So, since I can't ever seem to leave well enough alone, I plan to load the shed a little differently this year. I'll be putting all the Oak on one side of the partition, and then the Maple, Poplar, Pine, on the other. That should allow a little more leeway when burning next winter, as I'll have better access to more variety all winter. It won't hurt anything, so I'm going for it........in a few months. Like August.
I, too, am a segregationist. The oak has to sit in the back of the shed. Wouldn't want it mingling with the soft woods, no telling what might happen.
I've been setting it up so that I've got my early season stuff up front, then gradually getting into the Oak, then back into the shoulder stuff. That works pretty well, but this should allow a better as needed use. In theory, theory and practice are the same, in practice......they aren't. We'll see how bad I screw it up. Might be burning Pine in -10 temps and Oak when it's 45.
Gonna make a little change too this year PD. I have a lot of dead poles and small trees/tops I need to buck up in the woods, instead of pulling logs out. Gonna go niiiiiiiiiiiice n' eeeeeeeeeeeeasy and use the hookeroon to lift small stuff up and get them in the box on the front of the atv. Then, straight to the left side of the woodshed fer stackin'. That side's got plenty of space from this winter pulling wood out.
If I can get motivated enough, I might take one of the old worn down axes I have and make a pickaroon out of it. Has a fairly short handle, so would be good for grabbing stuff while splitting. Now, I know I have some motivation stashed here somewhere.........
If it wouldn't be too much trouble, box up some a that motivation and launch it ovah heya... Using an old axe sounds like a gooder idea to whip up a pick. I sure like mine.
Sending some motivation your way....as soon as I find it. I know it's here somewhere. You should be seeing it sometime this fall.
I'm always looking to make improvements. Even when it's a step backwards, I learn something. Planning a bit of reconfigurating myself. My shoulder wood supply was in one of the closest stacking locations to the house. Seemed to make sense because I was burning that first. But this winter taught me that I need my dead of winter stuff there, so I can get to it easier if we end up with 25' of snow again. There's always less snow for shoulder season, so that stuff can be a little further from the house.
Yeah, Im OCD about seperating low, medium & high woods in the shed. If a piece of silver maple is found in the oak group, I'll carry it back to plop it back onto the maple group. And then eack load for the stove is a mixture of whatever species I feel like at the time. Go figure.
I'm doing things different this year too im actually stacking every piece of wood I cut. Long story short in years past I was not able to keep up with the amount of wood coming in vs splitting it and getting it stacked. Old splitter was horizontal only and set low. No matter whst size of wood be it small or really big it was a killer to use for any amount of time. So I was always behind in splitting. Have new splitter now and my productivity has increased 10 fold. Now I find myself splitting everything in sight and not wore out so I am able to stack it I know apples and oranges compared to wood shed arrangement
I stack the small rounds with my shoulder season wood. Try to always have at least a cord there. It is great for starting fire in the shoulder season, when I usually let the fire die down to negligible coals. Two nice dry one inch rounds will start a fire immediately on a handful of tiny coals. I keep the shoulder season stuff about 75 feet from the house, just to the east of the plowed drive. This year I am going to try to figure out something for the step-off area off the drive (which at this point is really my grassy yard) that won't look too bad, won't get plowed away, and won't get as mushy as it is getting with the thaw (since this is the time of year I access about 1/2 the wood. I do try to bring the wood in when the ground is frozen (ie:early AM), however, don't always succeed. I'm thinking I may dig down to the bedrock (about 3 inches!) and put some small pebbles/stones from the lake in there. Be fun hauling the stuff up the 100 foot cliff, but doable if done regularly a bit at a time each time I swim. Biggest problem with that is not having hand available to swat the mosquitoes on the way up through the woods. Windy days are OK. Guess I could try to find an old backpack, or (if I get adventurous) rig a rope and pulley system.
Definitely! It made a huge difference for me when I built the stand for my Homelite splitter. I don't get nearly as beat from a session of splitting since I'm able to work standing up. Keep it in the strike zone.
Im also making a change in the shed. I've been stacking side to side but that means the stuff in the back gets more time to season and the stuff I burn first gets less time. I basically only get oak around here with the occasional mixed in maple, sassafrass there's no point to separate for me. This year I'm going to stack front to back and pull wood from the end of the shed that I stacked first and work my way in. This means more end posts but I think it will be a better setup for getting to seasoned stuff first
I'm finally to the point (have been since 2009, but the shed wasn't built until '10) that the wood doesn't go in the shed until it's had enough time in the open stacks to dry. I've been running behind getting firewood, and don't have enough for '16-17, so I really need to crank up the scrounging this year. Might need to buy my way back in. I'll have enough Oak, but not Maple. Not much worry about that, since it dries well and it'll have well over a year to dry. Then I need to get crackin' on the wood for '17. Dead/down Oak on the agenda first.
I like soft woods and hard woods in different stacks too. To difficult to predict the burning season ahead to pan how to mix. Very easy to just grab the wood you want/need. I'll usually mix mostly oak with some maple/ironwood/elm in one stack and pine/poplar in another.
I've actually gotten the mix pretty well setup as to when I'll run out of shoulder stuff and need to get into the hardwoods, then back the other direction in the spring. The last 2 years have been a little off due to how cold it's been, and the fact that we're keeping the house warmer for my FIL. Just seems to me that if I had the Oak all in one side or the other, I could grab what was needed even if it wasn't "scheduled" for use. Same for the lesser stuff. A possible problem might be that I'd use too much of the gooder stuff........it's hard to resist.
I have the opposite problem. I just can't bring myself to burn the good stuff unless it's REALLY cold, and even then only overnight. I have about 1-1/2 cords of oak in the shed (which is for the current year). It's probably 5 years old now, I have some oak in the outdoor drying stacks that is 3 years minimum. I burn the pine and fir, hoard the oak.
Totally understand that. I hoard the Ironwood....and the small amount of remaining sugar maple split and stored in the basement when the house was built in the 70's.
Yep, started in '06 burning virtually 100% Oak, then very gradually got down to about 1/2 Oak, and the rest Pine, Maple, Poplar. I like to hang onto the Oak for the really cold temps.
