Why not burn rotten wood in the stove? 

Actually you don't want buggy wood for firewood. Because if you collect buggy wood it'll infect the other wood. When you bring buggy wood inside to burn the wood (carpenter-ants, termites etc.) Will begin to eat your house. 😳

Exactly! Not interested in a termite swam in my house!

Also buggy wood is usually that way because it's been left wet so it's more likely to be rotten. Some bugs are in dry wood as well like Bora. We have wasps hibernating in our dry wood shed and the occasional spider.

​@@jewelssylva3738 I was camping and every single piece of wood was infested with ants 😅

​@@FlatMateJessyea that make sense the camp I was at was completely neglected

Yeah I was thinking something else.

as he says, just remember to clean out the hash afterwards.

Lmao

@@ste887 Always clean out your hash wait what?

No matter what God gives you to make life (you choose) some kind of comfortable .....there's just got to be (something), (something) to complain about. Planet Earth is just a real pain.

Yup. It's the first thing I look for when I want to start a fire. Crumble it up, throw a spark into it, and it'll start a pretty good fire.

Made the “absolutely brilliant” idea to try and use rotten wood for my first time in a hot tent, was warm for about the first hour of sleep and the rest of the night was an episode of man vs wild lmao.

That's awesome

One pine cone, or one sack?

​@@SwapPartLLCI think it was probably the bags with the pinecones inside. Each bag full of pinecones being equal to one fire to take the chill off. The bag would make for easy lighting and the pinecones will burn good and hot but not for very long. Plus it doesn't make any sense to put in just one cone.

Gives a good smell too

We did too when I was a kid.

Careful with this, the ash can irritate their skin if it gets wet, unlike dirt

Goats eat the ash

Isn't wood ash used to produce lye for soap?

@@pattyroe2305 That's what the first reply is talking about, wet ash can cause caustic burns on any animal especially in places where water rests.

@@pattyroe2305 Yeah, I think that's why they like that stuff, it kills the mites that get on their feathers. Kinda like those birds in Africa that land in a certain kind of ant hill. Those ants squirt acid on the the birds feathers and under their wings to kill the mites.

That can actually be worse as breathing rotten wood smoke can be incredibly toxic. My friend and I had a three day migraine after learning this.

Would you ever consider fellow homesteaders? Obviously with appropriate information

I tend to use one of those kindling bars that feel like a hard brownie in my hand. Which is better?

I use fallen sticks. Plentiful if your place is at all wooded. The kids and I collect them wet or dry, wet sticks are ready to be kindling within a day or two. No splitting hard earned firewood

Rotten wood sounds like slang for VD.

​@@terencehurley7153federal agent

Love my wood stove.. Especially when the power goes out and I can still cook chili dogs

Sucks that you've been alone in Alaska for 37 years, but at least you have heat.

@@seigeengine solitude and loneliness are two different things

@@escapetherace1943 Potatoes and potable toes are two different things.

​@@seigeengine I'll take that as your concession

It really is great to mix in with any soil that may be lacking in carbon, good booster for a compost pile too

Just be careful with potash. Too much is not advisable. What too much is - well that depends on what you're growing and how potassium rich your soil already is.

It also raises the ph so best to balance it with something acidic, like pine needles or vinegar.

@laurelgardner that's why it's always best not to dump too much pure ash in the ground alone. I live in a good evergreen rich area so dried limbs work well as a base because they aren't much good for burning. Crackly smoky crap

You need to be careful though. It adds hydroxide to the soil which makes it alkaline.

My whole life people told me not to burn pine. You know what's worse than burning pine? Freezing to death 😂😂😂. Besides I always took apart the stove pipes every summer and cleaned them out.

I was & still being told not to burn pine. A neighbor was having trees cut down. I asked the worker if I could have the chips & they said yes & would I like the wood (pine ) as well & I said no & explained why. He asked me if I know what they burn in the NW. I said no & he replied pine. I did read that well dried pine is actually good to burn because it burns hot & does not leave cresols like burning hard wood slowly, I am still not certain .

@@JOEZEP54 I burned 6 cords of pine in my house last winter. I'm not a fan of it but it's still useful and not horrible. There are other species of wood that are much worse.

@@tonyt1554 I was going to burn some near the end of the season just to see what results. Did you have any issues, needing to clean chimney more often etc?

I burn anything that lights. No ply or OSB, but everything else is fair game. Green, wet, old, rotten or otherwise.

If you got a standard lawn the cutoff is a superb fertilizer put around base of fruittrees and bushes of all kind. Berry or leafy. It also revitalize taste of fruit from old trees as it give more nutrients to tree.

My dad uses ash for snowmelt. Works a charm, just don't walk on it too much

Ash is just ash. Burned fuel that is nothing afterwards. Sure it has very little help in being fertilizer cause of SOME nutrients in it but it’s supposed to be used very lightly since it contains no nitrogen and doesn’t classify it as a fertilizer.

