Episode 98: The Art of Efficient Wood Burning

The crackling warmth of a wood fire speaks to something primal in us all, but modern wood heating has evolved far beyond the smoky, inefficient fireplaces of yesteryear. In this revealing conversation with Nick Malcolm, fourth-generation fireplace expert and owner of Fire Away Fireplace and Barbecue, host Jerry Ouellette uncovers why wood heating is experiencing a remarkable resurgence after years of declining interest.

Malcolm reveals that wood-burning appliances now represent 60% of his business across four retail locations, with many buyers being 30-40 year olds seeking to recreate the cozy experiences of their childhood. But today's wood heating technology offers far more than nostalgia – modern EPA-certified inserts and stoves operate at approximately 85% efficiency compared to the paltry 5-10% of traditional open fireplaces.

This efficiency translates to dramatic fuel savings. What might require 3-5 bush cords in an open fireplace can be accomplished with just 2 bush cords in a modern insert. Malcolm dives deep into proper wood seasoning techniques, explaining that wood should ideally season for a full year with 12-14% moisture content for optimal burning. He shares which hardwoods burn best (oak, maple, hickory, ash) and how to maximize burn times through proper loading techniques.

Particularly fascinating is Malcolm's explanation of secondary combustion systems that re-burn smoke and gases before they exit the chimney, dramatically reducing emissions. A properly functioning wood stove should emit primarily water vapor rather than heavy smoke – a visible indicator of clean burning.

Whether you're considering wood heat for the first time, looking to upgrade an existing system, or simply curious about this traditional heating method's modern renaissance, this episode offers invaluable insights from one of Ontario's most knowledgeable hearth experts. The rising costs of conventional heating have many homeowners reconsidering wood, and Malcolm's expertise provides a perfect primer for navigating this warming trend.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
How did a small-town sheet metal mechanic come to
build one of Canada's mosticonic fishing lodges?
I'm your host, steve Nitzwicky,and you'll find out about that
and a whole lot more on theOutdoor Journal Radio Network's
newest podcast, diaries of aLodge Owner.
But this podcast will be morethan that.
Every week on Diaries of aLodge Owner, I'm going to

(00:25):
introduce you to a ton of greatpeople, share their stories of
our trials, tribulations andinspirations, learn and have
plenty of laughs along the way.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Meanwhile we're sitting there bobbing along
trying to figure out how tocatch a bass and we both decided
one day we were going to be ontelevision doing a fishing show.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
My hands get sore a little bit when I'm reeling in
all those bass in the summertime, but that's might be for more
fishing than it was punching youso confidently, you said hey,
pat have you ever eaten a drum?
Find Diaries of a Lodge Ownernow on Spotify, apple podcasts
or wherever you get your podcast.

Speaker 5 (01:13):
As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons
of our natural world becomeharder and harder to hear, but
they are still available tothose who know where to listen.
But they are still available tothose who know where to listen.
I'm Jerry Ouellette and I washonoured to serve as Ontario's
Minister of Natural Resources.
However, my journey into thewoods didn't come from politics.

(01:34):
Rather, it came from my time inthe bush and a mushroom.
In 2015, I was introduced tothe birch-hungry fungus known as
chaga, a tree conch withcenturies of medicinal
applications used by Indigenouspeoples all over the globe.
After nearly a decade ofharvest, use, testimonials and

(01:57):
research, my skepticism hasfaded to obsession and I now
spend my life dedicated toimproving the lives of others
through natural means.
But that's not what the show isabout.
My pursuit of this strangemushroom and my passion for the
outdoors has brought me to theplaces and around the people
that are shaped by our naturalworld.

(02:18):
On Outdoor Journal Radio'sUnder the Canopy podcast, I'm
going to take you along with meto see the places, meet the
people that will help you findyour outdoor passion and help
you live a life close to natureand under the canopy.
So join me today for anothergreat episode and hopefully we

(02:38):
can inspire a few more people tolive their lives under the
canopy.
To live their lives under thecanopy.
Okay, as always, we want tothank all our listeners
throughout Ontario and acrossCanada and, of course, the
states and all around the worldSwitzerland, ghana, trinidad,
tobago, all through theCaribbean, our friends down in

(03:00):
the Bahamas, etc.
Etc.
We really appreciate youlistening to the show and, as
always, we always say the samething that if you've got any
suggestions for shows orrecommendations or anything you
want to hear about, anyquestions, let us know, just
email us and we'll be happy totry and do what we can to get
you on Now.
This morning was normal.
We went through a lot of rainhere, which has been good and

(03:24):
bad.
I know the farmers have said,okay, enough is enough for a
little bit because we've beenhaving lots.
But I can tell you that themycelium and the mushroom growth
that I'm seeing has been quiteextensive.
We've had quite a flush of anumber of different mushrooms.
As I was going through thismorning and it's that time of
year again where I started toharvest some reishi mushroom
where I started to harvest somereishi mushroom, I was kind of

(03:49):
surprised because normallythere's somebody else finding my
small patch of reishi thatgrows, as we've talked about
before, on hemlock, andharvested some this morning and
I'm sure it'll grow back Atleast it always has.
But it seems to be within thesame week as what's happening
out there and of course mychocolate lab Ensign gunner was
out out for his run.
You can tell there's coyotes orfox in the area because guess
what, down in the part of thecorner of one of the spots by

(04:12):
the park there was a cat thatwas being taken care of, shall
we say, by the local coyotes orfox.
And I'm sure we'll see thenotice on this week saying
anybody see a missing cat.
But that's what happens whenyou're that close to the fields
and you get all that kind ofactivity with coyotes and them
howling at night.
But anyways, it's that time ofyear and great to see and

(04:35):
hopefully we're going to getinto some warmer weather,
because it's been just a littlecool, little damp, which I kind
of looking forward to summer,but we had a good spring.
As we lay Now.
One of the other things was thatI got some garlic from the
Halliburton Farmer's Market andit started to go to seed, so to
speak.
It started to sprout, so Iplanted it in the spring and

(04:56):
most of the garlic, as we know,bev Bedellinardo, the master
gardener that we had on, shealways, you know, would plant in
the fall and even if it'sgrounds frozen, if you can break
ground to get it in, get it inin the fall because it starts
the roots digging deep.
But the garlic that I plantedhas been up and it's probably
about seven, eight inches tallalready and it's only been a
little over a week now.

(05:16):
So I know it's going good.
We'll see how it goes.
Of course the harvest season isa little bit different, but
these bulbs were pretty good,with only about four cloves in
each bulb, which I kind of like,because I hate those kind of
screwing around with thoselittle wee cloves inside to try
and clean them up, etc, etc.
But we'll see how it goes.
And today we've got a greatguest.
We're going to talk about someinteresting topics.

