Moving away from stacking more rows

Access is key. Not sure you need to get down to species though. I separate simply based on fodder and good stuff. The fodder is on a constant shorter march to the stove. That way it doesn't take up space any longer than it needs to yet saves the good stuff for when we need it.

I stack all mine together, just because it is easier that way. i like to have a mix. I take whatever is on the pile giving me a mixed load each time I bring wood to the back porch. I then select the best stuff for nighttime, burning other stuff during the day when I am generally at home and don't mind relaoding a little more frequently. I like to have some faster burning wood to heat up the stove quickly or if I want to reload sooner. For example, if I get home from some evening activity at 8 and want to go to bed at 11, I don't want to load with oak at 8 pm, which would mean a nice hot fire far from ready to reload at 11 pm. I'd rather burn some lighter stuff like pine or red maple at 8, giving me a good coal bed for reload at 11. Of course I make it sound like I can time things perfectly - far from it. But I think having different woods on hand helps a little.

Another problem is that by separating species you may end up with several partial stacks. It may take a while to finish each stack, so you'll have wood of different ages in each stack. The range of seasoning time would be large in my stacks, because I sometimes go a long time between scrounges, and I have probably 6 or 8 species at least. I prefer to finish a stack and move on to the next one, leaving only one unfinished stack at a time.

The benifit of species stacking is to ensure sufficient seasoning. Oak takes (2yrs) ash and locust (6mos to 1yr). Maple, hickory, chestnut, walnut, etc take one year. I separate the locust and oak for the coldest nights.

Holy cow . . . talk about OCD . . . stacking by species . . . I'm with Wood Duck . . . I stack all my wood together since I'm an equal opportunity burner. In the woodshed (and even before when I had stacks) I would pick and choose my wood depending on my need at the time . . . kindling, wood for the long overnight burns, etc. . . . it was never a big deal to pick and choose the wood.

That said . . . it's your wood and if it makes you happy go for it . . . gzecc does make a good point about stacking wood if you've got some quick seasoning wood vs. slow seasoning wood. Me . . . I simply tossed my oak to the side and allowed it to season outside for another year.

I practice species segregation, too.

I used to love those TV dinner plates with the compartments that kept the peas from touching the potatoes.

Dinner plate perfection and Nirvana.


I've been reformed.
Not quite to the point of eating all my meals via a juicer, but things can now touch each other.



My brother once called and asked how I'd been sleeping.
He wanted me to know he had taken a split of pine and mixed it in with the oak.
Yes, I had to find it.

billb3 said:

I practice species segregation, too.

I used to love those TV dinner plates with the compartments that kept the peas from touching the potatoes.

Dinner plate perfection and Nirvana.

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Since I dislike peas I wouldn't want them hanging around in my potatoes either.
As for stacking I tried to stack wood types together not particular species.
My hard woods go in one area while soft woods go in another.

No peas mixed with potatoes here either.

Wood stacking mentality:

Mentality #1: When I first started collecting wood I had no idea how long any specific species would take to season properly. Now I 'kinda' know how long it takes.

Mentality #2: I wanted to get to know how each species burned, amount of heat, amount of ashes, etc.

Now, different mentalities are forthcoming for mixing my pea and potatoes:

Mentality #3: Once you get 2 to 3 yrs. ahead in the "Seasoning Game" it doesn't really matter how long a specific wood requires for seasoning because if your wood has been cut, split and stacked for 2 to 3 yrs. it's all good to burn.

I am just now getting to Mentality #3 - but I still keep my apple-wood separate for smoking opportunities.

We used just shy of 3 cord so far this year so I will use that amount of use as a 'base' for future years with a little padding to that amount.

I've got around 3+ cord of hickory and hard maple out there that I thought I'd use this year but looks like it will sit another year (yeah!). I've also got probably another 2 cord of oak/locust that probably won't be needed for 2 more years. I also have around 2-1/2 cord of rounds awaiting splitting (Norway maple, oak, pear). I think I can start mixing up the piles now as I'm far enough ahead. I might still keep that oak separate just because I know it takes longer - depends how the stacking goes.

mywaynow said:

My wood piles have me at least 4 years ahead for what I have c/s/s. What I have c/s is about 5-6 cords of really nice woods; walnut, red oak. What I am thinking of doing is stacking by species now. My rows are running N/S of my house to minimize the view fo woodpiles, although I like to watch them! Now there are 8 of these 30+ foot long rows back to back. I want to maintain the overall profile of the stacks but have access to the new stacks. Thinking of 3-4 piles that are blocks with open runways between. If this works, I will need to fetch from the starting point, thus the runways to access the rear of the stack. Overall initial layout I envision is 6x6 blocks starting at the ends of the existing piles, with 2 blocks back to back and an open access row in the middle. Engineers are welcome to chime in as well as backyard daydreamers. Used Microsoft Paint program to make the drawing to scale.

