Cleaning up the shorties...

Well, my hunny woke up with a bad sinus headache this morning, and being the great "boss man" as she calls me sometimes, gave her the day off. I have a few piles of shorties that needed processing and stored. Had 5 empty 55gal drums handy, got 4 done this morning.
One of the tractor buckets of oak shorties.

A drum of hickory

Trying a new way of storage. We were setting the drums on paver stones or 4" concrete blocks. I can get these throwaway plastic pallets sometimes. Let's more airflow underneath.
My hunny says I'm good at Tetris. What say Y'ALL???

What do y'all do with yours?

 

I take 5 skids n screw 4 of them to the base...top cover with tarp.
I just chuck em in n leave them sit for 2 or 3 years...

 

Last time I looked down a drum like that, it had the remains of a 6’7” man in it. Yes, he fit in there but the guy had to use a splitting maul to get it done. Don’t do drugs, kids.

 

I'm looking forward to cooking honey locust in my steel barrels. From what I've read here, it is slower than oak to dry. Trouble is, the honey locust I have is either unsplit, or scattered inside various stacks. So it will wait until the grand reshuffling in spring. Not enough heat now to do much cooking anyway.
For my shorts so far I've been using metal dog crates I find at the dump.

 

"Cleaning up the shorties..."
I'm SOOOO glad you weren't referring to your FT.......

 

To my distinguished gentleman hoarder friend of the south, T.Jeff Veal , have you considered air holes in the sides? I trust you already have them in the bottom? With GA heat and moisture with no where to go, I would consider mold and rot a possibility. Nice way to process the shorties though...hardwood is a terrible thing to waste...

 

I'll leave the FT to Eric VW

Of course, I like to got my finger caught in the splitter the other day, might would have to clean'em out then

 

I cut the bottom out and remove the bungs from the top. Seems to work well, been doing this for several years, haven't had a problem with rot. Dries pretty fast too. Just started using the plastic pallets this year, gets them higher off the ground with more air flow.
These are some we put up in August. The drums in the far back under the edge of the tin is at least 1 1/2 yrs old. Yes sir, I hate to waste it, can't stack it or sell it, so it fits my stove rather well...

 

Good T.Jeff Veal , so the bottom is completely removed? I’m after some of those plastic pallets as my hardwood compatriots are just about toast...I’d still advocate for some side holes drilled just to bake that much better in the GA sun...but glad your set up is working so well for you as is...Take care my friend and hoard on

 

It would have to be some small holes, all I need is for a bunch of mice to get in them and bed up...my hunny would have a ...if you look in the picture with all the drums next to the shed, I had a row right next to the wall, a big rat had climbed the wall and made a nest down in the drum. I moved it around with the tractor, carried it down to the house. I was sure he had run off...hunny bent over next to the drum to get a bucket, felt something hit her shoulder and back and said what was that, I looked up and the big rat was running off the porch. When she saw it and figured out what happened...I'm just glad the preacher wasn't in earshot....

 

I cut the bottom out and take out the fill plugs in the top, flip it over. Has two holes on the bottom now...

 

I love burning the uglies on a hot coal bed.

 

How many barrels to a cord?

 

Ha ha, would have to be at least 25, I would guess?

 

I'll guess 8-10.

 

Cleaning up the shorties!

 

Please pass the eye bleach.