(05:38):
That should be timely because,as this comes out, we need to
start to get ready for the fallstuff.
And we've got Nick Malcolm fromFireway, fireplace and Barbecue
.
Welcome to the program, nick.
Hey, welcome, good morning.

Speaker 4 (05:51):
Jerry.

Speaker 5 (05:54):
Yeah, now tell us about where you're from, nick,
and kind of for ourinternational listeners from
Toronto so that they get a senseof where you are.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
Yeah, so I live in a little small town just about an
hour northeast of Port ofToronto, sorry, which is the
town of Port Perry Kind of gotdeep-rooted history here with my
family who kind of came downover in 1864 to the local area.
So yeah, we've been laying downroots about an hour north of

(06:21):
Toronto and it's kind of beenwhere my, my, my upbringing has
always began.

Speaker 5 (06:26):
so hi, and and now I don't know if you know, but I've
got some.
I try to.
However, uh, diane, my wife, uh, why do we have all these books
?
What do you need all thesebooks?
for once, you've read themanyways, I got a couple of
historic books that goes intodetails and one of them which I

(06:46):
didn't realize before, it wascalled Port Perry.
It was actually called Perry'sPort, that's right, and I didn't
know that.
And actually the first roadgoing from Oshawa, where I am
north, to Port Perry, where youare, was Simcoe Street, and it
goes into the details.
This book, it was calledReminiscences and Recollections,

(07:09):
by Dr Hogg, who wrote a book onOshawa and he talks about how
the first person who owned a cardrove.
And do you know right where therailroad tracks up by the 10th
concession are?
On the top of the hill there.
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (07:26):
Oh well, he said they drove the car up there.
They came across a black bear,turned around and never drove up
that way again.

Speaker 4 (07:33):
Oh, is that right, yeah, we've got a deep rooted
history here.
Like my, my grandfather isactually the first mayor of
Scugog, so he laid down a lot ofkind of deep, deep roots with
kind of getting a lot of theinfrastructure and kind of
layout of bylaws and stuff thattook place in the Scugog
township.
So, you know, rebuilding thecauseway and making sure that

(07:55):
was a more, a more, a bettertraveled road, kind of getting
up over to the island.
And yeah, he definitely laiddown a lot of the early roots in
the scugog community.
So I'm very versed in thatfield for sure.

Speaker 5 (08:10):
Did not know that.
That's interesting to know.
Now tell us a bit aboutyourself, nick.
What's your background?
What do you specialize in?

Speaker 4 (08:16):
Yeah, so my main specialty is a specialty hearth
retailer and what that reallymeans is I'm a fireplace guy.
You know I have deep roots thathave kind of immersed in this
industry.
That started from my fatherwhere we, you know, my childhood
began up in the sugar shackwith my dad where we'd be
sipping on some maple syrup, andwe're literally just a stone's

(08:39):
throw from there.
We had a little hearth shop orwood stove shop in our home
garage in the little town ofNessleton, ontario.
There we sold, actually, maplesyrup, wood stoves and grape
juice, and those were kind ofour three staples, along with
having a vegetable stand.
So from there I had a lot ofearly youth in the fireplace

(09:01):
business, kind of tagging alongwith my dad and learning the
kind of ins and outs and beingstuffed in every little crawl
space going and a crazy rooftopto dangle on the top of chimneys
.
Um, from there my kind of acareer said hey, dad, you know
what, I'm going to go head offand do my own thing.
And that's when, uh, in 2004,fire away began for me.

(09:22):
So I started my own brand inthe growing town of Clarington
or growing town of Bowmanvilleand from there later I branched
out a second retail location inCoburg, and then actually just
more recently I've added twomore branches to that Fire Away
brand in Port Perry and Uxbridge.

(09:43):
So yeah, my whole life's kindof been immersed in the hearth
industry, um, with brick andmortar shops and and peddling
fire and and passion for thefire um and kind of selling
everything that comes along withit, right oh yeah, so you were
in Nessleton.

Speaker 5 (09:58):
Whereabouts in Nessleton, were you?

Speaker 4 (10:00):
not not necessarily Nessleton, north Nessleton, so
so we kind of fall.
Yeah, just literally a fewminutes down the road from
Nesselton you'll find the NorthNesselton and yeah, that's where
we had a little family farmthere of about 60 acres in which
we mostly hardwood bush.

(10:20):
Probably about 40 acres or 30acres of that is Hardwood Bush,
and that's where my life doingfirewood and everything to do
with farm living and forestliving began for sure.

Speaker 5 (10:32):
Yeah, so was that up by the church north of Nestleton
?

Speaker 4 (10:35):
Exactly.
So just up past the NestletonUnited Church, there, exactly.
You just head down a littlefurther on to the um east side.
There, um, where we still, my,my folks are still there today,
my mom has an art studio, uh,buried into the forest there now
with a beautiful barn that wasjust uh removed and resurrected

(10:57):
from uh, from the mennonites.
We did a relocate of an oldbarn in the middle of the forest
and, yeah, it's a beautifulspot and it's always nice to be
able to head back to thehomestead and kind of regroup
and recollect your thoughts ofyour childhood for sure.

Speaker 5 (11:13):
So now you mentioned quite a bit of hardwood bush and
I don't know, because we've hada discussion on the podcast
before about individuals thathave over 10 acres that can
actually get the managed forestland tax rebate, and I'm not
sure if they do or not.
Oh, they do Good, because that'sin conjunction with my old
ministry having been theMinister of Natural Resources
where people get incentives tomanage it in conjunction with

(11:37):
the Ministry of NaturalResources and get about 75% of
the taxes that they normallywould pay off that are covered
by the ministry now.
So it's just a big incentive toprovide proper forest
management.
So it sounds like you've gotthat or they've got that already
.

Speaker 4 (11:51):
They do, and I actually have that the same on
my farm, where we currently havea roughly 40 acre farm on
Scugog Island and that's wherewe reside, and we do a bit of a
managed forest here as well,where we reside, and we do a bit
of a managed forest here aswell, and, uh and the same,
we're fighting off that uh, thatuh natural cycle of coyotes and
protecting my chickens and allthe other things you previously

(12:12):
spoke of.
So that really resonated withme as I lost two, uh, two girls
last week.
So, um, yeah, that that there'sdefinitely a big influx of
wildlife around this, uh, spugogIsland area for sure.

