James02 said:
I've seen/been told/know of the rake the coals toward the door...I dont have a rake and my shovel kinda kills the coals. As for the wood I was Ive been C/S/S since I got my delivery of green wood back in August.
As others have said, you don't need a "proper" rake. I use a 6-tine garden cultivator rake with the tines and handle shortened, and a poker with a hooked end will work just fine. Separate them from the ashes (I actually lift and separate, like in the "cross your heart" bra commercial). Don't worry about killing them, if you pile them up without lots of ashes mixed in they will get going real fast in front of the air intake. Improvise. I've used a large slotted serving spoon, a deep-fry skimmer, pokers, commercially made rakes, etc. Practice, it's part of the skill set you are trying to develop.
As far as that wood goes, better get busy resplitting it a lot smaller. Drying season is basically done now. Your wood will continue to dry some, but it will need all the help it can get. Split small and try to get a few days worth at a time in by the stove. It'll dry fast there if you can split it small. Get more pallets. Don't burn them straight and hold out hope that your main wood stash will be ready by January. It won't. Use the pallet wood to get the fire well established and then mix it in with the marginal stuff. Keep a lookout for construction site dumps as well. My wife used to go right past a place that always had a mountain of shorts. She'd get a truck load in about 5 minutes and I'd have all the dry kindling I could process.
With a bit of skill and a whole lot of cussin', you should be able to stay warm this year. If not, warm yourself up outside getting next year's wood ready. ;-)
Hint: I have tried just about every tool out there for splitting boards into kindling, and nothing works better for me than an old meat cleaver you can pick up at an antique store for $5. I can split a 12" x 12" pine board into 3/4" kindling splits in about 10 seconds with my cleaver.
Edit:
Oops! Multiple posts telling you what you are already doing. Keep up with bringing the wood inside. My experience is that it will dry real fast inside
once the outside temps start to drop and the air coming into your home has almost no moisture in it. If you can make a rack that will hold 7 individual days worth of wood separately, you can rotate through the rack and you will always have wood that's been drying for a week inside. You will be stunned to see just how much a single week can improve your poor quality wood, especially if you split it thin.