First Post - My Wood Piles

[jwoair23]

Hi all, I have been a long time lurker but have never posted before. I have learned quite a bit from here! I thought I would share a few pictures of my wood piles, now that I have a decent amount stored away. I have about 4.75 cords c/s/s, with about 3.5 cords ready to go for this year having seasoned long enough.

My wood stacks are a small amount of oak, the majority locust, some cherry, some elm, some black walnut. All of it was cut by me, hauled with an F-150, and split by hand with a maul. Sure is a great feeling knowing the amount of work I put into it!

I have an old Appalachian stove I burn in, fits about 17" splits, surely isn't super efficient but heats the house extremely well. I have burned about 1/3 a cord so far this year already.

Let me know what you think!

 

[woodchip]

Nice collection of wood there, near the house too so it's not too far to collect for your stove!

And a very warm welcome to the forum

 

[jwoair23]

Thanks woodchip! It is nice having it so close to the house, I keep a close eye on bugs or anything of that nature, so far I haven't had an issue with it. I don't have a lot of choices, as I live in a very dense small town, so I don't have much property. I do appreciate having it close when its 5 degrees outside though!

 

[Gasifier]

Nice work jw. I like it. Looks like you have some nice heating fuel for the winter. Thanks for sharing the pics. We love pics here. Now we need a pic of your stove with a nice fire going in it. The next best thing to the real thing. Have a good one.

 

[Blue2ndaries]

Nice work jw. I like it. Looks like you have some nice heating fuel for the winter. Thanks for sharing the pics. We love pics here. Now we need a pic of your stove with a nice fire going in it. The next best thing to the real thing. Have a good one.

+1 Welcome and great work there! Keep the pics coming, it's always nice to see different setups and stacks.

 

[basswidow]

Awsome, I love the stairs! Your wood looks nice - measured! And properly seasoned. Looks great!

 

[NH_Wood]

Welcome and the stacks looks great! I'm guessing you don't have a lot of room to store wood, eh? Cheers!

 

[jwoair23]

No I don't, plus I try and keep it neat and tight to the house so there is no chance of any complaints! Not everyone understands how beautiful rows and rows of firewood are!

 

[jwoair23]

Nice work jw. I like it. Looks like you have some nice heating fuel for the winter. Thanks for sharing the pics. We love pics here. Now we need a pic of your stove with a nice fire going in it. The next best thing to the real thing. Have a good one.

Here is a picture of the stove with a fire, fairly warm today so I just lit the fire for the first time a few minutes ago. House was down to 67, we like it to be more around 75 usually.

Sorry for the bad quality, my phone's camera doesn't like low light situations!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

No I don't, plus I try and keep it neat and tight to the house so there is no chance of any complaints! Not everyone understands how beautiful rows and rows of firewood are!

And that point has really always baffled me as I think wood pile can look good. That is a nice way of making do with the room you have. Welcome to the forum.

 

[bogydave]

Very nice stacks.
Lots of BTUs there.
Welcome
Sister lives in South Park, says winter looks to be getting close.
Are the green leaves on the trees still ? (top right pic)

 

[jwoair23]

Very nice stacks.
Lots of BTUs there.
Welcome
Sister lives in South Park, says winter looks to be getting close.
Are the green leaves on the trees still ? (top right pic)

I was wondering if anyone would ask that! No all the leaves are gone, that picture was taken in the summer.

 

[pdxdave]

Hi all, I have been a long time lurker but have never posted before. I have learned quite a bit from here! I thought I would share a few pictures of my wood piles, now that I have a decent amount stored away. I have about 4.75 cords c/s/s, with about 3.5 cords ready to go for this year having seasoned long enough.

My wood stacks are a small amount of oak, the majority locust, some cherry, some elm, some black walnut. All of it was cut by me, hauled with an F-150, and split by hand with a maul. Sure is a great feeling knowing the amount of work I put into it!