Speaker 5 (12:25):
So yeah, yeah, yeah.
So now now, nick, I've done acouple of podcasts with my son
on um, firewood and chainsawsand stuff like that Cause, uh,
we do a bit of well.
When I was back in college I uhhad a I ran a bit of a cutter
skitter operation where I'd haulout logs and cut firewood and

(12:46):
stuff like that and end up doingcleanup stuff.
I can recall there was a greatguy who was the Ministry of
Natural Resources forester forthe district.
His name is Bob Penwell, blesshis soul.
He used to manage the GanaraskaForest, which I'm sure you know
Absolutely, which is 12,500acres or hectares I'm not sure
if that's acres or hectares, butit's certainly 12,500 acres at

(13:09):
least and they would get cutterscome in and then they would
leave and there'd be half a loadthere.
I'd end up.
At that time it wasn't a problemto be able and he'd appreciate
me going in and cleaning it upfor him.
So it worked out great and andwe started firewood and then my
boys had just kind of continuedon when they were in school.
So we do a bit of cutting.

(13:30):
So what I wanted to talk about,nick, was your expertise in
regards to wood stoves versusfireplace and inserts and maybe
we can kind of walk through andgive us a bit of insight on each
and every one of what we justtalked about.
So the efficiency et cetera forfireplaces and things like that
, for sure.

Speaker 4 (13:51):
So there's no question, there's lots of
variables when it comes to woodburning gas and also we're just
seeing a big kind of change inwhat's really sought after and I
find in the market we reallyare getting these kind of
insurges of what products peopleare looking for.
So wood burning fireplaces,inserts and stoves, they all

(14:14):
basically took a little bit of ahiatus over the past kind of
call it 10 years where we werereally seeing a decline on the
demand for those products, butwhat I'm finding in the last two
years is a serious surge ofdemand.
So I find kind of thesegenerations kind of go in spans

(14:34):
right where we're now.
We're finding you know,potentially your kids or some of
these kids that I say kids thatare now 30, 40 years old.
You know kids that I say kidsthat are now 30, 40 years old,
you know in their new home, thathave this memories of sitting
by mom and dad's wood stove orgrandma and grandpa's wood stove
.
You know, and I'm finding thatthat's kind of creating now this

(14:56):
demand, that it's becausethat's what comes with fire is
also making memories right.
So it's not just the heat or theefficiency, so, but jumping
back to the efficiency side ofthings.
When you take an open hearthmasonry fireplace for instance,
which we've always defined themas kind of the rich man's fire,
you know it's money up the flue.
They operate anywhere inbetween five to 10% in

(15:19):
efficiency, meaning you'rebasically sending 90% of those
flue gases back up the chimney.
So when we do or add, let's say, an efficient or a certified
wood-burning insert into thatfireplace opening, we basically
do the opposite.
Now we're burning at somewherein the side of 85% efficiency,

(15:40):
meaning we're only sending 15%of the flue gases back up the
chimney.
That's obviously relating to alot more efficiency of heating
inside of the room, on top ofjust the fact of adding a good
efficient, which means basicallya lot less work.
You know the same amount of toproduce the same amount of heat.
It takes a lot less energy aswe're not getting all that loss.

(16:05):
But yeah, there's definitelyheavy, heavy benefits to adding
efficient appliances into theseopenings and that even goes
whether we're talking aboutrectifying the old Franklin wood
stove or updating.
You take some of these old woodburning appliances that had

(16:26):
large flues venting into anolder masonry chimney.
There is so much moreefficiency to be gained, which
efficiency really relates to abetter wood burning experience.

Speaker 5 (16:40):
So, Nick, now you mentioned about the amount of
heat, instead of only like 90%of the heat going up the chimney
.
So if you're in the house webought, it was built in 1958 and
it had a fireplace in it thatit's in the center of the house

(17:01):
and it's surrounded.
So the chimney is inside thehouse, it's in the center of the
house and it's surrounded.
So the chimney is inside thehouse.
Yeah, and we last year we wentthrough probably between four
and five bushcord.
For those that don't know, abushcord is four feet high and
four feet wide, eight feet long,but it was a lot of because we

(17:25):
took down a white spruce out ofthe front yard.
So there was quite a bit,probably three bushcord of
softwoods essentially.
So you think that if we were toput in a fire an insert in the
fireplace insert that it wouldreduce the amount of wood that
we need to burn?

Speaker 4 (17:34):
Absolutely.
You know, just as I kind of hadtouched base on that of where
we're moving from a 90%efficient or 85% efficient unit
right down to a 10% efficientunit, I would see that your wood
consumption in that would be ata third of consumption, you
know.
So if you're pumping anywherein that three to five bush cords

(17:58):
and the reality of I thinkyou're probably three to five is
also that's not necessarilyrunning that thing 24-7.
That's pushing three to fiveand also not necessarily getting
you know all of that, you'renot necessarily getting the
performance out of it.
So I would cut that same threeto five down to two bush cords,
but also with that two you'reactually going to be heating.

(18:20):
You're also going to be doing alot more for the environment in
the sense of just emissioncontrols.
You know wood burningappliances are a wonderful item
for that carbon cycle.
But you can imagine, as Imentioned about sending the flue
gases up the chimney.
You know, when you are burningwith these newer style efficient
units we are burning theappliance, then we actually have

(18:44):
a secondary re-burn which isre-burning a lot of those flue
gases and in a sense emitting alot less toxic emissions.

Speaker 5 (18:54):
So and a lot of people don't understand, nick, I
don't think they understandthat when you say re-burning the
gases, I don't think peopleunderstand the actual process of
wood, where it's more or lessmelting in the fire and you're
burning the gases off.
You can probably elaborate thaton a bit precisely so.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
You know, the simplest breakdown or the most
common kind of term would be acatalytic right.
Catalytic is kind of morespecific to certain brands and
each fireplace manufacturer kindof has their own term, you know
, whether it be the clean burnor the vortex or the catalytic.
So each one of these kind ofthey achieve the same or similar

(19:33):
results each to their own, butthey kind of do it in different
ways.
So the sum up of that is where,yes, you're burning your wood.
Basically there's your hotdilution air is pumped up
through the bottom of theappliance and then shot back
through the top.
What this does is it creates ahot amount of basically hot air
pumping through the top, whichthen starts to re-burn all your

(19:56):
smoke.
So if you're really and me, I Ican't drive past the house
without looking at a chimney, orit's where my eyes always go to
first.
But you know, when I see smokejust barreling out the top of
the chimney, I just sit thereand go oh god, you know what are
we burning in there?
Because the reality of a cleanburning system is you really
should just see water vapor.

(20:17):
You know you won't actually seesmoke coming at the top of a
chimney with a clean burningappliance, you'll just see that
kind of misty, haze of watervapor.
And that's that's when I know.
You know, when I drive past andI see creosote just barreling
or dripping off the the draincap, I just cringe and just wait
for that phone call for thatchimney sweep.
Oh yeah.

Speaker 5 (20:37):
Yeah, yeah, and I know when.
When actually there was a partof my life where we lived in
Crooked Creek, just north ofNewtonville, you know, just
south of Starkville, west eastof Brownsville, where we had a
wood oil combination furnace,Absolutely yeah.
And what it had was two firepots where you could actually

(21:01):
burn wood, and so you'd run thewood burning and as soon as that
stopped burning, then the oilwould kick in through the middle
of the night and you'd be ableto burn oil.
Yep, one aspect about it was,when the power went out, you
could actually continue to havethe burned wood in it and it

(21:24):
would still heat the house atthat time.
So, and you mentioned about inthe last two years, you're
seeing a surge.
I can recall when we're inCrooked Creek there, and I
mentioned the Ganaraska Forest,they actually opened it up for
public cuts.
And I mentioned the GanaraskaForest.
They actually opened it up forpublic cuts because at that time
there was the world oil crisis,where oil went from $7 to $37 a

(21:46):
barrel, so they saw a hugedemand in wood burning at that
time.
So they opened up some publiccuts to allow the public to come
in and get firewood to be ableto burn in order to supplement
their heat.
And you think potentially thesame thing's happening in the
last two years is that the costof everything is going up, that
people are realizing, hey, maybeit's cheaper to burn wood, or
is it?

Speaker 4 (22:07):
for sure.
So you know, the thing withwood burning is obviously you,
you understand, or you canreally um dial in your exact
cost as to what you're going toconsume.
You know.
So when you order your threebush cords and you know that's
going to do your heating for theseason, you know not that a
bush cord is getting any cheaper, but let's average this out
between 350 and 450,.

(22:28):
Let's say, you know, you knowyou've got that kind of fixed
cost of the thousand to $1,400mark in heating and, as, as most
know, or if anyone that haswood burning experiences, you
know it's a wonderful heat.
You know, like I said, when itcomes down to the appropriate
appliance to burn these, that'svery important for a bunch of

(22:52):
different aspects.
But yeah, the insurgents Ithink does come in there.
Like I'm not kidding when I saywe're at probably a 60% wood
burning um, throughout my fourretail locations.
So you know, really woodburning is taking back over and
uh, you know it's.
It's been a bit of a struggle,for we've had different

(23:13):
manufacturers which have kind ofdropped off of the wood burning
scene with some differentgovernment regulations that have
kind of been imposed andthere's kind of dropped off of
the wood-burning scene with somedifferent government
regulations that have kind ofbeen imposed and there's kind of
ever-changing things within ourindustry that kind of keep
affecting these wood-burningappliances.
But I think right now we'rekind of in the clear.
Some of the stuff has beenpushed aside politics-wise and

(23:36):
we're kind of good for anothereight to ten years, so to speak
of good good for another eightto ten years, so to speak of
good clean wood burning, beforewe kind of get, uh, uh,
redirected again, maybe inanother bout, or we're asked to
have new certifications for thenext level of clean burning
appliances.
So, uh, 2020, there was a bigum influx or a big, big push

(23:59):
there for some new EPA standards, which most of the
manufacturers had to really stepup and and not necessarily
reinvent the wheel, but had tobring their appliances or make
them a little better, cleanerburning.
And yeah, I, I'm, I'm excited inthe wood burning world there's
there's something kind of old,old school.
It's one of those old schoolkind of pastimes that it's a

(24:20):
labor of love.
But if you really do love thatwood-burning heat, it truly is a
love, and I always relate firein anything.
You know, I always say gocamping without a campfire and
then go camping with a campfire.
It's two totally differentcamping experiences.
Right, like it changeseverything.
It changes the morale, itchanges the, the, the experience

(24:43):
, the heat, the cooking, the,the, everything, right?
So, yeah, no, there'sdefinitely a lots of cool
aspects of fire.

Speaker 5 (24:50):
So yeah, I know, and, and you mentioned about the
cost of wood now, um, I alwaysthought it would be a a great
corner gas gas show to be calleda woodmonger.
And so we get a lot of our woodbecause you get the arborists
going around cutting trees downin a lot of the municipality and

(25:11):
then the wood is left by theroadside.
And once it's at the roadsideit's free for all.
First up, best dressed gets tograb the the wood they want, and
so a lot of the wood that weend up getting, and I know I got
, um, it might be half threequarters of a face cord out
front drying right now, uh, totake around back when I get my

(25:31):
wheelbarrow back that uh will beburning this year.
But a lot of that wood at theside of the road, uh, you're
going to see people lining up orgrabbing that wood and there's
no cost for that, which ispretty good.
But when people get wood likethat, what kind of dry time do
you figure it should be?
And what's the best way to curesome of that wood to make sure

(25:53):
it reduces the amount ofmoisture content?
And why is it important toreduce the moisture content?

Speaker 4 (25:58):
Yeah, so you know, I'll be quite honest.
Whenever I hear a customer sayI got a buddy who's an arborist,
I get lots of free wood, italways makes me cringe, you know
, because exactly that my mindinstantly goes to okay, and I'm
putting this appliance in rightnow, meaning that, like they
don't already have their stackstored and ready to roll and

(26:19):
they've got some fresh greenwood showing up tomorrow, uh,
that they're going to try tostart pumping through their new
high efficient appliance.
So I I always cringe anytime Ihear I have a buddy that's an
arborist.
So, um, you know, going fromthere though, yeah, the key
thing to any good wood burningexperience is properly seasoned
wood, you know, and what thatreally means is typically, you

(26:43):
want to have it seasonedannually for a year.
Um, you, the most proper way tostore that wood would be
typically up on some skids or upoff the ground.
Um, you want it covered on top,so more of like a lean-to or a
lid, but you still want the airto be able to pass through this.
So, more or less keeping itelevated, but having that air to

(27:03):
be able to pass through typicalmoisture content.
There's also a a happy mediumhere, where there is a thing
called too dry and of coursethere's too wet.
What creates creosote ismoisture right.
So for a good, clean burningexperience you typically want to

(27:24):
produce more of what I wouldcall a soot.
So creosote is black, shiny,stinky, smelly.
Where soot is kind of light,brown and airy, you know it's
powdery, very easy to clean,versus the opposite of creosote
which is really difficult toclean and sometimes can really
damage a complete system.
So yeah, properly seasoned wood,minimal one year average

(27:49):
moisture content.
You kind of want to sit aroundthat 12 to 14%.
There is some moisture metersavailable which you can just
kind of probe into your woodburning or into your wood for
wood burning and that can kindof dial in your accuracy for
where you want your your wood tobe sitting at.
If you have a little bit ofextra moisture inside that wood,

(28:11):
you can bring that into thesame room with the appliance and
really watch that moisturecontent change with just in a
couple days, um, in which canthen make that a much better
wood burning experience a fewdays later once it's dried out
or climatized a little betterwithin the room with the
appliance.
So right.

Speaker 5 (28:30):
Yeah, I had an old cook stove.
To be honest, it was um.
You know, it had the uh, thewater heaters on the side of it.
Yeah, yeah some water jacketsyeah, water jackets and it had
an oven on it.
To be honest, I think it wasmore of a coal stove than a wood

(28:50):
stove because the grates thatwere inside were very, very
unique.
But what I used to do would beI would put in the oven, I would
put wood inside the oven.
Okay, let it bake that wood,yeah, a little.
Kiln dry a little kiln action.

Speaker 4 (29:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's still.
Hey, that is what it's allabout.
You know, just making sure.
Honestly, it's like it's likeanything if I get the phone call
that says, hey, nick, you justput this appliance in and I'm
really not happy with theperformance, you know it's just
not doing.
I remember at my grandpa'scottage we used to be able to

(29:26):
get cooked out of that room.
And so what's the first thing Ido?
I grab 10 beautiful pieces ofhardwood from my own stack at
home and I show up there and Ihave a fire with them.
You know, um, you know twoprobably main things is a lot of
customers have what we calltinker fires, or what I call it
anyways, where, you know you're,you're adding another log on

(29:46):
the fire every hour.
But these new high efficientappliances are all burnt or
designed to be burnt in in whatwe call cycles.
You know, so typically it wouldbe a two load a day burning
cycle.
You know where we're literallypacking these up like a puzzle.
If it can fit, it is designedto be in that firebox.

(30:08):
So I'll show up there andthey're like, uh, I'll say, hey,
here, load it up the way thatyou typically would, and I watch
them put their two, threepieces in there there's lots of
volume still above it and I'mlike whoa, let's grab another
six pieces here like a puzzleand we're going to pack this
thing.
And they just kind of look atme like Nick, I don't know, are
you sure?

(30:28):
And I'm sure so we button thisthing down, load it up and see
you later, 10 hours later.
We have a wonderful burningexperience, you know.
So yeah, seasoned wood isdefinitely the top key there.
But to maximize efficiency inthese appliances as well, it's
very important to load themcorrectly and burn them.
Burn them, let's say, a littledifferent than you used to burn

(30:51):
grandpa's old stove.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
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Speaker 7 (31:20):
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(32:46):
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(33:10):
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Hey, thanks for listening backto the episode.
Now, when you're burning a lotof wood, nick the moisture
content in the air it it driesit out quite a bit, does it not?
And how do you compensate forthings like that?

(34:13):
Or is it necessary?

Speaker 4 (34:17):
so, so there's no really.
I think that's still justjumping back down to having
properly seasoned wood.
You know, if you are trying toburn water out of the wood, it
takes away from the fundamentalsof heating, right, you're going
to take all the energy to boilthe water out versus producing
heat and it's also just going toget messy.

(34:38):
So I can say number one ifyou're trying to burn wet wood,
stop.
Go and get some dry, seasonedwood period, because you're just
going to be prone for chimneyfire except or excessive
creosote buildup, which thenwill result to a chimney fire,
which then obviously has all ofits own hazards on its own right

(34:58):
.
So, um, yeah, if you're tryingto boil the water to the wood,
stop.
Get yourself some good wood.
Um, you can reduce thatmoisture content by, yes,
climatizing or moving thatindoors, um, but the key is is,
yeah, wood burning is a job thatkind of has to be projected
early on.

(35:18):
You know you need to make sureyou have, if you're looking to
burn for the wood burning season, you already have your wood
delivered a year in advance andstored and ready so that that
can be seasoned and ready to gofor the following year's wood
burning season.

Speaker 5 (35:34):
Right.
Yeah, what I'm referring to,nick, I think is the moisture in
the air in the room or in thehouse or wherever you're burning
.
Yeah, sorry, that's okay.

Speaker 4 (35:44):
Yeah, so there's no question there.
In a sense of wood burningwe've always kind of added,
whether it be kettles orsteamers or things like that.
So wood burning appliances tendto dry things out.
Appliances tend to dry thingsout.
When you take a home and a firethat's burning, it's not

(36:10):
uncommon to be looking to addextra moisture into that room.
Just being the fact that theimmense amount of heat is drying
everything out, you aretypically drawing that air back
out of the room.
So you're taking yourcombustion air back out of the
room in which the appliance isburning.
So, yeah, it is important tokind of whether you have a
humidifier on the furnace thatyou can run just in order to add
moisture back into the area, orwhether you do a steamer on top

(36:32):
of the appliance, which alsoworks wonderful, kind of to add
that moisture back into the roomand help the so.

Speaker 5 (36:40):
Nick, when you're curing your wood, does it matter
the size of the wood?
Like the large pieces, If youtake a large one or you've cut
that in half, will it curequicker if they're smaller
pieces?

Speaker 4 (36:53):
For sure.
So obviously less volume isgoing to allow that air to be
able to or that moisture to beable to escape it.
But I do feel also with theseappliances, it's important to
have a little bit of a varietyin sizing.
So, as I said about maximizingthe volume of the firebox and

(37:14):
making sure that you're able topack that thing solid, I like
having my small pieces, my biglogs, my, you know, my medium
pieces.
It gives me a good variety toreally build that puzzle and
maximize the volume so I can geta good burning cycle, um, for
for the day or the evening,right.
So, but on a moisture content,I, I think in general, um,

(37:38):
moisture, will you know, thesmaller the piece, the moisture
will get out of it a littlequicker, for sure.
But I think really it comes downto how you're.
You know I'll show up to a lotof customers' homes and see the
pile of wood sitting in thedriveway, which you know I also.
Go back six months later andthat pile of wood is still
sitting in the driveway.
It's just got a tarp droopedover it and literally it's like

(38:00):
a uh, like a greenhouse, youknow, the water and moisture
just being trapped right.
So storage is definitely key.
Um, different quality of woodsalso burn a lot differently.
You know um you.
You can take a a wood like ashwhich, as we know, there's
plenty of ash around it burnswell and even when it's not

(38:27):
fully seasoned.
You know, I still alwaysrecommend good season, but if
you were to pick any of thewoods, it's probably the one
that can tolerate a little bitmore moisture for the burning
season or for burning in general.

Speaker 5 (38:39):
Right.
So larger pieces when theyburning in general, right.
So larger pieces when they'rein the firebox.
So if you fill up with yourfirebox, say in your fireplace,
insert with large pieces ascompared to the same volume of
small pieces, will they burn theamount of time or will the
small pieces end up not lastingas long?

