Firewood-stacked nice or a big old humped pile

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They Call Me Pete

Burning Hunk
Nov 18, 2007
206
CT
Which way do you do/like it ? I prefer a humped up pile with less work. Then I'll move it down into basement for easy access through winter. Although those Holze stacks would look cool in your yard. Yard art LOL.
 
Used to throw on a hump after splitting, and leave it there until I stacked it in the woodshed for the winter. But now I take the extra step. Split, throw on pile, stack pile to dry better, than haul to woodshed for final stacking. You just get better btu's out of wood thay has been stacked vs piled up. Believe it or not it really doesnt take that long to stack a couple of cords. If you do it all at once it can be a bit much, but after its split, and piled on a heap, you can than stack a bit here and there until its done. ;-)
 
I am currently building a Holz Haufen. Started this morning, 7 feet in diameter and already passing through 4 feet high!! No more complicated than a straight stack, just have to think about log placement a little bit more. I will post pics when I finish.
 
Well, because I live on the wet coast in a forest with not much sunlight-It`s stack and throw. My woodsheds of variable sizes hold approx. 8-9cords.So in each of them, I stack the back row and front row and throw the rest into a pile in the middle. No outside drying,not worth doing here. I burn about 5-6 cords a year so have enough on hand for 15 months. My moisture meter tells me I am usually burning between 15% (cedar) and 25%(fir) -don`t burn anything with a moisture content of more than 25%. YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY WOODSHEDS!!
 
We keep our wood in stacks, we get too much rain and snow and hence soggy ground not to keep it off the ground. Although I suppose you could put a lot of pallets down and just 'heap' on them. I don't mind the stacking much, especially with wood I am splitting myself. Carrying the splits to the pile to stack give me a little breather where I am not swinging the heavy maul, which can tire me out quite a bit.

I am having the problem that I am far from home but keep seeing firewood I want to take home with me. Won't fit in my luggage . . .
 
I'm a city dweller, so space is an issue. Gotta stack in neat stacks to maximize space and keep my wife and neighbors happy. I also happen to be anal about such things.
 
I need to have a conference with my wife and figure out where my wood processing/stacking area will be. Once I figure that out, I can look at getting some gravel down to make a driveway to it from the road.

I'll be stacking mine fairly neatly so that I can get better airflow to all of the wood.

-SF
 
Stacked - off the ground. Hump it in a pile and the bottom wood may never get dry.
 
I cut and split in the early spring, throw it in piles and leave for the summer. In the fall I haul it to the wood shed where it is stacked for that winter and the next summer then its ready. My woodshed has 2 sides one for this winter and one for next and I alternate sides. If I run short in the spring then I borrow from next year and its usually dry enough if mixed with the last of this years wood.
 
After dealing with wood for 8 hrs. some day's I'm a big fan of piles for summer and basement or deck for the winter. It all depends what mood I'm in. Usually beer drinking mood. I have a place out back to just pile it up so it doesn't impede on my lawn area and is some what out of site. Hey I'd rather look at wood piles than make the arabs any richer.
 
If you click on the hearth.com homepage the first picture to come up is of my wood pile around 6 months or so ago, 2 holz's and a stacked row. I got a whole bunch of stacked rows, different woods, all stacked nice, and covered with either tarps or pieces of osb.

I also have a huge holz that I built just sittin' pretty.

Probably have 7 or 8 cord........all stacked and covered....

No piles here, except log length stuff that needs chainsaw attention, or rounds that need split.
 
The avitar explains it pretty well for me. Neighbors think its cool too.
 
Our ritual~
It's in a pile in spring when it's delivered, I & the BF move what every may be left over from the previous year to the front, clean up check to see if new pallets are needed, throw the wood down the hill which the kids help do too.
Then we are ready for stacking by June for a "stacking party" - dubbed by my wonderful friends who come over to help.
I have the best friends ever, this I know! :)
I leave it uncovered, but bring the tarps out come September/October & check the weather, cover if rain is in the forcast, take off when rain is over, I also stack on pallets.
The humidity level is high the sooner I have it stacked wind & sun getting at it, the better.
June works best because if you get hot you can jump in the lake if you get hot.
I can not stand seeing my wood in a pile, need it to dry out more & to be neighborly, I think it also looks pretty
I have the kids do kindling gathering with me after all the stacking is done which we bring down put in a pile & we also get the kindling in stacks too.
This year though I think I am going to do more splitting of the bigger stuff in advance.
 
Big ole humped pile where I'm processing, though the pile is on pallets set 2 pallets wide, three long. As the pile grows, I loose stack a perimeter a log length wide around three sides to contain the pile. I cover the pile when rains threaten with a huge heavy duty tarp. I work off this pile to stack into one of three wood sheds. Nothin prettier than well stacked wood. My avatar is a picture my wife took of one end of the wood stacked in one of our sheds. My buddy commented after I first filled my new wood shed that it looked too nice to burn. Out in the woods cutting standing or lying dead, I've got about 5 cord mixed 4' and 8' stacked crisscross under tarps to keep it dry untill I can process and stack. So, all in all, stacked and in wood sheds.
 
I usually pull the splitter behind the pickup and split it in the woods before it goes in the pickup then it gets stacked in a single line by fence lines in the pasture so it gets full sun and wind all day even oak gets seasoned if cut, split, and stacked by April it is seasoned by fall. I try to stay atleast 2.5 years out and right now I have about 400' of 5' tall cut to 17" stacked that way.
 
Well wife just walked by and saw a Holz. I think I'm in trouble. As long as she wants to build it fine but I'll stick to my piles.
 
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