It's days like this that I really appreciate my woodshed!

[LLigetfa]

It's been raining since yesterday with freezing temps. My yard is like a skating rink. School busses were cancelled this morning. My outdoor stacks are encased in ice.

Thankfully my wood that I will burn this Winter is in my woodshed nice and dry. I don't mean to snub my nose at the have-nots but I've been there before and vowed never again.

It is going to get colder later, turn to ice pellets and then snow 10 - 15 cm overnight. My wood box in the house will need topping up before morning. I have a choice of going out to the shed now on the slick bare ice to get firewood, or wait until it turns to snow and hope it is less slippery. I'm thinking sooner than later... hope I don't slip and fall.

 

[Jon1270]

Get a pair of these.

 

[LLigetfa]

My guess is you mean ice cleats for my boots.

 

[PapaDave]

Ditto, LLigetfa.
Everything will be ice by tomorrow night. Oh boy.
I sure don't miss the days of fighting this crap to get to the wood.
Wife and I both did the slip and fall thing a couple years ago.....twice....both of us. Not fun.

 

[thewoodlands]

It's been raining since yesterday with freezing temps. My yard is like a skating rink. School busses were cancelled this morning. My outdoor stacks are encased in ice.

Thankfully my wood that I will burn this Winter is in my woodshed nice and dry. I don't mean to snub my nose at the have-nots but I've been there before and vowed never again.

It is going to get colder later, turn to ice pellets and then snow 10 - 15 cm overnight. My wood box in the house will need topping up before morning. I have a choice of going out to the shed now on the slick bare ice to get firewood, or wait until it turns to snow and hope it is less slippery. I'm thinking sooner than later... hope I don't slip and fall.

I have a older pair of these, nothing on the back heel (pigtail wire) just on the balls of your boot, they work great. You should be able to get them at a local bait shop.
http://htent.com/catalog/item.php
Under product search just type in Cleats, it should come up.
zap

 

[ScotO]

I should be in the same boat next season, LLigetfa. Hoping to build my shed this summer. I do keep my stacks top covered and this is the first year with the reclaimed rubber roofing, so far I am very impressed.....my wood is bone dry under all that snow and rain. As far as walking on that ice, be careful......those stretchy-rubber carbide cleats that slip over your boots are the way to go. I have a set of them somewhere, at least I USED to have them.....

 

[LLigetfa]

Well... I made it unscathed. Slipped a couple of times but managed to recover both times. It had already turned to ice pellets so wasn't quite as slick as it could have been.

It was good that I did not procrastinate. The snow had slid off the metal roof and the huge pile was starting to refreeze. Got to it just in time. By the time I got the last sling of wood in, it had turned to giant snowflakes. Reminded me of a Norman Rockwell scene.

 

[LLigetfa]

What a difference a day makes. Woke up to -25°C and just enough wood in the house to get a good warm on. Now it's the bitter cold I need to brave to get more wood. At least it's nice and dry. No tarps or snow and ice to mess with.

Just tossed the last two splits in the stove while the wife nattered at me for not filling the box up last night. She was outside this morning to feed the birds so I don't know why she didn't bring some wood in. Don't worry, I only said that to myself, not aloud.

 

[SolarAndWood]

You boys keep that in the midwest. I let the stove go cold for a cleaning and am headed outside to do some splitting in a tshirt. I think the guys in the mid atlantic and southern states have this game of winter figured out.

 

[BEConklin]

I go fishing for striped bass a lot along breakwaters down on the shore. Since the rocks down near the water can be wicked slippery, I wear rubber boots with a dozen or so #8, 1/2" hex head sheet metal screws screwed into the sole and heel of each boot. I get the kind with the washer flange like these http://www.amazon.com/Plated-Steel-Sheet-Metal-Length/dp/B000MS5VRM That way the screws won't be pushed into the rubber sole as easily. Doesn't matter if you don't want to shell out for stainless screws - the screws can easily be replaced when they wear out or get too rusty. Obviously you need a sole that's thick enough to handle a 1/2" screw without the point digging into your feet.
This is a very cheap set up that works very nicely on ice and snow as well but it will scratch up any surface other than pavement or concrete so they aren't the best idea if you have to walk across a deck or wooden floor to load the wood into your house. Off season, you can remove the screws.

 

[Wood Duck]

I think ice is worse than snow. Snow shakes off the wood and melts fast indoors. Ice makes the splits stick together and makes it hard to get wood off the stack without knocking the whole stack over. I guess eventually I'll build a woodshed, but for now I can only agree it sucks not to have one.

 

[tfdchief]

Yep, I have always said, my wood shed is as much for me as it is the wood!

 

[LLigetfa]

I think ice is worse than snow. Snow shakes off the wood and melts fast indoors. Ice makes the splits stick together and makes it hard to get wood off the stack without knocking the whole stack over. I guess eventually I'll build a woodshed, but for now I can only agree it sucks not to have one.

Ja, at my former home all I had were outdoor stacks. I can still vividly remember one year when we got a nasty storm that shredded my tarps, soaked my wood, and then turned cold. I had an inch of ice coating the wood with shreds of blue tarp frozen to it. I could not remove what was left of the tarps without completely destroying them and was picking up blue shreds for years afterwards. The robins used the shreds to make their nests. I learned then that the silver tarps were superior to the blue ones. I also learned how to tarp the wood so that the tarp would not freeze to the wood and tear trying to remove it.

When I built my current home, a woodshed was a high priority despite the slow ROI. It's hard to put a price on peace of mind.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

I don't mean to snub you LLigetfa, but I think I'm one up on ya. I'm not only appreciating my woodshed, I'm also appreciating it's proximity to the back door as well.
We've had more snow and ice so far this year then I've seen in about 16 years, but because our shed is so close to the back door it has hardly interfered with bringing wood into the house at all. When the inside wood box was empty I've been know to stroll out out to get an arm full of firewood with nothing on but a bath towel and sandals.

 

[freddypd]

LLigetfa, Could you post a pic of your shed? I am looking to build in the spring and I want some ideas. I have been following the wood shed thread.

 

[LLigetfa]

...I'm also appreciating it's proximity to the back door as well.

Ja but I am paranoid of fire and would worry about having that much wood too close to the house. That and having 18 acres means that I don't have to crowd my outbuildings. Nothing looks more out of place in the country than a house with attached garage designed to fit on a city lot.

 

[LLigetfa]

LLigetfa, Could you post a pic of your shed?

Ok but if I had my druthers, I would build it twice as long and half as deep. Basically it would be four bays, three rows deep.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Ja but I am paranoid of fire and would worry about having that much wood too close to the house. That and having 18 acres means that I don't have to crowd my outbuildings. Nothing looks more out of place in the country than a house with attached garage designed to fit on a city lot.

Ya, I wouldn't mind having a few acres again. Last place we lived we had all kinds of space, it has been hard to adjust to a city sized lot, but it does have a few advantages.
As for the fire hazard, it wouldn't mater where I stored the wood on my property, it would still basically be as close to the house as it is now, at least I don't have it stacked right against the house.

However, having it where it is sure simplifies the process of bringing it in to the house.

This picture was taken while standing on the wood stove hearth.

What you don't see in the picture above is the 6 ft high piles of snow on both sides just outside the doorway.

Same door from the outside.

 

[freddypd]

Ok but if I had my druthers, I would build it twice as long and half as deep. Basically it would be four bays, three rows deep.

I like the wooden lattice on the sides.