Speaker 4 (38:57):
I kind of look at it as a cord wood kind of slipping
into the box.
So the way I pack is literallylike a puzzle.
So yes, there's obviously aslight bit of airflow mixed in
between these two pieces orthese multiple pieces, but I do
find I kind of look at it asjust one solid block that's
going in there.
So in theory I think some ofthe larger pieces could

(39:21):
potentially burn for a littlebit longer.
But the thing with these highefficient appliances is the
fireboxes aren't that big right.
So when you try to put a bighunk and awkward log, so to
speak, into that firebox itmakes the rest of the volume a
little trickier.
So I love proper split cordwood because again, those

(39:44):
triangle pieces they do reallyfit like a puzzle and you can
really pack the volume in there.
But I do find you know logs orrounds and some of the big
pieces can definitely equate toa little bit longer burn times
for sure.
But you know, when they do thetesting in these factories it's
not that they're skewed testings, but each manufacturer, they

(40:06):
all have to go by the same test,right?
So they basically use uh, theyhave kind of a crib cordwood
test right where it's kind ofmore or less the most
beautifully seasoned wood, um,squared right in which they kind
of make this crib and they putit in and they do a flash fire
on it, and that's kind of wherethey come up with a lot of their
BTUs and burn times and stufflike that.

(40:27):
So they're not always set tosome of the the brochure numbers
are not.
They're not always set to realworld burning experience, right,
so, and that's the reality Ifind with some of those.
So yeah, to sum it up, big woodisn't necessarily a flaw, it's
not a bad thing, but I thinkhaving the variety is what's

(40:48):
most important, and maximizingthat volume of firebox, because
if you're not filling the box tothe top, you're not going to
get that secondary re-burnworking the way that it should.
If you're just having a fewfire or tinker fire in the
bottom, um, you're not going toget the same effect out of that

(41:09):
secondary re-burn, which hencemeans for shorter burn cycles
and nowhere near as clean of awood burning, uh, a system for
emissions okay, well, nick, backto a fireplace.

Speaker 5 (41:22):
So our old fireplace that was, you know, came with
the house that was built, as Imentioned, in 58.
Yeah, it has.
So you've got the, the firebox,which is basically, and there's
all fire brick inside there,yep, and then above there is a
uh, there's a damper there thatyou can open and close to
regulate the.
How does the damper affect?

(41:42):
And I know you shut it down socold air is not blowing down the
chimney, yep, and then you'vegot a firebox, after that, a
smoke chamber.
Smoke chamber, you got it.
And then up, and then it goes upthe chimney, kind of run us
through the typical fireplaceand the components of it and
which each function is supposedto be.

Speaker 4 (42:03):
So what you're kind of describing is what we call an
open hearth masonry and, as Isaid, you can pump as much wood
through something like that asyour heart contents.
You know there is no limit tohow much wood that you could
chew through that thing in aseason and that the trouble with
something like that is also, ofcourse, the loss of efficiency

(42:25):
when you're not burning.
So, as we were just mentioningabout a damper, really those
open hearths kind of have a callit a handle damper with
different notches in it that youcould potentially um, you know
not or set slightly closed or alittle bit closed.
But the issue you run into openhearth masonries is it takes a
lot of energy to warm up allthat cool masonry work, so

(42:49):
initially establishing a gooddraft can sometimes be very
difficult.
Different fireplaces will alsohave deeper smoke shelves or
deeper lintels, so you may haveto build a fire very much
further to the back of theseopen hearth masonries in order
to just have not be filling thehouse full of smoke, so to speak
.

(43:09):
Right, really, when it comesdown to the components on an
open hearth, they're prettystraightforward.
You know, you've got your mainfirebox, you.
It comes down to the componentson an open hearth they're
pretty straightforward.
You know you've got your mainfirebox.
You're typically going to havea heat elator or a firebrick
rear backing.
A lot of the time there's alsoattached to those heat elators.

(43:58):
You'll 10% of the heat backinto the room and sending 90%
back up the chimney.
There it right back toaccommodate for a stainless
steel liner to come down thatflute.
Um, you know the advantages ofof lining these number one.
Number one would be safety.
Um, so that we're not justadding an insert into these
openings and now the creosotecan just kind of fall back down
the chimney and lay on top ofthe appliance.
It's probably one of the largestfire hazards with open hearth

(44:21):
masonry fireplaces and adding aninsert into it.
So under wet standards we arerequired to have a continuous
stainless steel liner runningfrom top to bottom.
What this also kind of takescare of is some of the
efficiency loss.
So, jumping back to the openhearth masonry where you know,
until that fire's completely outcoals and all, you have your

(44:45):
damper open and typically it'sjust wide open.
So meaning all night long whenyour fire's gone out you're just
sitting literally drafting andsucking all of the heat that was
in your home, straight back outthe flue.
When we go to the high efficientnow with the stainless liner,
we actually insulate and sealaround that liner at the top and
the door is also gasketed onthe fireplace.

(45:06):
So this means when that door issealed up or airtight, we're
not actually having any moreheat loss out of the house when
we're not burning.
So there's so many benefits toadding each kind of wood burning
system, whether that be afreestanding wood stove, an open
hearth masonry, adding a woodburning high efficient insert

(45:27):
into it, or a factory built woodburning fireplace.
They each kind of have theirown unique scenario.
Wood burning fireplace.
They each kind of have theirown unique scenario.

Speaker 5 (45:40):
They each have their own installation and, yeah,
there's definitely lots ofdifferent variables that kind of
come into play with each one ofthose systems so so, nick, you
mentioned something that I'msure a lot of people don't know
what it, what it means, or itETcertified, and what is a WET
certification and what does thatmean and how important is it or
what does it?
Just kind of give us a rundownso people know what it means to

(46:01):
be WET certified?