Grams and Nanas and Grandmas are the best

Wood stoves & Grandma's work up a enchanted environment 😊❤

We used to cook Chile beans and tortillas on our wood stove. Not a pot belly that was in the front room. Between the front room and the kitchen, our house was always warm. 😊❤

priceless

Treasure without measure

I've heard other beekeepers who swear by burlap (but that can be hard to find sometimes), or pine straw~

Agreed!

Honestly can’t believe you didn’t know that about rotten wood… Get your lazy ass outside more often

I’ve made this comment 100x and somehow nobody seems to know what I mean or remember that term. I learned it WELL! I was burning things with a magnifying glass, i never actually lit a fire, just burning swear woods in stuff and goofing off…I did some on an old very large hackberry tree stump that broke off about 4’ high then sat a few years… it was all punk wood by then… I knew what a lighting punk was from fireworks but didn’t know much else about it… hours later, chillin in my room and dad home raging about me burning down the farm, yanked me outside and there was basically no flame but the entire stump was smoldering like a giant cigar… the whole exposed end was one big cherry and it was just dumping out thick yellowy brown smoke that had filled the entire valley with white smoke that was thicker than any fog I’ve seen… the slight breeze meant everything upwind was clear… it was quite a sight! I had even climbed up in the stump after I was done and stomped any little smoldering spots out, so it must have spread from just the tiniest little ember that I failed to extinguish. Many things were learned that day!

The dude said this in the video

It has to be dry though. Rotting wood is very porous and fills with moisture and water.

​@@swayback7375Now you know what to burn if you need smoke for cover.. :)

@@user-pu2ho4ip3d ... Or to be found when lost :)

That’s only if it’s not dried out fully! Your right if burning a soggy chuck that hasn’t been sheltered for a few months

​@@Ana_crusis😂😂😂 I've carried wood in from the rain and put it straight into the stove. It burns just fine and the steam cleans the chimney.

​@joshrandall3632 Many of us have. Just because it has been in the rain for a little doesn't mean it's soaked

umm... Id say no, not because of that. rotten wood just doesnt give enough heat and is kinda useless. leaves as much ash and smokes just like any other wood, it just doesnt have any value when it comes to giving heat....theres not much "wood" left. to be honest, I dont know anyone who brings rotten wood home when they making firewood

It burns up way too quick.

I burn the trash wood on both ends of winter for reasons touched on in this video.

Plants don't need carbon. The ashes generally add minerals that don't burn, like potassium or calcium. Use with caution - too many ashes can alter the pH too much - both of compost and soil.

If carbon is so good then why don't you eat the ash?

⁠​⁠@@WildThyme69 Plants do need carbon. They just happen to respirate C02 and get their carbon from the air! You are right that they don’t need any extra carbon though haha

@@MycaeWitchofHyphae haha you got me there

(Pure) Ash doesn't even contain carbon, just minerals lol Carbon would be da coals

My mom had an interesting story. The next day after a fire, the ash looked cold, so she shoveled it into a paper grocery bag. Before she got it to the trash can, she realized the bag was smoking. She just got it back into the fireplace just before it burst into flames. Because of this, she'd always wait two to three days before removing the ash.

@@robertgaines-tulsa Always use a metal bucket.

I can still hear my dad saying that..."You don't want that wood, it's PUNKY."

@@Melancholy1966 I learned it from my step-dad years ago. Lol

Cool dialect

I get that thats really dangerous but it sounds really cool. Like a tree burning on the inside

That's why you regularly clean your chimney. There are logs, pucks, and powder than you can put on logs that, when burned, hardens the creosote to the point that it becomes brittle and just falls off. You should clean your chimney once a year.

​@@simonji2940it's also a pain to put out. Especially for most volunteer fire departments.

​​​​@@Manicpool We kept a bucket of baking soda when I had a wood stove. It did put a chimney fire out once. Heard the stove suddenly pick up a lot of air, opened it up slowly to prevent a back blast, threw the contents of the bucket in and shut the door, then after it was out for a couple minutes so the iron stove wouldn't shatter or crack, I threw in a coffee thermos of hot water and the steam finished it off and doused the smoldering creosote with steam...but that's FAR from a replacement for proper maintenance. It was a very cold season otherwise it wouldn't have needed the clean out so soon. Edits for context and clarity. Also, the reason you use baking soda is that it produces CO2 when heated. This is also great for grease or wax fires that you do NOT want to use water for.

@@wickedbasket8858 you can also just go on the roof with a long 3/8 chain pop the cap off and dangle the chain down the chimney and spin it so its like a snake for 10 to 15 mins once a year then just clean out the stove.

Why on earth would you be using a wood stove in south Florida???

@@jefffinkbonner9551😂😂😂 it did hit 65 twice last year 😂

@@jefffinkbonner9551You would be surprised - I went to Houston a few weeks ago, and people had on winter coats, mittens/gloves, winter hats...the whole kit and kaboodle. It was like 60 degrees there - I got off the plane in light pants and a tee shirt and stayed that way the entire trip.

​@@adb888mindblowing

@@adb888 Yeah, I’d tease them, but then again any time it’s above 85 I’m absolutely dying.

I know exactly what you mean. I spent half my early years in front of relatives wood and coal stoves. I can still recall the smell of coal that smelled like rotten eggs, high sulfer which W. V.., Ohio and Kentucky are famous for. One tiny town usually had a blanket of coal smoke hanging over it. My first time going there my siblings said we were about to enter hell by driving down that steep narrow road to the holler below. I screamed so hard trying to get out of the car. That smoke was maybe 15 ft. thick. When there was a low pressure system over grandma's town of Buchtel, Ohio, it looked much the same. Might be the reason for the Brigadoon movie as coal was in heavy use in Scotland. I always had apprehensions of going to either place when it looked and smelled of brimstone. Our aunt's church was in that first tiny town of Carbondale, Ohio. So my sisters said we were going to church in hell when the coal smoke hung over it.

Oohh super interesting! Do go on 🤔

Ps I’m being totally serious; I could see how someone might take that as sarcasm, but i really do want to know more.

@@Megadextriouswell, wood ash plus water makes lye. Lye plus fat makes soap.

I understand ash for soap but moonshine?

​@@MegadextriousI believe that was a reference to the Beverly Hillbillies

I was thinking it would be better if it was tall and fairly skinny. Like 12", and 6 feet tall. What do you have planned?

@@davidmercer5561 I could wrap a coil like that around a chimney pipe, or put a large flat set of tubes in the back of a fireplace. I'm just theorizing; I don't have the land or house yet! But a lot of the heat from a fire goes right out the exhaust, so it wouldn't be too difficult to heat water with it. That's also the reason I want a masonry fireplace with a smoke chamber on top. It warms the brick and radiates into the room! :)

@@jamesgizasson all sounds good. I'm sure you'll figure it out and it'll work good. I want to do it too.

@@davidmercer5561 Thanks! It's just one step at a time. Check out 'Russian ovens' or smoke chambers in old fireplaces. There's been a lot of simple technology thrown by the wayside in favor of synthetic insulation and central heating and air conditioning! :)

the best wood for your stove is what you have. the second best is what you can get.

@@kenbrown2808 well said sir

pine is about all I burn in the Intermountain west. I usually save more hardwoods for smoking meats.

Resin heavy woods like pine just generate more creosote, fine long as you do chimney maintenance. Granted you may not want to use it for cooking over an open fire unless you are fine with the taste. Overall its what you can get and are willing to deal with.

Don't add ash to a compost pile (it doesn't need pH assistance) and don't apply it as an amendment without a soil test.

@@teebob21 I mean, the OP said “Of course you should test your soil PH first to make sure you’re not applying too much.”

​@@Feverm00nreading comprehension is really hard for some of us

Surprised your post didn't include pottery. Clay ash and heat is all it takes for your most basic forms of pottery.

Yep, now you know. it's also used in pottery glazing

Good idea. Solar panels are known to produce so much heat around them that they cause anything dry around them to catch fire. .

It does but coal is more than messy it is incredibly toxic and radioactive in many instances. Charcoal is the better option if going down that route. CO and CO2 monitors are excellent tools.

The only reason that would happen is if you have negative pressure in the home. Sometimes this is caused by attic fans that push air out and cause negative pressure in the house.

@@Grief111 It's the hot air rising out of the chimney that causes the negative pressure my friend. That's kind of the whole point. It is something that always happens in any kind of heating environment, just because with a fireplace or stove there's both an extremely high concentration of heat and an easy path for the rising air to take the problem is more severe than something like hot water radiators. I am not asking if it happens, it always does, I am more curious about how pronounced the effect is, as in can you noticeably feel the rest of the room/building get colder, does the air flow blow your curtains and such around, etc.

We don't have this problem, but we have a high efficiency wood stove. In HS my parents had a fireplace and never used it, because it did not make the house warm at all, i think for this reason. Woodstoves are closed combustion and thus produce more heat and keep it in the house vs sending it all up the chimney like a plain fireplace.

Some wood stoves don't have a huge damper plate/valve in the back (blocking or opening the exhaust hole) for big air flow when starting up... most Vermont Castings, or Harman stoves have it, but I would frequently forget to shut the valve, then the stove gets overheated, maybe even glow red and melt metal walls. But with damper on and a good fire, those stoves tend to have good control to limit the air flow, so the fire could last overnight at least to have hot coals in morning. That's the proof that you're not creating too much air flow and negative pressure. Now I have a Jotul stove with NO big damper, I love how easy it is to start without much fear of smoking up the room, I gotta crack open the ash tray door to get initial big air, but even with that door and the mini valve/vent/control fully closed and loaded with good wood, my Jotul fire won't last half the night. OK for me now in my smaller house not reliant on woodstove.

I'm a nobody but I would think the solution would be to pipe in the air used by the fire from outside once the fire starts creating air flow. I don't know if this actually works though.