Other options for split wood

Here's one idea. Make some deer blinds. They work very well.



If you make the blinds right, you can do this in them. Sweet dreams!

 

Rather than hardware cloth, I'd just get some cheap chicken wire.

 

You can just stack up the full size logs after laying a couple down to sacrifice while stacking the others on top of them. However, I've always preferred to cut the wood when it is green rather than letting it dry first.

So why not just buck it up, split and stack it. No need to stack it in a row or two either as that will take up lots more room. Just stack it in a cube. Go as high as you want but I've never liked stacking above head height even in a cube. How many rows can you stack together and still have the wood dry? I can not answer that question because I've never had any problem with the wood drying in a cube. We normally stack 3 in a cube but have stacked 20 or 30 rows tight together and never had a problem except for covering. One does have to be very careful when covering that large of a cube because any place you leave where water can run into the stack will ruin a bunch of wood. What I've found is that we stack then leave for several months. Normally we stack in April and then do not top cover until late November or early December. But even then, after covering the stack may settle more which means you have to check the covering. That is, if you use something like we do with old metal roofing. In addition, wind storms might cause you to look to make sure the covering has not shifted. But all in all, it works really great. Here are a couple of our cubes. On that first picture, I think we had 23 rows tight together at one time.



On this second picture is one pile I foolishly did not keep track of and let the roofing shift a bit and water got in. I think there was perhaps a wheelbarrow full of wood that got tossed on the brush pile.


This is how we normally stack. 3 rows together then a space and 3 more rows, etc. Leave all summer and fall then top cover.