[Rupert]

Sure you spelled his name right? I thought it should be spelled "Ricky".

Yep, if it had been Ricky the whole neighborhood would have burned down.

Heat and flammable stuff mix to provide disasters. How generous of them.

Yep, you could even say spontaneous......

[Racer X 69]

The Wood Brothers are in victory Lane in the Poconos, with Ryan Blaney at the wheel of the iconic #21 Ford. It was the 7th time a driver for the team had his first Cup win.

It is also the Wood Brothers 99th win as a team.



Blaney is also the 16th different driver to win a Cup race this season.

[MarkJerling]

Swept the fireplace flue this weekend. Always a good bit of preventative maintenance. A flue fire is not a nice thing.

[Racer X 69]

Vic Edlebrock, Jr.
August 23, 1936 – June 9, 2017



I made these images with my Ricoh XR2s and Pentax M40-80mm lens at Seattle International Raceway at the annual SOVREN meet. The Edlebrock family were very active in vintage racing, and Vic drove this former Trans AM race car. His daughter drove another former Trans AM Mustang.

[Racer X 69]

A flue fire is not a nice thing.

No they aren't. I lived in a house for many years that had only wood heat. I used a freestanding airtight fireplace to heat it. It was cozy for sure, but I spent 11 months a year cutting, splitting and stacking firewood in the barn.

Cutting firewood a couple weekends a month like that kept me in excellent physical condition, but it is also how I managed to get two crushed thoracic vertebrae.

Happened in the spring, so I got the summer off from being Racer the Woodsman.

Good times.

Oh, and an airtight stove makes creosote like it had value or something. I would have to run a hot fire once a week during the wood heating season to keep from having to completely shut it down for cleaning. I used a metal chimney so after getting the build up hot enough I would pat the pipe briskly while wearing welder's gloves and the stuff would fall into the firebox. I'd let it die down and when it was down low enough I'd empty it all into a steel bucket and take it out to the garden compost heap.

Lots of nitrogen.

[MarkJerling]

He was 80, I believe. A bit of an icon.

[robtcorl]

Cutting/splitting firewood, the energy source that heats you twice or even thrice.

[MarkJerling]

No they aren't. I lived in a house for many years that had only wood heat. I used a freestanding airtight fireplace to heat it. It was cozy for sure, but I spent 11 months a year cutting, splitting and stacking firewood in the barn.

Cutting firewood a couple weekends a month like that kept me in excellent physical condition, but it is also how I managed to get two crushed thoracic vertebrae.

Happened in the spring, so I got the summer off from being Racer the Woodsman.

Good times.

Oh, and an airtight stove makes creosote like it had value or something. I would have to run a hot fire once a week during the wood heating season to keep from having to completely shut it down for cleaning. I used a metal chimney so after getting the build up hot enough I would pat the pipe briskly while wearing welder's gloves and the stuff would fall into the firebox. I'd let it die down and when it was down low enough I'd empty it all into a steel bucket and take it out to the garden compost heap.

Lots of nitrogen.

I've seen flue fires burn hot enough to heat a stainless steel flue red hot.

[Racer X 69]

Cutting/splitting firewood, the energy source that heats you twice or even thrice.

At least thrice.

Cut and load into truck.

Unload from truck.

Split and stack.

Haul from barn to wood box near house.

Probably can't count carrying a few pieces into the house now and then as work enough to warm one up. But after a few years it becomes a chore.

Then the cozy winter evenings basking in the warm glow of the fire (that you can't actually see because the stove is entirely made of steel) while sipping a hot adult beverage.

I enjoyed those days, but now I'm happy to simply call around for the best price and have the propane truck stop by every couple of years.

And the fuel burns cleaner too.

[Parallax]

At least thrice.

Cut and load into truck.

Unload from truck.

Split and stack.

Haul from barn to wood box near house.

Probably can't count carrying a few pieces into the house now and then as work enough to warm one up. But after a few years it becomes a chore.

Damn! That almost makes me feel bad about the times I've complained about having to get up to turn the thermostat up.

[Racer X 69]

I've seen flue fires burn hot enough to heat a stainless steel flue red hot.

Me too. I also have a fireplace I built for my shop, and I sometimes would fill a used oil filter with used crankcase oil and set it inside in the coals, close the door and use the air opening on the door like a throttle. The chimney form the stove to the ceiling was about 3 meters, and there was another 3 meters of insulated pipe from there. The fire would chug when I adjusted the air just so, really fast, and I'm sure the flames went up the pipe at least a meter. And it got to glowing almost yellow once.

When it cooled down it had some pretty colors, purples and blues, and some orangeish reds.

Now I have the used oil furnace, so no more adventurous heating fire follies.

[rod_grant]

You young blokes just can't hack it, can you?
Here I am at 70 still enjoying a wood fire - even enjoying getting the wood and splitting it!!
I might have told you this before, but here goes again...

A friend (who once built his own sawmill - a multi saw two man op that cut timber (lumber for my yank friends) into framing sizes 8 or 9 studs/planks/timbers at a time), well this friend gathers up fallen trees, limbs, etc throughout the year, and early autumn (fall for my yank friends) we have a day cutting, splitting, loading trailers and utes (pickups for my yank friends) and a great BBQ to boot!
The splitter was designed and built by the same friend and runs off the PTO on the tractor.
The only negative for the day is if someone slams a 600mm (two feet for my yank friends) diameter chunk of wood into one's thumb. (I think I showed the pic before, but it is a good reminder to keep one's thumb out of the way, so here it is again;

[rod_grant]

I had a fire in the flue once: it's great entertainment for the traffic driving by.
Big brick chimney in my previous house - I had been burning wood that wasn't as dry as it should have been and caused lots of soot up the chimney.
No damage done - when the soot was burnt the fire died down.

[Racer X 69]

Ow.

[bertwert]

At least thrice. Cut and load into truck. Unload from truck. Split and stack. Haul from barn to wood box near house. Probably can't count carrying a few pieces into the house now and then as work enough to warm one up. But after a few years it becomes a chore.

-Find dead tree, or chop down tree.
-Buck tree.
-Cut tree.
-Load into Bobcat bucket or tractor wagon.
-Split and stack.
-Use forklifts (on bobcat) to move pallet to door of house.

I split about twenty of these pallet fulls last year - all by hand.
Not our pallet crates, but you get the idea: