I finally got a good afternoon of splitting in today and thought I'd share a picture of our first stack. I have 5 pallets down long ways and splits are two deep. I left about 2 feet between the house and the stack. After finishing this stack off I'd like to put another right in front of it. Should I leave walking space between them or butt them right up?
That's exciting. I'd agree, space. Now, how much is there? How much more do you have? You need more, no matter how much you have.
WOW lots of wood there already I'm with the leave space if it is fresh cut, but... 3 rows deep, stacked loose, works if it will have a few years to season. What's the history of the wood? & Wood type? Sunny side or shady side, of the house ? (windy side ? ) Space between helps, but if it's already pretty dry (ready to burn ) it won't help much. Keeping the rain off is key to wood not in the open & spaced well for air circulation. I see rain gutter so that's good Don't go but about 4' for stability's sake. I like to tie the rows together with a few long sticks about a foot from the top to help with stability. Looking good How much more you got to stack ?
Yeah, what Dave said. I was gonna' type something similar, but I fell asleep. Seriously, I just woke up......and the typing thing too.
All finished and stack ended up about 5' high, 20' long, and about 40" deep soooo roughly 2.5 cord? Most of this is hackberry and dead elm but there is a little maple in there too. All of this came from a scrounge pile dump site of a tree service outfit. There's still a lot of big dead elm and big maple to get. Lots of folks have access to the wood but they all take the easy stuff. I have to noodle these bigger (30" to 48") into halves or quarters just to get them loaded. The stack is on the south side of the house so it gets a lot of sun and predominant summer wind. I cut up about another cord maple today that was local blowdown from some storms. It all needs split and stacked. I'll probably leave it stacked out back as it'll never be ready to burn this year. My neighbor buddy has around a cord of well seasoned ash and about 1.5 cord of seasoned oak for me since he quit burning wood. All of that will be stacked up here soon, but for now I'm going to keep scrounging up and splitting that dead elm. I'm hoping it'll be good to burn this year.
Get it split & stacked soon & it should be ready . Even dead standing needs some time split & stacked to season a bit. Keep it coming , pictures too 1-1/2 CORD of FREE < SPLIT < SEASONED Oak JACK_POT ! !
Agreed with the others, a space to walk. I have about 24" inbetween my rows. Makes it easier to know where I left off so I could mark where the following season starts.
Nice pics and nice job!! Getting a good supply before you get your stove installed is a great plan. Your way ahead of the game! !
Good job, JRSDWS. That's a picture of wood but may as well be money in the bank. The more space between rows you can manage is like getting higher interest on that money IMHO.
If it's soft Maple, it might surprise ya....stuff dries pretty quick if you don't split real big. Cord and a half, ready to go? Sweeet! By the same token, for quick drying, don't split the Elm too big. One thing you've got going for you, even though the stacks would be better away from the house, is that you are out in the corn fields, and Central IL is a good wind area. Heck, there are wind farms not too far from you. What? He's got a bunch of stoves listed, and he's new to burning? I figured he had been burning for a few years, anyway...
All those stoves are corn and/or pellet stoves. This is his first wood stove. So he is not new to burning in general. Just new to wood burning. He did it the right way. His 1st saw he bought from me (check), got a lot of good wood (check), split it fairly small to dry fast (check), then bought a stove (Englander 30-NC/ double check ). It's not yet installed, and yet his wood pile grows. Most people do it the opposite way. They get a stove installed and wait till the last minute to get some wood for their 1st year of burning.
I'm in the middle of a 100 turbine wind farm!! It's way easier to count the days it's calm here than the days it's windy. I will post a picture of my maple for some ID help.
From Dex's description, sounds like you've got the situation well in hand. Not sure. Norway, maybe? Not sure how fast it dries, either...
Looks like a real good start. If you have the area I suggest that you space your rows far enough apart so that the sun can hit the bottom of the adjacent row. Papadave deserves credit for that idea. That will help drying and to melt out the snow in the winter.
