What's the number one rule about firewood?

You can never have enough wood.

 

I took a moisture meter reading of the spruce stack (#13) which was just c/s/s starting on Mar-9-2020. It showed 19.7% which is awesome. By winter's time here in NY just north of NYC it will be in prime condition. The summer sun and heat will definitely bake all my stacks pretty well along with the awesome wind from the west because of the Hudson river. Hopefully some of the oak will be ready as well.

Pile #1 is the oldest - the cherry on the bottom is one of the two trees that got me started on firewood procurement since I got it from a neighbor 2 houses over. That was back in Apr-2019. They were cutting down the tree and I just happened to hear the chainsaws going so I hopped over and asked for the wood. Guy was literally ecstatic to be able to give it to me.....and I said "Yeah man, just leave it right there I'll cut it up and take it...." and he cut me off and said he'd been burned too many times by people who said they'd take the wood and ended up just leaving it there....so he asked to see exactly where I wanted it. Luckily for me I have a pretty wide driveway so he was (and has come back almost 10 times now) able to back up his bucket truck and just dump it at the end of the driveway.

Didn't really get much wood after that until Oct-2019. That's when I started to go a bit nuts on the procurement.

 

And the best part of all this is I got all this wood for....... $0. The tree service guys have to pay $25/cu. yard to dump it or recycle it. They end up saving a couple hundred dollars a truckload so it works out awesome for them as well as for me.

Like I posted in another thread the only problem is that sometimes I get these rounds that are cut way too short (I like 16"). I've got (2) 275 gallon IBC totes full of kindling.....In a perfect world I'd only get trunks and nice straight limbs cut to 16". But I ain't complaining!

 

Your hausens are very scenic! They must be pretty in the wintertime with snow on them, like a gnome village.

 

Thanks! Well, I only had last winter for some of them....and yes it was nice but I think we only had ONE snowstorm where the snow didn't melt almost immediately so it didn't last long!

 

Ive never built one but they sure a nice to look at! Do you have a goal in mind or just keep making them?
I like the varmint trap on #17. They didnt waste any time did they?

 

Those are some impressive Holz Hausens. Quite a few of em too. One of these days, one of these days I’ll have to try my hand at that.

 

Impressive wood hoarding and stacking!

 

I bought (3) x-small traps from Havahart to get rid of the chipmunks that are digging up my yard and the squirrels that ate through my spark plug wires and built a nest on my cabin filter in my 2006 Mini Cooper!

I started off with just two stacks because my neighbor cut down a huge black locust tree and another neighbor cut down a cherry tree.....Then I started making friends with the tree guys....and it was like a positive feedback loop - the more wood I had visible from the street, the more tree guys I would meet. I met two once when I was picking up the spruce from the side of the road!

Now it's turned into a) I love chopping/bucking/splitting (by hand)/power tools (yeah I like them too) b) I need the excercise and need to lose some weight. After all this work with mostly the maul I've gotten muscles almost like popeye in places I never saw muscles before. c) I could potentially sell some to my neighbors if they need it d) I got one of my neighbors hooked on it so it's a fun thing that we were doing every saturday until the virus.

And finally e) I'm thinking now is the time to take it to the next level and get a proper wood stove or insert. Haven't decided yet. Happy with the fireplace but it would be nice to heat the entire house with all this wood.

It's really quite basic - you get 4 pallets, make ring with splits, then the first row of the holtz hausen naturally angles down towards the center of the circle. As you build up (bark up or bark down is a HUGE debate - I do bark up since I get a lot of wet weather here in the NE), you will sometimes find that the angle starts to reverse itself. In that case you take a flat split and lay it across your existing splits....and then you've re-created that downwards towards the center angle again. For the roof I don't spend too much time. I just pile it up until I can't see or reach any more and then I try to split some larger rounds by chipping the edges off so I get some natural shingles. Now is the time where you want to reverse the angle on purpose and come to a point so that rain can run down those shingles and off the pile instead of saturing everything. It is surprising how amazing this works to keep splits on the inside dry. Basically only the outer ends of the splits that are visible get wet, but the rest of each split is typically very, very dry. Watch CTSCAPER on YT (no affiliation). He's very good at describing what he's doing and why. I learned a lot from that guy.

Thanks! All the non-firewood people always ask me "Don't you have enough wood? What are you going to do with it all?". That reminds me of the clerk at the farm where I went to buy 5 dozen eggs. I have 3 kids, a wife, and I love my eggs....so she asked me "What are you going to do with all these eggs?" and I said "Eat them."

Running out of space dang it!

 

I thought the number 1 rule was to get it before buZZsaw BRAD gets it. Cuz, he will.

 

If thats the case then what is the number one rule for me???

 

Get it before anyone else, of course!

 

I love how softwood dries out super fast. Glad it is working out for you.

 

Exactly. Otherwise your firewood turns into Nacho firewood.

 

Well I haven't seen any gnomes thus far......but I have seen 1 raccoon, 15 squirrels, and 13 chipmunks......in the last 10 days........and I gave them all swimming lessons......but I must be a really bad teacher.......because they all failed........miserably. And before anyone throws a fit the chipmunks were doing damage to my yard (almost snapped my ankle in the holes they dug all over the place), the squirrels chewed threw my ignition wires and built a nest in my mini, the racoon got into my garbage can and broke the lid, and I'm still trying to get a big ol' groundhog that my neighbors and my kids have seen but I have yet to lay my eyes on.......

 

I thought the number one rule is burn 3 year seasoned wood? Which you are doing so never mind!

 

Just leave the possums alone, is all I ask!

 

That's not the rule.

Burn dry wood, that's the rule