Lean to won't make spring on its own with a half cord left. So added some more standing dead ash to mix in, which is the second time I have done this. The spring pile waiting is still under a pile of snow. 6 degrees here last night breaking another record, but with sun out its just above freezing now. Heated with wood for 11 years since i moved here, but have not burned more wood than this winter I don't think.
Used quite a bit of wood here as well this winter, hauled about half a cord from the stacks to the near empty storage shed by the house hope that will last til the end of the season.
Your right, this was anything but a typical winter. At least you are somewhat prepared, you have enough to get you through. Is the pile under the snow split?
About half split and half not. Will have split and stacked by end of April, should be fine for my OWB by next winter
Been quite a few years since I burned this much also.Last winter (so far) we had more snow,but its been much colder this time.Very cold for most of November 2014,December had a few extra cold days but most was near normal,January-February 2015 was brutal,with a few records set.March so far has been near normal,but the past 2 days above normal with temps 50-56 & its forecast to stay like this with highs in the low-mid 60's by next Friday. I'm not holding my breath however,they've been wrong before plenty of times this winter already.
Greg how many cords does your lean to hold? That is what I envision my lean to will look like when I am done. Though I was not planning on a slab. Instead I was thinking of gravel then a compacted stone dust.
It is 32 feet long, 8 feet wide and I stack about 7 feet high. So about 14 cords, minus maybe 1/4 cord as I stack around the posts. It is really just an extension as part of my pole barn. Have another to match on the other side where i keep the splitters and other gear. I'm sure you could do gravel/stone dust etc. I baby my wood pile, cause the inside of the barn is exactly that (2a modified just leveled and rolled), so I don't worry about a few drops of oils etc.. But the lean to side concrete does make it nice to clean up bark and debris through the season.
Yikes! You torched 14 cords already this season? How many houses and outbuildings are you heating with your boiler?
We heat 5000sf of home space at 69 degrees, and domestic hot water for family of 4 most of the time and 6 when college kids are home. We heat no outbuildings. This is the first time I have burned through a whole lean to in one season to my recollection. One small thing also is that since it is an OWB, I burn almost every wood species. This particular lean to had a couple of rows of pine, some cherry and maple etc.. Along with locust, red and white oak, ash etc. So a full lean to of oak/locust would have made it I think. But I don't sort the wood, I just split and stack as I come to it and can rob off another years pile or do some standing dead ash as I need to. But generally speaking for me 10/1 - 4/1 is a 12 or 13 cord deal