Prime reserves

So does anyone set aside a row or two of the good stuff for the cold nights? Since it is going below zero here I am grabbing a few for tonight's over night burn. 12-14 inch 24 inch long knarly knotty hickory and hard maple. I have about 15 overnight burns set aside in the detached garage. Just wondering if anyone else is as anal as I for the wood storage.

 

All my Oak is on the left side of the shed this year.
On the right, I loaded pine in the back, then Maple, and more Pine in front.
The right side is the SS wood, and the left is for cold nights.....like tonight.

 

I can choose between two sheds - I load them in the Fall so the junk gets burned first, but I can always get to the best stuff in the second shed if need be.
I also toss aside lower quality wood in this weather to burn on a warmer day - 4 degrees and falling, so no punky wood allowed tonight!

 

When I load the front porch, 6x4x7 it is always loaded as this - Row one is all pine -soft maple and so on, Row 2 is all hardwoods such as oak , ash, and so on. Row 3 is all soft woods again until it gets cold ,like 20 as being the high, Then it is 1/2 hard and 1/2 soft. Then If it gets COLD I load up with hickory and/or hedge. I refill the porch every week on Sat. So I watch the weather and load as the temps are.

 

I dont have an abundance of chitty wood so no i dont do that, next year though there will be some cedar and walnut to burn.....

 

Most of my stacks are all mixed including the cord I keep on the patio right outside the stove room. I can usually find something more on the premium side when needed. I have occasionally went down to the back stacks if I can't find what I want up by the house. Generally the worst thing I have is cherry or an occasional silver maple the rest will pretty much do the job no matter what the weather.

 

YES! I save (for the OWB) large hardwood chunks. How large? Just so as I can lift them into the stove. I have been burning small stuff with an occasional exception here and there. I know the stove is capable of handling much longer chunks than I put in, but you have to remember that I'm lifting them up into it.....and in usually way below zero temps.

 

Not in my stacks outside. However, as I bring in wood to the garage, I put the big oak pieces in a bin and everything else gets mixed on the rack. Tonight will be our coldest of the winter; just getting ready to load up for the night. Big white oak round and perhaps 3 to four more oak splits.

 

In my climate and as well insulated as my house is, I can pretty much burn whatever is in good shape at the time. I don't really need primo wood to hold a fire overnight; the house just doesn't drift that much in a day or two even if the fire goes out. I coast on thermal mass between fires.

That said, most of my stacks are separated by species. When I run out of one type of wood, I start adding the next to the stack, so some stacks are mixed but still fairly easy to separate out the species. It helps me match the age of the wood to the drying time.

Also, I have some 5x5x10 foot bins for wood that can't be stacked reasonably. For example, sweet gum and elm are such a pain to hand split that I cut them less than a foot long so that I can split them. So that goes into the bins.

All my oak is in its own section because it takes longer to dry than the others and it is easier for me to sort it by age if it is in its own section. I had some big rounds that I was able to split into a good number of bark-free splits. Because they are without bark, they are cleaner than the rest. My plan for those is to put them in the stove area as hard times wood rations- for when I'm so sick I can't manage to make it out to the porch.

 

Ohh yea... Mine is mixed in, but I know where the bigger splits of the good stuff is located in the stack. I also usually remember when and where it came from when I cut it... Sad isn't it?

Family thinks I went off the deep end sometimes.

 

Yes sir-guilty here Woodsnwoods-Each row per bay is 1/2 cord, that's what a truck load CSS measures for me and each bay holds one cord not counting the uglies in between the rows. So this year practically all my wood is separated by variety-been burning ash and maple but tonight I went to the beech bay...just another enjoyment of the fruits of our labor...fun checking the forecast and rolling out the wood...I agree with most however that the difference among hardwoods is not so great but there are exceptions as noted on the "Not so impressed" thread-I will usually burn a mix but wanted to see the difference if any burning all beech tonight...Just a hoarder pal, just a hoarder

 

Glad to see I am not the only one. The other day I pulled out some large beech and asked my wife is she remembered this tree. She looked at me funny and shook her head. I do try to mix the woods when stacking, but always set aside one stack of large knotty stuff for the below zero periods. Love this site

 

Yep ...left side hedge, middle oak, right side hickory.

 

I mix it all up. Sometimes I can have a dozen different species to choose from, all within arm's reach. For those wicked cold nights, I just use more dense, hard splits or knotty stuff. When it's warmer I tend to use more pine and leave the good stuff for another day.

 

I have an OWB, and my stuff is all mixed, but I usually keep a big pile of unsplit stuff so on cold nights, like last night here where it was 10-12 degrees, I put a layer of good seasoned splits then on top I put some big 50-60 pound rounds from my unsplit pile. That seems to work the best. The cold here is without much wind thus far, so this morning we were right at 69 degrees where we keep it set. If its 12 degrees and very windy, my OWB will not keep us at 69 no matter what we put in it. It can get me to about 63-64. So I can briefly turn on back up heat to catch the house up, or wear a sweatshirt inside.

 

Yep. I separate all my stacks by species, but most times I load the stove with a mix. It's been a pretty mild winter here until the past few days, so it's been mostly red pine and a couple splits of ash. But I've got about a 1/2 cord of locust on the front porch which I dipped into for the first time last night. Ran some ash on the bottom, and black locust on top. House was in mid-70s when I woke up, with plenty of leftover coals to get the morning reload going quickly.

 

When I'm splitting I try to mix up the split sizes, some smaller for starting fires and others large for long burns. Then it's all there together when I bring in the wood a face cord at a time so I can pick and choose what I need when building fires. I don't bother saving any particular species, I just burn what's dry. This year is ash and soft maple, next year will be mostly ash mixed with some white oak, the year after will be mostly ash mixed with some pine.

 

Precisely what I have going... works well for me, usually we get waves of cold and then some milder days. I just try to pick from my stuff that's inside for what's coming. Never get too stressed.

 

I keep a rack of Shagbark Hickory for the coldest nights. It's nice to be able to grab an armful for a cold night.