Ok. After hosting an end of summer party then going to New England for 2 weeks, I knew I'd have to get firewood work done. I made my siding protector last night. I brought up 1 load of silver maple and some ash which is probably 2/3 of a cord per trailer load. I stacked that load minus the uglies and shorts. I'll probably burn those in SS. First load Second load
First load mostly stacked The plywood is a couple inches away from the siding. I'm stacking wood on the metal brackets. That will keep the wood off the concrete to keep it dry, and keep the OSB board and brackets off of my new siding. I should be able to get at least a cord and a half up here. That second load is all silver maple. There's at least another load of silver left for this Fall's SS. I've been taking all the peeled bark that falls off the maple and putting it down on the ground where the pile was. The pile was on wood chips which helps a bit, but this extra layer of bark will help more. The 2 decent sized ash trees that I got from my neighbor will go on to of the bark, where the silver maple was, once I split them in the next few days. Also, while I was down by the piles loading up the trailer, my other neighbor came over and asked me if I want more wood. Ummmm yeah. He's going to cut a friend's 2 ash trees and a birch, and bring it over to me. He's already given me some crabapple and silver maple.
Wait.....he's bringing it TO YOU? How do you rate? Pretty hard to say no to something like that, eh? Nice job gettin' back at it right after vacay.
Not trying to be to nosy but how was New England? Enjoyable trip? My wife & I love going up there. Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine.
Yeah, bringing it to me, and he asked what length I wanted it cut. I told him 17"ideally but 16-20" is good. I told him in any case the longer the better. That way I can cut out to the length I want, and it's easier for him.
Super fun. I used to live in Western Maine, and my wife has never been to Maine, New Hampshire or Vermont. We ate a ton of seafood, saw a moose, waterfalls, Acadia national park, the white mountains, lake Champlain, Mt Washington, lighthouses, and other cool things.
Great question. It was supposed to, but it may be delayed until spring. We'll see. I've got enough top cover to handle the amount that I'll need for next year, and any more than that can sit out in the elements for a full season. By then I'll have the shed, and I can do less wood moving.
Ok, here's what I got done this evening. Each row is 1/2 cord. So once I get the 4 rows done, it will be 2 cords. I might go longer than 4 rows, we'll see. It's not going to rain until Thursday night, so I'll leave it all uncovered until then. I had to take smaller loads in the trailer than the first two that I stacked pretty high. The 5.22" of rain we got recently, with the 4.23" in one day right before we got back into town sure had made the ground soft. The skinny tires on the 4x8 trailer were starting to sink in. I know loaded full and thrown in, that each trailer is 2/3 of a cord. But then I quickly realized that it'll be stacked nice and easy to measure the actual cordage once stacked up top. There's a lot of shorts and uglies to burn in SS too that I didn't count in the cord count. That way I can leave the artisinal firewood in the bin by the side of the fireplace
It's decent. But the main thing is that it's stable. This just gets used in the heating season. I use 4-5 cords a year. This will be about half of that. This is only shoulder season wood, Silver maple and ash. I'll bring up a stack of hickory, honey locust, beech, and sugar maple for the super cold nights. I'll put that on the other side, in a rack I'll make probably with some 2x4s. I think the amount of ash I have will take me through most of the winter without having to bring out a ton of the heavy hitters. Ash is 22 mbtu a cord, so it's no slouch. If this winter is like last winter, I'll need a lot of SS wood and not much high BTU stuff, but when the real cold hit last year, it hit hard.
Also, compared to last winter, we should be a lot more efficient since we added tons of new windows, have a double layer of tyvek and and a layer of foam insulation that we didn't have last winter. Also the roof is properly ventilated now with full soffit vents and ridge vents. All of these will make a difference with keeping the heat in and cold out. So maybe I'll use less wood?
