Around here, some people have a hard time getting rid of them. damm sure don’t have to pay for them, other than maybe the time and expense of actually getting them and getting them home.
My Lord, I sure wish that was the case here. Other than Firewood, I don't know what else some folks do with them. I did see a local Nursery use the bladders for Hydroponics planting and one for a fish pond plants. I'm not going to use the bladders, I've never needed to cover my wood while it's seasoning, wood doesn't get (re-wet) When winter comes, we move what we need into our wood shed.
Same, I grabbed all the pallets I could when first starting out and stacked everything on them, but they got disintegrated by termites in little time. I still use them from time to time in pinch (mostly when I get a bunch of rounds I want to keep off the ground) as I have a bunch stacked up off the ground on my utility trailer nice and dry. I migrated from pallets to using racks like the below (pool liner top cover), then migrated onto building well ventilated woodsheds, as the top covers are always a PITA IMO (tarps tear, pool water, etc..). My fav top cover is metal roofing, that works best with little trouble if you pitch it correctly. Unfortunately I only have about 4-5 pieces of old metal roofing. I always keep my eye out for it.
ReelFaster, those racks you have, how long are your runners on the bottom? I buy some posts that have top and bottom flattened sides, maybe they call them landscape timbers. They are thicker/stiffer than a 2x4. Probably 4 inches thick. I think they are also treated. But they come in 8ft length. Yours look longer but maybe it's an optical illusion. If they were 12ft, a half cord could be stacked. Using my 8ft runners, the stack is a face cord. That is with end posts that are vertical. Your end posts slant due to the way they fit into the cinder block, so, that means the quantities are larger. But if one were to stack exactly 4ft high, the entire stack will shrink during seasoning and that extra provided by the slanting end posts kind of make it equal out. Actually, maybe even to the customer's favor.
They are 8ft and I have a few racks that I used as you mentioned the "landscape timbers" and a bunch with just PT 2x4's. I think I calculated three of the racks is a full cord of wood, I could be wrong but I think it's close and yes I think one rack is a face cord of wood. They are easy and simple to setup and I had a bunch of cinder blocks just laying around the back of the property left by the prior owner. Most where half buried in the dirt but once pulled up and shaken out worked just fine. I am still finding those darn cinder blocks here and there.
I've been using a similar concept for about six years now (after wrestling with different methods of stacking wood for the previous 10 years). When the wood is stacked to five feet, each stack hold 1.25 cords. Over time I've built up enough supplies to have ten of these. I still use pallets for overflow splits and shorts/uglies but these work great for the bulk of my firewood. I mainly top cover with old metal roofing (but need more).
That's beautiful!! I can't do that, I don't have the patience My wife does the stacking, My $#!T falls down!!! I actually have pictures of it on here, "somewhere"....
When I was first experimenting with the cinderblocks/PT boards, I was using engineer stakes (t-posts for the civilians) but it was such a PITA to find a spot where I could drive them in the ground without hitting granite. That's when I started cribbing the ends, and eventually morphed away from using any end supports at all. Yes, it's somewhat more time consuming, and I know most have no desire to take the extra time (I remember a consensus a while back where it seemed that stacking was the least liked thing to do when processing firewood). However I don't process any firewood for selling (no Benjamins coming in), and when I'm out in the wood lot, it's therapy for me so I don't mind taking the extra time.
Same here, for me stacking is like a hemorrhoid, it's there, you have to deal with it and it's a pain in the A$$! I'll cut and split all day! That's my kind of therapy. Im going full IBC totes, I started working on them all day yesterday, I'll have them "Notched" out and in place later this afternoon. I would have done the totes years ago, they were just so hard to find down here and expensive. I drove 70 miles each way to get the ones I have, but the payoff will be well worth it.
Looking forward to seeing a picture of your setup when your done. I would love to have a lot of the totes, especially to move splits around with the tractor when it comes time to put seasoned wood in the woodshed. But at $100 (or more) a pop for the IBC totes around here, and with each one only holding around 1/3 cord, it would cost me around $4500.00 to get the same storage as my ten cinderblock/PT stacks (and 45 totes just isn't as aesthetically pleasing). I don't make TN kind of Benjamins, so no totes for me for the foreseeable future.
Couldn't have said it any better. It truly is therapeutic for me when done at my own pace and done at my own leisure. Sometimes I feel rushed but not very often.....
Thanks. That's an added bonus is that I like the aesthetics of my firewood stacks (call me crazy). I live out in the woods, so I'm not concerned with neighbors and it's all just for my enjoyment.
That's the key, doing it at your own pace. I see so many that rush just before burning season to process their (wet) firewood and it's an aggravation to them. Being ahead and doing a little at a time makes it much more enjoyable. If I'm out in the wood lot and it starts feeling like it's work then I know it's time for a break.
Completely agree and feel the same way. Few times I cut it close with moving dry/seasoned wood to the wood shed closer to the house and it felt like a chore but that's pretty rare.
The wife just finished up loading the totes with the Mulberry. I now have a Tote farm! I'm going up again on Saturday and get 2 more, that'll be my limit. Don't have much more room for anything else. As you can see, my neighbor put that nice vinyl fence in this past summer, I sure don't want to damage that with a fall, that area was my storage area for years, it had an old school chain link fence and one of the other reasons for the totes, very little risk...
