, as the wood kills the moulds and mildew that once lurked there. So I sit in my chair from JYG on a Thrift Store pillow in a plastic bag, lots of things piled up and wood piled to the side for easy reach as I feed the stove.
I watch the thermometer behind me. It depends on the cold if it is in the 50's or 60's, but once it gets 65 degrees, I open the cellar door and the welcome heat floods through the house, along with those poofs of smoke that only a wood stove will produce as it breathes air and backs up to a poof of smoke out the door, before it goes back up the chimney.
It does not take much smoke to make my eyes burn or water. I am constantly looking at the ceiling to see if smoke is hanging as this Chinaman barrel stove does not have the draft I need and so I have to leave the door ajar a bit. Is all by knowing and feel, but sometimes I get it open too far and before I know it, the smoke is coming out the door.
I think if I had time or in a next design, I am going to leave the barrel at a bit of a slant. That might help with the smoke situation. I was all new at this 3 years ago, and Youtube experts are really not the experts any of them think they are. I am though by God's Grace an expert on barrel stoves now. Got a PHD in them and I am rather fond of them.
I still would like to get my hands on a wood stove that is built for the burning like my brother had, just to see how they work and if they would be the answer to the things I have going on, as saving wood would be welcome, but I am heating up a cold cellar and it requires allot of BTU's fast to get things warm there so the rest of the house heats up.
Pleasing or sorry to say, if you are a mean or a nice person, each of you is probably going to be having to learn the lessons the hard way. I smile when Richard and Stephanie write about their burning wood as it is the same things of orange and blue flames and how the fire is tranquil and alive.
I do dream of having a wood stove in the living quarters, I think a bedroom would be wonderful as watching the flames before I go to sleep would be a remarkable elixir to the Spirit as the scent of wood lulls me to sleep.
Such a wonderful blessing that poor me has experienced and most people are going to be forced to learn the scent of smoke.
Nuff Said
agtG