Speaker 4 (46:03):
For sure.
So there's it's a verymisconception.
There's a lot of misconceptionwhen it comes to certification
or the term WET in general,right, first off, people are
like, well, what's WET?
So it's really.
You have, wet is a organizationin which there's actually no
such thing as a WETcertification, so you can have

(46:25):
what we call a wood heatingreport, which would be completed
by a WET certified advisor likemyself, right?
So you've got wood energytechnical technologies that's
what it stands for.
Or technical technicians um,and that's what it stands for.
And really we're finding, like,with wet, um, we're it's a

(46:46):
private organization, um, youknow, regulated on its own, and
we're trying to put a lot oftrying to really educate wood
burning and understand it in theright light.
You know, with WET it's really acommon thing asked for by

(47:10):
insurance companies, right, inwhich they don't really
necessarily fully understand orgrasp what they're looking for
either.
So there's a whole other thingwe can kind of jump into on it.
But the reality is, is it'sabout safe wood burning
practices, right?
And we kind of lay out thoseguidelines and understand what

(47:31):
you really require in order tohave a safe wood burning
experience.
Now, obviously, just likeanything, there's lots of
variables that come aside, thatyou can have the most cleanest
and safest wood burning systeminstalled out there, but if
you're burning the wettest andpoorest quality of fuel, uh, it
can lead to all sorts of issues,even on a very safe burning

(47:55):
system, right?
So yeah, wet is really.
You know, we're creatingstandards or they're creating
standards and we tend to weunderstand those standards and
do good installation practices,that kind of abide by those
rules.
So what does WET stand for then,Nick yeah, so you've got Wood

(48:19):
Energy Technical Training andWood Energy Technical
Technicians.
So it has nothing to do withwater, it just is to do with the
understanding of wood burningsystems and there's lots of
different levels in that,whether you're an installer, a
chimney sweep, a pelletspecialty company or, sorry, a

(48:43):
pellet burning advisor, a woodburning advisor yeah, lots of
different, different kind oflevels inside of that
organization and you'll kind offind specialists within each
field so you brought up a newtopic that I never considered

(49:03):
was about the pellet burningstoves.

Speaker 5 (49:05):
Uh, yeah tell us.
How do, how do they comparewith, say, other stoves and um,
what is the difference betweenI've seen softwood pellets,
hardwood pellets and the burn?
And how do they make thepellets and are they clean,
burning and efficient?
Or is there chemicals added tomake these little pellets in the
first place?

Speaker 4 (49:23):
So yeah, typically there's not any chemicals added.
They're a very clean burningsystem.
I've kind of gone both ways onpellets.
You know I've had years whereI've gone kind of stronger on it
.
It's again one of those marketsthat I find.
You'll have a big pellet yearand then you'll have a soft
pellet year, and I mean thatreally in the amount of volume

(49:44):
of pellet stove sales that wehave, and they are a bit of a
tinkerman stove I keep usingthis tinker term but there's a
fair bit of maintenance involvedwith pellet burning.
So I do find if you're going toinstall a pellet stove, you want
to have a good one.
You know I sell Harman, which Ifind one of the leading pellet

(50:06):
stoves out there.
They do a lot of niceinnovative systems of feeding
the pellets up into the hopperversus dropping um, or into the
story the burn pot versusdropping them down from above,
which reduces fly ash.
Um.
The quality of the componentsare a lot better and and that's
what I find is you really haveunlike a wood stove you kind of

(50:27):
have three, three electronicsystems.
You have a auger to feed thepellets in there, you have the
uh blower or forced air um.
You have a forced airconvection blower on it, um your
auger, and then you also havean exhaust blower.
So basically it's a wood stovethat requires power to operate,

(50:48):
right.
So, uh, that's one factor there.
A lot of clients do love thefact that they can just grab a
bag of pellets and dump it inthe hopper, and the efficiency
on these things are quite lovely.
I have some customers that burntheir pellet stoves and they
they swear by it, you know.
So, um bit of fly ash, you gotto do some daily maintenance,
some weekly maintenance and thenjust some general maintenance

(51:11):
as well, just kind of keepingthat, that creosote and the soot
, kind of cleaned up out ofthese systems.
Um, going from there jumpinginto the quality of pellets, you
know it's I've might I have apersonal experience with burning
a pellet stove and and yeah,like you typically want a fairly
low ash content.

(51:31):
That's kind of the common.
I've got lots of mixed opinions, though.
I have some customers that theypick up a skid of pellets from
the local feed store and theyjust swear by this one versus
the other.
So I do find it's you know,I've never taken a pellet and
broken it down and reallyanalyzed it they all kind of
look the same.
They all produce that good hotwood heat.

(51:53):
But yes, there's no uh, some ofthe better hardwood pellets
with a lower kind of and somewith a minimum kind of 15 ash
content um do tend to burn uhmuch nicer than definitely some
of the softwood pellets as faras efficiency and length of burn
times, for sure right.

Speaker 5 (52:14):
So a of things.
And what do you suggest peopledo with a lot of the wood ash
once they've done with theirfires and they clean out their
fireplace or their wood stove ortheir insert, and what do you
recommend people do with the ash?

Speaker 4 (52:31):
Yeah, so I've definitely seen it done lots of
ways.
It's probably one of my mostcommon and you know knock on
wood here in my 21 years ofowning Fire Away I've never had
any issues or any fires relatedto any of my clients' homes.
Fire items is someone takingtheir ash bucket or cleaning

(52:55):
their hot coals and embers outand they set that wood bucket
onto the rear deck of the homeand next thing we know it kind
of spreads or that those hotcoals sitting in the bucket
causes the fire.
Nothing to do with the internalappliance.
So it's one of those ones thatalways kind of resonates with me
whenever we talk about, youknow, ash or proper storage of

(53:18):
things.
So number one yeah, make sureyou get your hot coals and ashes
and get them away from thehouse and make sure you're
storing them in a metal bucket.
Ok, going from there, you know,I've always kind of grown up
where we we kept a bit of thatand we use it in the gardens and
kind of mulch that throughout.
Um, that's been one.
But sometimes that can createsome toxicity in there as well.

(53:40):
Um, but yeah, we have.
We kind of have an ash spot atthe farm here where we just kind
of take the ashes out to dumpthem in and I'll, uh, I'll mix
those in now and again.
But uh, you know, other thanthat, as far as ash is, it's
what I use to clean the glass onmy appliance.
You know it's there's nothingquite like a little bit of a
damp cloth dabbing your yourcloth into the ashes, and it

(54:03):
will, it will eat itself off theglass, so to speak.
So it's probably, it's not.
My grandpa showed me we alwaysburnt, actually, our potato
peels in the wood burningappliance as well, peels in the
wood burning appliance as well.
I was always told the potassiumburning off of the potato peels
helped, uh, clean or reduce,reduce that creosote inside of
the flue liner.
So just something I've alwaysdone.

(54:23):
Um, but uh, you know, I'vedefinitely seen a lot of systems
.
I've swept a lot of chimneys inmy life.
I've I've blown black out mynose for for years and years and
years, so to speak, and I singthe song when I get up there
sometimes and uh, yeah, no, it'suh, as far as that.
As far as ashes go, though,jumping back to that, yeah, you

(54:45):
know, I do know a lot of peoplethat do mix it in amongst the
gardens and kind of compost anduh.
But I think it really comesdown to the volume of ashes
we're dealing with yeah, Ihadn't heard about potato
peelings.

Speaker 5 (54:56):
However, I have heard people burning eggshells as
well for the same reason.
Have you heard that as well?

