Saturday, December 03, 2011

Woodstove in action...

Throughout my 20 over years of residing in Japan, I have never been really fond of the winters...
Too cold for me... and I get cold rashes sometimes... 
For some 'wintry' folks, the winters here may be considered 'mild', with the temperatures just hitting zero in the coldest times...
Still, as in the last winter, it could go down to minus four or five...
Till we installed the wood stove, that is...
Thanks to this stove, winters are more 'fun' now...

We started putting on our woodstove a few days ago...
My suweeto haato is becoming quite an expert in handling the stove...
The flame was burning really well as can be seen in the picture above...

While my missus specializes in handling (starting the flame, maintaining it, cleaning the glass, the ash, etc) the stove, the responsibility of yours truly is in securing the firewood...
Sometimes I fell trees, other times, I get the cut logs from someone who just wanted to get rid of them...  
These were cut and piled up to dry from last February...
It takes about a year to have the logs dried up...
And for wood that are not split, the time needed to dry them is even longer because moisture in the wood finds it harder to escape through the bark...
Wood that are split, dries faster...
And we can literally hear the 'pichi-pichi' sound that the wood constantly emits as it dries...

31 comments:

  1. Ah, how I envy you your stove. As a child I would warm myself by a brick fireplace in winter, and today whenever it gets cold I think of how nice that was and wish we had a modern wood stove and could wean ourselves off of smelly and unsustainable kerosene.

    Your header picture is beautiful!

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  2. Thanks Panda... you are right about the kerosene stove... we are really happy that we got rid of that one although we still use the fan heater sometimes...

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  3. And that header picture... it is our house taken from the east side...

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  4. Anonymous12/03/2011

    Really good. I'll check up a woodstove because electricity costs may go up.

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  5. Anonymous12/03/2011

    You got me curious and interested. I watched on TV that wood-burning stove is becoming popular due to the March 11 disasters and setsuden. But does the wood-burning stove heat up the whole room? Won't you get burn when you touch it? I see you can even boil water on the top of it. Is that the chimney attached to it? How long does the heat last before you have to put in more logs?
    (Alice)

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  6. coco... check it out and see... you may be attracted to buy one...

    alice... it does heat up the whole room, and the heat is very pleasing to the body... yeap, the whole stove gets hot, the temperature of the stove surface goes up to about 250 degrees...we do some of our cooking on top of the stove... and yes, there is a chimney attached to it... the stove consumes quite a lot of wood but it depends on how long you want to keep it burning...

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  7. I find the image of wood stove, wood burning and chopping wood so romantic.

    But of course, there's a "bit" of work involved to enjoy such romanticism, right Lrong?

    Hope the winter will be so much nicer for you this time! ^^

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  8. oh beautiful photos, and i would love to sit by that stove..

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  9. lina... your comment on the 'romantic' side of the stove certainly brought a smile to my face...
    Collecting and storing the wood is rather tough work... :)

    Icy BC... it feels very cozy to sit by the side of the stove...

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  10. Anonymous12/04/2011

    These few days have been like mid-winter. More questions sore you Professor. Is the wood-stove only for the living room and how to you put out the fire? Wood-stoves are costly, right?

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  11. I'm glad to hear that your stove is helping to keep you warm in the winter. Your stove obviously provides color as well as warmth. We don't have a stove, but we use our fireplace quite a bit, so I also get exercise cutting and splitting wood.

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  12. Alice... yeap, the stove is located in the living room... the wood will burn out in time and there is not really a need to 'put out' the fire... we just let it die out as we head for bed... as for cost, there is quite a range in the market... ironically, the Japanese brands (which are made in China actually) are cheaper... the European and US brands are more costly... ours is from Belgium...

    George... a fireplace sounds more 'romantic' than a wood stove... And I supposed you do get your family and friends together during the Christmas season to spend time together... no?

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  13. Very cute stove. Used to sleep under the kotatsu but its not good sleeping under there;-).

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  14. MKG... sleeping under the kotatsu feels warm... but not very good for the body maybe...

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  15. Dear Lrong-san,

    Not sure if you do remember me (we have met up once when you were in KL) but I have been trying to contact you on your hotmail email address but I'm not sure if I got it wrong... would love to keep in touch. Do email me at yihwalum@gmail.com :)

    Thank you and hope to hear from you~

    Yi Hwa

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  16. Yi Hwa... of course I remember you... I shall be emailing you in a while...

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  17. Our place is summer everyday, no chance to keep
    Warm with stove .

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  18. Sonia... I miss the 'summer' back home... am actually flying back tomorrow to Msia to spend a few days doing things...

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  19. Sir..i married to a japanese and this is my second winter here in Yokohama...and way too cold for me. your woodstove is cool, happy winter anyway.

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  20. ♥✿⊱╮
    º°♥❤ Olá, amiga!
    ❤ Passei para uma visitinha.
    Bom fim de semana!
    Beijinhos.
    Brasil ♥✿⊱╮
    º°♥❤ ❤

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  21. Liana Uegak... Belated congrats to you for your marriage and your staying at Yokohama... yes, the cold, is indeed too cold... happy winter to you too...

    Magia da Inês... thank you for your comment, as always...

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  22. i love your stove.. nice place to relax and keep warm.

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  23. Loveforfood... thank you for coming by... and you are absolutely right about the stove... really a lovely piece of equipment to have for relaxing and keeping warm...

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  24. Always have this 'dream' of relaxing by the fireplace, cutting the woods etc but certainly no chance in Malaysia...can only dream on haha. BTW what is the difference between your woodstove and fireplace in terms of pros and cons?

    You've got a nice house and that flowers are lovely, sakura?

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  25. Anonymous12/15/2011

    Hello, Lrong Lim san.. :)
    we were in Japan for only 1 year.. but i can still remember how winter-cold 'tortured' me!! hehe.. wish i had that elegant looking wood stove back then... besides the kerosene ones.. :) *err.. minus the hard work (with the woods) of course!!* enjoy winter, sir! :)

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  26. I cooked the oyaki today. Just a rough estimate of the ingredients. Didn't have enough rice flour, so it wasn't that firm. But nice! Finished the whole lot. Thanks for the recipe.
    Can the top of your wood-stove cook oyaki?
    (Alice)

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  27. What a lovely place to rekindle your romance over a glass of wine and foot massage (I love foot massage)...lol

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  28. Good to know you're keeping warm and cosy! Looks like you have to be diligent way ahead to prepare for the winter.

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  29. Bananazஇ... my friend, woodstove allows more control with the fire whereas the fireplace is 'open', meaning that the fire just burns uncontrollably... woodstove has the benefit of doubling as a cookstove, which we cherish very much... both are equally 'romantic', you can say...

    syanashwa... hi there, thank you for dropping by... the stove is indeed elegant, I think... the 'hard work' is also a blessing in a way as it is quite refreshing to work on the wood...

    alice... that is good to hear... with a bit of practice, I am sure you will perfect the recipe... yes, I'd think we can cook the oyaki with the stove, but we have yet to try it...

    GG... hmmm, you said it well... imbibing wine in front of the fire in winter, and having someone to massage your foot...

    Keats... right on with the diligent thingy... it is actually quite interesting to gather the wood, keep it for one year, and then use it...

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  30. Yeah yeah yeah 'romantic' is the word that slipped my mind. tQ

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  31. hey thanks for your comment on my woodstove, yours looks really cosy too :) great for cheap cooking too!

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