Getting ready for winter

[BringinHeat]

Well I finally got all the trees that I fell over the past year CSS.

Some of these piles have been sitting for 1.5 years so I'm hoping they will burn OK this winter. I checked some of the splits and they're still about 25% MC but now that I have them covered with the tarps and it's finally getting warm, maybe I'll get lucky with some of them.

Here's another stack to the left of the above stacks...

Another stack on the opposite side of these...

A couple smaller stacks by the fire pit down by the lake...

...and some miscellaneous branches I'm saving up for either some small wood projects or more fire wood

All in all it totals a little over 4 full cords of wood or about 12 face cords (if my math is correct )

It's mostly sugar maple, red maple and some beech. All split by hand with the Fiskars X27.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

Looks good. it's nice to be ready for the looming winter.

 

[HisTreeNut]

Nice!

 

[Seanm]

Sounds like you have the right attitude towards your moisture content. Youre right, depending on the species some might be ready this year. I have some birch that is around the 20-25% range that I hope will be ready in 3 months, if not I have lots of larch to pull up the slack. Very neat and tidy stacks by the way. It looks like those tarps were made for single row top covered firewood! Whats underneath? I can see they are up off the ground but cant tell on what. Probably on some p_cker poles for dunage?

 

[BringinHeat]

Yes I just laid some long branches down (maybe around 3"-4" dia) and made my stacks on top of that. Using the smaller sticks on the sides just to keep it stable.

I made the tarps just for single stacks. Since my property is quite heavily wooded I have a real hard time getting the wood to dry out because of all the shade. So single row stacks is a must for now. I've been working on opening things up to let more sun in but I don't want to get rid of all the trees.

It's a trade off and if I can get near 20% I'll be happy. I'm looking for some standing dead that isn't full of bugs that I can use this year if this wood is still north of 25% MC. We'll see....

 

[sportbikerider78]

I'm in a shaded wooded property as well. Working to change some of that next year...
But, I also have a great deal of wind coming through. There is almost always a breeze.

Its not just sun that matters.

 

[BringinHeat]

Yes for sure. I get the occasional breeze but not enough. The forest blocks a lot of the wind too.

 

[kennyp2339]

That's some nice hard work there. I think with the tops covered you will get into the 17% - 20% bracket by the end of October.