Season in the woodshed, or on the lawn

This was my 1st year of gathering wood and I did pretty well, I scrounged somewhere between 9 - 10 full cords of wood. I live in a rural area near a small town and there is alot of downed wood and trees laying around in the Spring after our NY winters, and folks are happy to have it dragged away, and I'm happy to oblige. :cheese:
Not having a woodshed this year I cut and split my wood and stacked it on pallets in the backyard, I have a 2.5 acre yard. It was in the sun a wind all day, and seasoned nicely, but now that it's winter and snowy I'm thinking about building a woodshed next year and get away from covering the wood with plastic and having to go out every other day and re-cover what plastic the wind has blow around.
Now my question.
When I cut the green wood in the Spring can I take it directly to the woodshed and stack it,(which will be open on 3 sides, the 4th being connected to my barn, it won't get direct afternoon sun, only morning sun), or let it season in the backyard where it WILL get the sun, until late fall then take it to the woodshed? I really don't want to move the wood any more than I have to, but I don't want to move it directly to the woodshed if it's not gonna season well enough that way.
What's the best way to handle this?
Thanks,
Snyde

I cut and split some hickory this past Aug. and its been sitting out on pallets with sun and wind since. I will be burning it in a few days as I have gone through a lot of wood. I built a wood shed that I am putting wood into as I get it and it will be for next year.

My suggestion would be if you have enough wood seasoned now that it will get you through this winter and maybe next, I would build the shed when you can and put the new wood in as you get it. It all depends on how soon you will need the wood.

If your shed is only going to get morning sun and closed off on one side I would think it would slow the seasoning time down a bit.

Shipper

I do my bucking in the Winter and splitting in the Spring. I just loose pile it as I split it and leave the piles until late Summer, early Fall when I cart and stack it in the shed. I wouldn't stack it twice.

Plastic and tarps are a real PITA. BTDT for many years. Instead of plastic/tarps, you might want to consider heavy EPDM rubber roofing.

How well your wood would dry in the shed depends on the prevailing winds, dimensions, and how you lay it up. The barn could actually help by directing the wind through your pile.

If you plan to lay up the wood North/South, I suggest you build an uncladded stud wall parallel to the barn but spaced away from it to allow airflow. Having the stud wall would give you something to lean the rows against, saving the need to crosspile the row ends. When laying up the wood, think about how you will rotate old/new. After you take out each row, you replenish working from the outside toward the middle.

If you plan to lay it up East/West, build several compartments with open stud wall partitions so that you can empty and refill each compartment. I suggest no more than four rows deep.

By E/W N/S, I'm not talking compass.

My routine, with softwood, is to stack it in the sun and wind all summer and then move it inside in the fall. This year I stacked the wood perpendicular to my usual stacking method and it did not dry out nearly as well.

As an experiment and to prevent stacking twice, two years ago I put wood directly into my woodshed and I'll be burning it later this year so I'm really not sure how it will burn.

I'm tempted to try building a couple of sloppy Holtz Hauzens out of curiosity. Basically, it would just be a retaining wall around a loose pile. This would be in place of my interim loose piles, just to reduce their sprawl to allow more air through, keeping more of the wood up off the ground.

I have a sprawling pile now under the snow that didn't fit in the shed and I plan to get another 12 cord soon for 2010-2012 burning.

I also regret how I built my woodshed and am considering adding uprights that I can lean my rows against to avoid having to crosspile the ends. I'm loosing patience fiddling with crosspiles that just take way too long to build, only to tear down and burn later. That should really speed laying up the wood in the shed.

Yes.

Why make extra work?

well if i was you i would cut and split and leave out where you do now..but would take the time to stack it i would pile it but wood make it a long pile then i would stack in oct in the shed foe winter burning ... however if its gonna be a big shed to fit 8-10 cords then hell put most of it in there except for a cord or 2 and use that 1 or 2 cds to get you through the start of next winter then you can start pulling from the shed
i have a similiar set up as my 5-8 cds from april wouldn't be ready at least until jan feb to try and burn ... but i took 2.5 put them in the sunniest spot and that is what i am using now

If you can fit at least two years worth of wood in the shed, put half of it in right away and the other half after it sat in the sun all Summer. Then you will be able to compare the two and use the best one, leaving the other one for next year.