What to do with oddball chunks in stack?

[Machria]

After bucking and splitting a BUNCH of sandy wood, and alot more to go.. I have this huge pile (huge to me!) of oddball chuncks, cookies from shortening rounds which were too long, knuckles that would not split nice.... so what do you guys do with them?

I know I can and WILL burn them, they burn great! But how do you stack them, just leave in a big ugly pile or what?

 

[velvetfoot]

I put in a a couple of piles, but then I had this spread out cone shape with a bunch of stuff in contact (in comparison to the entire pile) with the ground. I tried fencing one pile in with some deer netting, but it got too free-form and unmanagable. Maybe if I drove in posts and attached the netting to that. I moved it all into the garage now, in, like, 10 plastic garbage cans-if they could be ventilated somehow without getting wet, that might be a way to store it. I store the splitter scrap like that, and if I put it in dry, it stays that way.

 

[jeff_t]

I just picked up 4-5 cords from friends that had some trees cut out of their yard. The tree service chunked it up in pieces they could deal with, so after it's all cut to length, I'll have a rather large pile myself. And then all the knotty uglies. My plan is to pile it on pallets behind the garage. It's on the south side and otherwise wide open, so I'll just let it bake in the sun for a couple of years. I have the space to do it, though.

 

[Jags]

4 pallets. One for ground, the other three for walls and toss the junk in there.

 

[firefighterjake]

1) Build a holz miete and toss 'em in the middle
2) Build a traditional stack and toss them on top . . . and if you top cover throw a few on top to hold down the covering
3) Throw down a pallet and put sides on it with other pallets and toss in the middle

 

[midwestcoast]

The middle of a Holtz Hausen can hold a LOT of ugly chunks. That style of stack won't dry as fast as a single stack, but if you're stocked-up for a few years from Sandy that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[nate379]

I throw in a pallet bin and use for campfire/burn barrel wood.

 

[suprz]

Pile them up and burn them in the firepit come summer

 

[bogydave]

Lots of good ideas.
I semi stack/pile them on pallets
& use for the fire pit & 1 off fires in the stove in shoulder season.

 

[Thistle]

Odd chunks,uglies,short/broken stubs,offcuts/milling scrap etc is the first stuff I burn every Fall & usually have a little left for the few random 'mild' days in January through March.

 

[PapaDave]

I don't get a lot of it, but the stuff I do get goes on top of the stacks. Usually gets burned first part of the season.
Some of the really gnarly pine I had is going into the fire pit.

 

[velvetfoot]

I was overly focused this year on 16" length splits which might have produced more odd lengths that I should have.

 

[timusp40]

Cookie Box

 

[Boom Stick]

I love/hate all those odd pieces. They burn great but can be a pain dealing with. I like that bin.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I use a lot of them to throw on top of the piles to hold down the covering. They eventually get burned in spring or fall.

 

[red oak]

I pile them up and they are my campfire pieces through the summer and fall. I also put some softwood in this stack also (pine, cedar, poplar, etc). Anything I don't burn in the campfire is the first to burn in October/November. I like using these pieces on the campfire and knowing that my "best" wood is saved for winter.

 

[velvetfoot]

But you still have to move them inside, to a shed, etc.

 

[tymbee]

Save them for campfire wood to burn in the firepit during warmer months.

After bucking and splitting a BUNCH of sandy wood, and alot more to go.. I have this huge pile (huge to me!) of oddball chuncks, cookies from shortening rounds which were too long, knuckles that would not split nice.... so what do you guys do with them?

I know I can and WILL burn them, they burn great! But how do you stack them, just leave in a big ugly pile or what?

 

[JOHN BOY]

They ae left to season and then they get burned in the stove...

 

[Blue2ndaries]

I pile them on a couple of pallets and use them for the outdoor firepit, camping, and shoulder season.

 

[Hearth Mistress]

We use them on days early/late in the season when it's too chilly to go without fire but too warm to go blast furnace hot all day. I also throw them in sometimes in the AM if we have a great bed of coals just to burn them up since we don't have outdoor pits (may have to think about adding one though)The stacks aren't pretty we pile them up on a pallet and throw a tarp over them, not every pile will be pretty and perfect, I just had to get over the wood pile OCD and accept that!

 

[firecracker_77]

I love the knotty misshapen pieces. Sometimes, they are just right when you don't want to jam the box full.

 

[OhioBurner©]

I put them on the top of all the stacks, and its the first stuff I burn in. If I have more than that allows I just throw em in a pile in the corner of the porch.

 

[weatherguy]

Scrounging wod from tree services like you just did will yield a lot of cookies and chunks, I build two pallet bins as has been stated a couple times already in the thread. The nice thing about the cookies is they season quick, I tested some oak cookies (3-4 inches thick) with my moisture meter and they're already down to 20% after one year of seasoning, I seasoned them by laying them across the top of my stacks and threw them in the bins in the fall.

 

[b33p3r]

I throw them on top of the daytime feedings. Overnight I fill with nicely formed splits.