Doing some of my firewood prepping in the garage

Usually I have a few fairly large splits that I further break down outside at the woodshed as I load my wheelbarrow. I usually also do all my kindling splitting outside. As of late there has been so much steady rain on the days I need to bring a load into the garage that I just bring a small load straight in and do any last minute splitting or kindling inside, warm and dry as I load my tote for upstairs. It can get a bit messy with chips and kibbles and bits flying around but I clean things up every time I carry a bucket or tote on up. How do you folks do it? Is your wood and kindling ready to go as it leaves the stack or do you do some prepping inside, a small wheeler at a time?

 

Nice! How do you propose to move that wheelbarrow without spilling the beans?

 

Most of my wood is in its final form by the time it’s stacked. Once in a blue moon if I’m low on kindling I’ll sacrifice a few dry splits to make more though. This year I had several buckets of kindling prepared in advance. As extra insurance I’ve been taking all the splitter trash I’ve been making lately and drying it out on the hearth for a day or two. Every little bit helps.

 

Since my burner is in my unfinished basement, I don't have to be very neat and tidy. I get over 3 cords of splits packed in, then I have 2 55gal plastic drums with the tops cut off. One is full of splitter scrap, other usually has dried noodles in it. That's usually enough starter for the season but I have a paper bag full of homemade wax starters if needed.

 

I was just thinking about the same thing. I was making some kindling pieces in the garage the other day but splitting them on a rolling cart and it was so loud. I have a giant piece of maple outside that I normally split on and considered moving it in the garage too.

Smaller pieces work better in my open fireplace so I'm constantly breaking them
down.

 

Most of my kindling is pallets from work. I cut them up on the bandsaw and put the center slats in a box and the larger 2x4 type stuff in another. Once home I will just take a hatchet ( in basement) and split up the center slats a few times as kindling . add a chunk from the center 2x4's and away we go. Pallets are free , clean , readily available and done on the clock , kind of hard to say no to that. Currently using some old cedar shingles BRAD dropped off to me and those just get a quick basement split .

So now to answer your question ; just a little final prep in basement but most of it done before it comes in the house.

 

No indoor prep. All splits are stove ready when I bring them up/in.
Use/make/store, zero kindling. Burn it as I split. Mess be gone.

Love your wheelbarrow load!!!
I recommend the dual wheel model. Think bigger loads
Take care

 

Once CSS'd, the vast majority of my splits are stove ready.

Once in a a while I'll come across a split needing to be made smaller.

I do keep an older snow brush handy to remove any debris/frass from splits before they are brought indoors.

 

Ready to burn in the stacks. Kindling is processed at my sawmill by cutting slab wood into strips then run through the miter saw. A good cigar and a few beers and I'm done for the season. My one season supply of splits is stacked in an abandoned dog kennel attached to the garage. Splits are brought through the garage and stacked by the woodstove in the house every other day in a canvas log carrier. Kindling is stored in a covered "silo" in the wood stack area and brought in at the same time as the splits. On occasion I have a piece I think is a little large, I have a small five ton electric splitter just inside the garage. It works great for making kindling if ever needed. I keep a 5-8 years supply at a remote location. Sell off when I have excess.

 

Ceiling too low, so no option there, plus my aim is not all that accurate anyway. Getting a fair amount that just need a few inches removed that I need to take outside and shorten. So dry here that we don't need to worry about rain, unless you include needing it. Try to keep kindling mixed in bringing some in each load.
Looks like you stack your wheelbarrow like I try to stack mine.

 

Hey how's the mill working out for you, I am going to be looking into an upgrade myself in the spring. I would do something now if I ran across something but would rather wait now until warmer weather.
Hope you're doing well.

 

Keep a small wood box full of kindling inside by the hearth. If I need to split down any fire wood or make more kindling, keep an axe and splitting stump by the stack on front porch.

 

Wood pretty much ready to go once it leaves the stacks. A couple knocks together to remove and loose schmutz. I have a brush ill use when i do bundles assembly.

You load like i do and as moresnow stated a two wheeler is the way to go. My 8 cubic footer can move a lot of wood.

 

Everything is done outside by the pole barn, nothing inside or in the garage area as mentioned it's pretty messy. 90% of my kindling comes from the wood shavings while splitting. After splitting a bunch of wood, I'll recruit the kids to pickup the nice sized chunks and shavings laying all over the ground. We'll load them in milk crates or bins and stack them in the pole barn to let them dry out.

During burning season I'll grab a few of them and put the out front on the porch and one or two in the wood shed. When I come out to get a bundle of wood, I'll grab a handful of the kindling if I am starting a fire from scratch.

This method works well for me, as the kindling is already being made while I split no need to spend time making any additional kindling.

 

When I'm ready to burn wood, the wood is fully ready to be burned. I don't feel like dealing with that when I want to light a fire. The only thing I need to worry about is bringing wood from my mom's where I store it to my house where I burn it either in the OWB or the fireplace.

 

When my electric splitter was new I split some pine rounds in the garage on a rainy Saturday or two. After I cam a bit too close to breaking a window a couple times from the very naughty pine we have here I've moved away from using the splitter indoors.

 

Don’t feel bad. Was just on FB and saw a post about welding. This guy in Hong Kong welds in his bedroom which happens to be his entire apartment. Had to run back and grab the photo for ya LOL

 

Same...nice to have when a large split needs "customized" a lil.

Heck, I welded on my stove in the living room one time...wife wasn't home, and to be fair it was actually inside the stove...and was still close to the fireplace, so it sucked the smoke right up ...still felt pretty redneck!

 

So I used to re-split all the narrow splits (cheesecake splits like at the end of the stacks) in two across the wedge of wood. Sometimes the wedge half was further reduced to kindling. All this was done with an axe at the woodshed as I loaded the wheel barrow. As I have said, I am now doing this inside the garage with a hatchet. I have to grip and swing the light hatchet quite hard and the reverberations are killing my recovering right hand. I just today bought an Estwing splitting hatchet. The heavy head and nonslip grip make it far easier to allow the weight to do the work of splitting and the mass of the head also dampens the reverberations. Works very well for kindling also. I used to do a marathon of kindling splitting of usually 4 five gal buckets every couple weeks at the woodshed. Now I just do a small bundle every couple of days inside. Using the splitting hatchet is easier here also. Even after my hands are better, this may remain my routine!