I know your area well. I have a place in Highlandville and a buddy has a cabin on Big Paint east of Waukon. I spend waaaaay to much time over your way According to my lovely bride! Anyway. Welcome to FHC. Now you have me thinking about lunch at the Mex place in Waukon. Mmmmmmm Truly a beautiful part of Iowa. I'll be up fishing next week.
Welcome to the forum iowahiker. It sounds like you have things where you want them. I'm sure it is interesting cutting with a battery powered saw and it seems like they are getting more popular all the time. I can see some advantages and one for you being that it cuts the right amount for what you are able to haul right now. I don't see why a NE wind would be a problem for drying wood even in the shade but having a good sized shed to stack in should work out fine so long as you give it good time for drying. Here is some reading that you might find helpful: Primer on Woodburning by Backwoods Savage Good luck.
Welcome iowahiker. Waukon sounds familiar. 21 years ago I was living in Cedar Rapids. Oh we like beer and dogs also.
Lived there 23 yrs after ex and I got out of the Air Force. Still have 2 boys living there. Now came back to where I grew up wny.
Welcome along, I’ve been thinking about getting a battery saw for the small amount of wood I manage to get hold of
Backwoods Savage, I will agree every resource recommends drying firewood outside but our's did not dry even when covered with metal sheets. I always blamed the poor results on our northeast hillside, shade trees, and high humidity. The six rows inside system dry well after two years but we do keep the window and doors open as much as possible. Battery chainsaw: I plan to start a "saw" section on battery chainsaw's which have reached some very high battery capacities. The highest I know of is 60 volts and 9 amps versus mine at 36 volts and 5 amps. They are very capable up to 16" cuts.
This is our Royall forced air furnace which is a compact unit able to handle up to 24" sticks but we aim for 20".
I tried to upload both the furnace picture and the woodpile picture but the system did not work because it is new for me but I worked out the issues. The face row of our wood pile (named row "six") and in the fore ground the last load of rounds waiting for splitting and space in the rows. Our furnace door is 9" x 13" so sticks in the pile are larger than many posters. The far left is sugar maple, followed by rock elm splits (noodled - it is called rock elm for a good reason), then back to a blend of sugar maple, black ash, and white ash. The far right is fresh cut (last fill of last winters burn) while most of the remainder of the row is dry enough to burn. Face rows (front or back) have a dry end which is burned first each winter to create a gap to reach the interior rows. Attaching the row end pallet 2x4's with screws was required because loading and unloading the rows loosened the original nails. This year we are burning the back side of the pile. The trusses are on 4 foot centers and so the pile comes out almost sixteen feet from the rear wall and includes air gaps between rows. The pile is set on reinforced pallets and the wood cut to 20"+/-. The Astro hood is visible at the bottom left so wood goes from the Astro into the pile or stacked as shown for splitting which I do on the concrete behind the Astro. The concrete splitting spot has a two foot concrete footing and all the sledge force goes into splitting and then wood goes into the rows for a minimum of handling.