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We stack the cherry in one section and the denser hardwoods like the sugar maple and beech in their own section. We burn cherry during the day then at night we'll start burning our best hardwood.

This coming heating season we'll have some Quaking Aspen and Basswood for the shoulder season that will be (YES) stacked in a seperate area.


Zap

OCD hardly, different drying times and more dense woods used at different times of the winter are two good reasons to stack by species or types of wood.

Hi -

I organize very little. Oak is set aside so the kids don't haul it before it's time. The rest is stacked onto large 8'x16' beds of pallets about 5' high. They dry well enough since they are Ash, Silver Maple, and Cherry and tend to be 2 years old. This allows a lot of wood to be stored in a smallish area.

I like acre peas on top of rice!

Pine over here, oak and anything else over there.

I like having a mix of wood. I ll use whatever will burn quicker in the Am to get the stove hot. Will use whatever burns longer at night for an extended burn.

I usually end up stacking by species since I usually cut by species.

Only when we get oak will we sort it. That is only because it takes so long to dry and also that will be our overnight wood during the coldest part of winter. Otherwise, this is how we stack....without sorting.

I separate by species too.
But since I have only 2 species, birch & spruce, it's pretty easy.
Wish I had your problem, I think I'd still separate when I could,
Specially Oak. But I can only dream.
1/2 of one section (by ladder) is spruce, other is birch.
Spruce dries quicker, burns faster (shoulder & warmer day wood)

Interesting topic. I have to join the OCD group. Heck...I even split up my M&M's into color groups before eating!

I buy only Ash. Nothing to sort except crooked pieces that mess up the stack and nice straight half-rounds for cribbing.

LLigetfa said:

I buy only Ash. Nothing to sort except crooked pieces that mess up the stack and nice straight half-rounds for cribbing.

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You don't count,
You're spoiled.

I'm more of a mix everything together and make hash out of it kind of guy. My father would say about food "It all ends up in the same place anyway" and I guess that's true of wood as well.

That said, this is the first year that I've ever been more than a year or year and a half ahead so I've had to do a little thinking on my piles. Since I've learned here about seasoning oak, I have pretty much developed a strategy of oak in one area of stacks and ABO in the other area. I do have some stacks that are single species but only because I c/s/s all of a scrounge in one or two days and it happens to end up that way.

I'm thinking that the OP should adopt my handle. My wife and daughters really think I'm obcessed with my woodpiles but I haven't yet resorted to CAD drawings ;-)

I tend to do a little of both.

Oak gets it's own pile...reason 1 it takes forever to dry....reason 2 it will cook me out of the house in November.

For there I separate based on burn quality. Shoulder season versus deep freeze.

Oh, and the cooking wood gets its own pile too (apple is too good for cooking to go in the stove...and I only have a about 1/6 cord of it).

Oh, and anything cut green gets separated from anything already dead.

Oh, and....

I guess I am OCD.

This spring and summer will be my first season of putting up wood, but I had planned separate piles for a slightly different reason. I, too, will only have two species to deal with--white birch (long, high btu burner) and poplar (quick heat, firestarter). I'm buying my birch, whether cut to length or as logging loads, and harvesting the poplar off my property. Separate piles will make it a lot easier to monitor my wood use over a couple of winters, and to plan how much I'll need in years to come. I'm calculating that 3 cords of birch and 2 of poplar will be a generous wood supply, but I could be way off. If that works out about right, I can be cycling wood in and out of the appropriate piles to maximize seasoning, but I'm planning 1-cord stacks to help me get acquainted with this process. Maybe 5 years down the road, it'll be a moot point, but I feel like I've had an easy time on the learning curve this year (thanks, h.c) and want to keep that up.

Cate said:

Interesting topic. I have to join the OCD group. Heck...I even split up my M&M's into color groups before eating!

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Do you also lick all the red off before you give any of those away to the kids?