My humble and messy woodpile

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mfglickman

Minister of Fire
Jan 17, 2012
676
NW CT
I don't know how you all make such straight stacks. I think this is about 2 cords; DH thinks it's more like 3. We also have another 1/2 cord or so of scrounged rounds to split.

Our yard has a bit of a slope so the pallets are jacked up at the front by about 8-10 inches by cinder blocks. Hope that may help with airflow as well.

woodpile.jpg
 
Looks fine to me!
Do you drag in the wood from there over the winter, or do you put it in another place?
 
Looks good to me to. I'm thinking 3 cords also. BTW What do you have hanging from the pallets? It looks like some kind of sack.
 
Looks fine to me!
Do you drag in the wood from there over the winter, or do you put it in another place?

We are debating. We have that barn in the background - it has a double door facing the house that you can't see. It's really no closer than those piles to the house, but it would keep the wood dry(er) than in the field.

BTW What do you have hanging from the pallets? It looks like some kind of sack.

On the bottom, DH put a "message in a bottle" - a label of what the wood on that pallet is to the best of our knowledge, as well as the date that it was split (or delivered, as some was unseasoned delivered split). He writes it down, seals it in a water bottle and ties it to the pallet. LOL. On top is a brown tarp. We're on the fence about whether to leave it top covered or just uncover it to get the most exposure. It's our first year doing this and we have a lot to learn! :)
 
I love your home! That stone foundation and kneewall look neat with the wood in the foreground. I'd venture to say that you have more than two cord sitting there.
 
We're on the fence about whether to leave it top covered or just uncover it to get the most exposure. It's our first year doing this and we have a lot to learn! :)
IMHO you should leave it uncovered until mid-autumn, then top cover ONLY the wood you are going to use this winter.
 
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Way to go showing pictures of less-than-perfect stacks. If you judge only by the pictures posted on this forum you'ld think your stacks are the messiest stacks in the world, but I think you're actually better than average. All your wood is on a pallet and the pallets are well above the ground, and that is all that counts. At one time I had neat stacks, but I removed some wood from one, another collapsed, and I am halfway thru building a third, so my stacks are no neater than yours.
 
Beautiful barn, and a beautiful setting. I may be paranoid, but I keep firewood away from my wood barn. No sense in inviting all the critters in for to stay.
 
Beautiful barn, and a beautiful setting. I may be paranoid, but I keep firewood away from my wood barn. No sense in inviting all the critters in for to stay.

LOL! The critters are already in the barn! And there are HOLES in the barn - gaps in the walls, gaps in the foundations....I asked a pest control guy about doing something about the critters and he laughed and suggested barn cats...we got two...and the bigger nighttime critters got 'em in about 2 weeks' time. :(
 

Fisher cats???? Nah, I'm guessing coyotes. :) The barn cats were your garden variety tuxedo DSH, around a year old, cute. One vanished in a week and the second by the end of the second week. They must have gone out of the barn after dark. :( Never any sign of struggle in/near the barn, but I do find bits and pieces of other unfortunate small furry creatures and birds in my yard from time to time. I can hear coyotes at night, and have seen plenty of hawks in the day, a couple of owls in the wee hours, and once a nice sized bobcat loped across my street, stopping to stare at me from the other side. No shortage of predators here.
 
Great horned owls were the major cat predators when we lived in Colorado, hence we kept the cats in at night.
 
Mary, the only worry about your wood piles is that you need more! ;) It matters not that they are not perfectly stacked. You've done what you can to help them dry and you'll be fine. As for the covering, it depends upon the area. We don't cover the first summer.
 
Stacks look better than mine too...My splits are about 20 different lengths which makes it hard to stack...I use pallets also but use another thiner board under them to level them out...I also have gotten metal posts so that I can stack more on the edges of the pallets... just my 2 cents but whatever works
 
Your wood collection looks just fine to me also. All I see is B-T-U's and alot of 'em. And I appreciate the work that went into making the stacks (like most here probably do). Good work!
 
Your stacks look better than mine did the first couple of years, this is my 4th year and I finally got a setup that looks neat and organized, took a lot of work. Your wood looks good but like Dennis said, try and get more, try to get double what you burn in a year if you have the room.
 
Yep, as long as they're still standing, you're gooder to go.
Hard to judge the amount, even with the Newfie sitting there so nice. By the way, we got ours (Katie) back in '01 when she was a year old.
I put my wood in stacks equal to how much I need per year (5 cord) and rotate use, then refill. Relatively easy to remember which stack to bring up to the shed in the late summer/fall, even for my addled brain.;)
 
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