I have an old Appalachian stove I burn in, fits about 17" splits, surely isn't super efficient but heats the house extremely well. I have burned about 1/3 a cord so far this year already.

Let me know what you think!

Very Nice.
Much like myself, looks like you're part of the "toss up a random stack wherever it fits on my small property" club.

 

[Gasifier]

Here is a picture of the stove with a fire, fairly warm today so I just lit the fire for the first time a few minutes ago. House was down to 67, we like it to be more around 75 usually.
Sorry for the bad quality, my phone’s camera doesn’t like low light situations!

You will understand soon. I see fire. No need to apologize for "bad quality". I see fire.

 

[red oak]

Wood stack looks great - and welcome to the forum! What part of Pittsburgh do you live in? Sister in law lives on Chislet st. and we are usually up there a few times per year. Always enjoy seeing that city!

 

[scotvl]

Love the stack down the stairs, great thinking.

 

[Wood Duck]

Where are all the short pieces, uglies, crotches, etc? My stacks are a lot less uniform than yours - not that I am jealous.

 

[jwoair23]

Where are all the short pieces, uglies, crotches, etc? My stacks are a lot less uniform than yours - not that I am jealous.

The majority of my wood I have cut from a friend who has a farm with woodlands on it. I have to travel pretty far to get the wood, so when I go and cut, I pick the straightest trees I can, and all the difficult pieces like you mentioned I usually leave behind in the woods. When I am traveling far, I prefer to bring back 100% good usable wood.

One might think that is wasteful at first, but I am the only one who gets firewood from these woods, and I have only cut dead trees from there, so nothing is really wasted that would have been used anyhow.

I do have a small pile of uglies not shown from the wood that isn't seasoned yet though, which was my neighbors gigantic locust tree that came down!

 

[basswidow]

Funny, I was just thinking that this weekend, about how I should do that on my future scrounges (just take the straight and easy stuff). Now that I am getting way ahead of the game - I can be more selective. Why kill myself dealing with ugly pieces? Cut and take the good stuff and leave the difficult stuff for others.

 

[firefighterjake]

Welcome to the forum . . . good looking wood.

 

[firefighterjake]

I've sometimes thought about just taking nice, straight pieces . . . or just large pieces . . . but I cannot help myself . . . whether it be cutting down a tree or scrounging . . . I keep thinking back to the fact that all wood once seasons burns . . . and all wood once burning heats my house . . . and so I take the punks, chunks and uglies . . . and just toss them into themiddle of my stacks or on top . . . and then often burn them in the shoulder seasons.

Truth be told I could be more of a wood snob . . . but I figure if the tree is down it's almost a shame not to use whatever I can take . . . especially since I have the equipment to deal with it (i.e. saw and hydraulic splitter) and in the end it's all about making heat . . . not having the prettiest stacks of wood.

 

[woodchip]

Funny, I was just thinking that this weekend, about how I should do that on my future scrounges (just take the straight and easy stuff). Now that I am getting way ahead of the game - I can be more selective. Why kill myself dealing with ugly pieces? Cut and take the good stuff and leave the difficult stuff for others.

I thrive on uglies and they burn just as well.

Probably why I have loads of wood now and others around here are fighting for the best stuff and scratching their heads as to how to survive the coming months...... ;-)

 

[jwoair23]

I have dealt with my fair share of uglies in past years, but with only a 14 inch saw and a maul, no splitter, I guess it's made me a little pickier lol.

 

[Flatbedford]

Nice creative stacking there. Having only 1/4 acre I have to stack as compactly as possible too!

Funny, I was just thinking that this weekend, about how I should do that on my future scrounges (just take the straight and easy stuff). Now that I am getting way ahead of the game - I can be more selective. Why kill myself dealing with ugly pieces? Cut and take the good stuff and leave the difficult stuff for others.

That's what I do now. I am currently cutting '14-'15 wood. I can easily walk away from uglies now. I can produce much more wood in my limited time if I avoid them. I am always focused on the highest BTU per hour of production.