how do i keep my wood dry while i wait for it to season ?

I have found that the wood stays wet inside the stack for a long time if left uncovered so I think I may cover the top year round from now on

The sun and wind will dry it for your i cover the top row only as others said also.

Helps a lot to have it up on skids. After a few years they start to sink in the ground a bit and stuff builds up around the skids... if they're stable throw another level on. I've even got my unsplit rounds up on skids, and it helps to keep that bottom row dry.

I'm top-covering with rubber... used to work at a rubber part manufacturer. Got an entire shipment of bad EPDM in... 1/8" stuff, can't tear it if you wanted.

It would be a mosquito factory, too, unless the stack is used up before spring.

Totally agree. If you are in a wet locale like OR where it rains or is very moist/humid for 8mos out of the year, minimum top cover. If you decide to build a shed, make sure it is fairly open to promote airflow (air/wind is a common theme here).

That's a nice looking wood shed. It wont be soon enough to get myself on some acreage.

Another thing I sometimes do is criss cross stack them although it takes up a lot of room

I'm in the 'never cover' camp, but then I rarely have to worry about snow here. I keep three or four days worth of wood on our big, covered front porch, which is just a few steps from our VC Vig in the living room. Even if the wood is wet from rain, it will be plenty dry after a couple days on the porch. If a cold, wet front is forecast to move through, I'll bring a few extra loads up to the porch ahead of time. But I've never covered my stacks, which are out on the tree line about 100 yards from the house or in clearings in the woods.

That rubber will get good and hot in the sun and should go a long way to drying the wood directly under it plus keeping water out of the center and bottom of the stack.

Guess everyone has a way of seasoning their stacks. I probably go overboard, but mine are on pallets that are on bricks and I use the cheap tarps with drywall screws and polycord. It's all I have right now. Wood shed in somewhere down the line. Getting the stove comes first.

I have to keep some of my wood in a somewhat non exposed area..meaning it gets limited sun and wind. The wet pieces in the body never dry completely and they remain damp. This is the wood I'm referring to. I might keep a tarp laid across the top like Timusp40. BTY that's a nice stack ! My pieces are different sizes.

Also I wish I had an area where I could keep 3 or 4 days worth of wood...but I don't

Penquin, When you say the wood is "wet" or " damp" are you talking about surface moisture from recent rain or do you mean "wet" as in green/unseasoned? If the wood is not drying out (seasoning) in your stacks I'm thinking a tarp will only make matters worse. It will never dry under there. The only use for a tarp might be to protect wood that is already totally dry. If it has not seasoned properly yet it's best to leave it uncovered, or at most, top cover only. Lots of us leave stacks in the woods that don't get much sun or wind, so we just leave them there an extra year or two.

If the wood is good and dry (well seasoned) then tarping several days worth of wood won't hurt a thing, just don't fully tarp unseasoned stacks.

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I mean wet from rain. I feel as though the wood will get waterlogged over the long term. I'm referring to covering the top only from the day it is stacked.

I've just been stacking on pallets, no covering at all. Wood gets nice and dry in a couple of years. Only other time I touch it is to move about 2 weeks worth to the porch ready for burning.

No need to keep it dry while it seasons.

I had the good fortune of starting my new hobby in the Spring of 2011. It rained for 3 months straight on my uncovered stacks. I have plenty of dry wood to burn right now. In fact, the little bit of boxelder I kept under my car port still has plenty of sizzlers. OTOH most the stuff kept in the sun, wind, and rain is burning fine now.

I wouldn't stress too much.

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Great advice IMO.

I have also never top covered. Neither my wood, or my stove, have complained yet. But I do have the luxury of a three season porch. If I didn't have that, I could see the usefuless in top covering.