Speaker 4 (55:01):
Exactly, I have actually, yeah, I have heard
that.
It was never one that we did.
You know we've been.
Yeah, all I'm doing right nowis I chuck the eggshells back in
with the chickens.
They seem to like them after weeat our eggs, but uh, they,
they tend to chip away at them.
Um, but yeah, no, I never.
I never did the the eggshellsof myself or my own personal

(55:25):
experience, but yeah, no, I havedefinitely heard it, uh as well
.

Speaker 5 (55:29):
So yeah, I, we would always burn the or I would
always burn the eggshells, andbut I never knew if it was just
a wife's tale or or if there'ssome reality to it.

Speaker 4 (55:38):
I often wonder too.

Speaker 5 (55:40):
I think it all still comes down to you know, it all
comes down to the quality andmoisture content of the wood,
and I think I'll always keepjumping back to that one for
sure yeah, and one of the otherthings, though, is, most people
don't know, however, I did ashow on soap making, and one of
the components in soap is lye,and I don't know, nick, if you

(56:00):
know, how they actually get lye.

Speaker 4 (56:03):
I don't actually.
It's not something I'm going topretend to be an expert on.

Speaker 5 (56:14):
Well, lye could be a result of what's taking off your
soot or cleaning your glasswith, because when you pass
water through hardwood ash, whatcomes out is lye and it's very
acidic and is used in soapmaking as one of the key
components, and historically itgoes back to the Egyptians,
where they would burn wood andthen they found that when they

(56:34):
did the burn, they would throwthe ashes over the side of the
bank and they found that whenthey washed their clothes below
that, they came out a lotcleaner.
Oh, okay, yeah, so it wasactually, and that's how lye
eventually developed.
And by you taking a damp clothand putting it in a hardwood ash
, you're probably getting somelye in there.

Speaker 4 (56:54):
That's helping clean out uh, clean off your glass
there we go jumping back to the,jumping back to the egyptians
and that's uh, yeah, that'sreally, that's really neat, yeah
so, nick, so tell us.

Speaker 5 (57:07):
Uh, some of the best burning woods you mentioned
about ash was pretty good, andsome of the other one.
What are some of the other onesthat you feel?

Speaker 4 (57:14):
obviously, like, the best woods for heating your home
are dense hardwoods.
You know, they burn a lotlonger, they produce more heat
and like, if you were to to kindof break it down, you have your
oak.
Uh, oak is typically a highheat output.
It and good for a long burntime.
You know, uh, birch, it burnsvery quickly, it's a strong heat

(57:34):
, but it's really good forstarting up some fires.
Hickory, it's excellent heatand you'll get really I find
different woods.
They kind of have different.
What you're left with in thebottom of the firebox at the end
is that's what kind of variable.
So you know, hickory, you'llget long lasting ember.
So you'll tend to find you'regoing to have like a big coal

(57:55):
base kind of left in the bottom.
Um, and then you also, ofcourse, maple.
It's a good hot burning, cleanand it's not too poppy, so to
speak.
You know, it's just a good,consistent, good burn.
Um, obviously, everywhere,particularly here in ontario,
we're ridiculed with dead ash,right, you know, the ash borers

(58:16):
knocked out everything andthere's standing dead ash trees
everywhere.
So a lot of that is alreadyjumping ahead of the burning
season in the sense of seasoningit.
So I find, yeah, that we have ahuge.
It's nothing when you get aload of hardwood delivered today
to have 75% ash inside of that.
Ash is a really great burning.

(58:38):
It burns nice and even and as Imentioned previously is that it
can it burns even good if it'snot fully seasoned.
You know, you can kind ofshoulder a bit of ash with some
of your really nice seasonedstuff and really have a great
wood burning experience.

Speaker 5 (58:56):
So harvesting standing deadwood, though, as
you just briefly mentioned,already starts the seasoning
process, right.

Speaker 4 (59:02):
That's correct.
So, like you know, I get.
It's one of those ones toowhere I'll show up to some
clients' homes and they're like,yeah, I got all my logs sitting
right here and I'm going, OK,well, it's great that they're
logs, but you got to get thosesplit and opened up in season.
So, kind of where we hadtouched base on trying to
release the moisture out of abig log.

(59:23):
Yeah, it takes a lot longer toseason that wood as it sits in a
log than it does, you know,laying, or chopped, split and
stacked correctly, or chopped,split and stacked correctly.
So but yes, being that it'salready standing dead, you're
not talking about somethingthat's full of life, you know
it's already kind of beenstarting to dry out, standing

(59:44):
dead.
So, yeah, you can definitely,you know, have a little bit of a
jump start on that seasoningwith something that is standing
dead.
I wouldn't recommend justdropping it and chucking it in
the wood stove.
You still need to get someseasoning effect into there.
But what might may take a yearannually.

Speaker 5 (01:00:00):
You might be able to cut that down to six months for
something that's standing deadif you've opened it up and
stored it correctly yeah, well,nick, I really appreciate you
taking the time to be on thepodcast and tell people how can
people find out more information, or how can you um give out, or
how can they reach out to youand talk to you or find out more
details about your business.

Speaker 4 (01:00:20):
Yeah, so you can check us out wwwfireawayca.
We've got a new launch of awebsite that just actually took
place just last week, kind ofshowcasing some of our newest
brands but also some of ournewest locations.
As I said, we kind of expandedFire Away to four locations
where we have, you know, fourbeautiful, fully burning

(01:00:43):
showrooms.
You know over 40 fireplaces ondisplay in each showroom,
functional, up and running,where you can touch them, feel
them, see them.
So yeah, check us outfireawayca, see them.
So yeah, check us outfireawayca.
You could also send us an emailto info at fireawayca and or
come see one of my awesome staffin one of our showrooms where
we have Bowmanville, Colberg,port Perry and Uxbridge, and

(01:01:06):
we'd love to love to chat.

Speaker 5 (01:01:09):
Well, nick, I really appreciate you taking the time
and enlightening people aboutfireplaces and wood stoves and
inserts and things along thoselines, and I think it was very
informative.
I know I learned a lot and Ihope our listeners did as well,
hey well, I really appreciate,Jerry.

Speaker 4 (01:01:26):
You know I hope I touched base on some of the key
items there.
And yeah, it's definitely beena passion for me and I really do
love the industry and I reallylove to keep, keep the keep it
carrying forward.
So well.

Speaker 5 (01:01:40):
Thanks very much, nick.
I really appreciate that, andit's just a little something
different that people learn nowthat they're out there under the
canopy.
Another thing they can do isheating their homes and and
enjoying a nice fire, whetherit's a campfire or a wood stove
or an insert and all the otherthings that go with burning wood
.
Thanks a lot, nick.
We appreciate that.

Speaker 4 (01:01:58):
No problem, have a nice day.

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