Took a break from my bath remodel to start filling the shed. Holds about 2 cord. Needs another 2 more rows to fill. Though this year I'm going to replace my pallets and stack another row in the front and toss a top cover on. Cutting the oak 4' splits to length. Used my ECHO Timberwolf w/ 20" bar. I know ECHO is the "other" orange saw, but I can't complain about mine. Reliable as can be. I haven't run it since last winter. 3rd pull it burbed, 4th it started, like always. Temps maybe reached 89/90, and I said forget it. Slow and steady wins the race. Just a couple pics.
It'll mainly be my dec-jan- feb supply. I usually put a cord of assorted lower - medium BTU splits on my patio to start the season. That should get me through until December. Then I'll use the shed supply. I'll need to add to it before mid Feb. to end the season. This is all depending on the temps. of course.
The 4 footers are the 14+ cord I bought from a gentleman. He has 25 acres of almost all oak, cherry and hickory. Any dead or down he would process. He has a crazy splitter he uses on his PTO. It kind of corkscrews into the log and pulls at the same time, splitting the log. He cut everything into 4'. I didn't see it in action, but he said it's really violent. He actually slipped and got caught in it. Put him intensive care for weeks. He has a wood furnace he uses and a shop stove. He loads up the splits on a farm wagon and pulls into his pole barn. Then just cuts as he goes. I have a thread on it here somewhere.
One of my goals, which will require some landscaping, to get at least a season's supply within easy reach. I'd rather bring it up all summer and have the winter supply, than to haul wood up during the heating season. Partly just to get it done and off the docket, but also in case we get a burly winter and or I can't easily access the stacks for a spell. Someday!
Not far distance wise (maybe a couple hundred feet depending which stack were pulling from) but the entire yard is lower than the house. So moving in winter by hand would require many trips up hill and stair. Not a fan of walking in the snow with armloads of wood. Moving via pickup is feasible till there's snow....most of the time there's not snow here, but I dont want to do emergency loads of wood ahead of a snow storm to make sure we don't run out up here. I think one pickup bed load is 1/3 cord, maybe 1/4....about a weeks' worth in cold time. Entirely the reason I want to build a retaining wall, and back fill it, is to bring a 10x24' piece of yard up about 3.5 feet. That should hold 7 cord or more as brought up all summer from stacks lower down.
First year of burning I had planned to just refill my stack on the patio when I needed to. First reload it worked out. Second time it snowed and temps dropped. Snow wasn't going to go anywhere fast. I had to use a sled to bring the wood down to the house from the stacks which are on a hill. It was fun and not fun at the same time. I didn't have my quad then either. Lesson learned.
I hear ya on the fun/not fun point. I like the exercise. But if something dumb should happen to me where I or we couldn't move wood for a while..... I guess I am thinking too about "the big one", a really snowy winter, or extended grid down, or whatever. Very unlikely. But possible. Thats cool you can bring it down to the house, makes it a little easier. Sca
I have a nice little Ariens snow blower and I have to get wood down to the house all winter long. I use my Ariens to clear a path for me to bring wood down from the pole barn to the house. I use a wheel barrow for that task.