4 to 5 years on hand, wondering where stop

Yep, mine are off of the ground, slightly, but not top covered. The way the wind blows rain at an angle here, I don't know if top covering will help much, plus I have found that keeping a top cover on anything is often difficult due to some of the storms we have, at time.

 

I don't think a top cover is all that necessary except in the Winter for the wood you want in the next few weeks or more. Especially here as with most northeasters, being so close to the ocean, we tend to get xx inches of snow and then it turns to rain, then when the storm goes by the bitter cold comes in and we end up with a wood stack frozen solid, especially if we had drifting snow and it really blew into the stack from the side. I've had to bust splits out of a frozen mess with a sledge and then had melting frozen splits thawing out on the basement floor. I'll rig up something to try to keep at least a cord dry.
The rest of the year, if your wood is exposed to wind and sun most of the time a (high maintenance) cover might not be worth the hassle for the possibly meager return in seasoning time. Especially if you have a good supply and you're not worried about seasoning time.

 

As others have succinctly pointed out, when you get as far ahead as you are, its about rotation and using the woods that truly dry out and do have a shelf life and burn tinder box dry after that. I can relate trips to state park cabins where the wood was so old and dry that you could never have a fire by morning it burned up so quick. Keep in mind those are conventional open fireplaces and not the stoves we enjoy. I do not top cover the first year, after that I put a cap on it. I can honestly say, having used most materials available to mankind, that nothing beats rubber roofing. I have lots of metal roofing but its much more difficult to secure down in episodic high winds. New or used, rubber roofing is the best. Sir Backwoods Savage is correct, sideways rain means nothing, the key is having it as high off the ground as is practical. Oak especially lasts many years after drying, softwoods not so much. And though us burners grow fewer and fewer, selling a few cords for what its worth to those who know its worth is just gravy. You have a nice problem to have. Congrats!

 

When you're that far ahead (I am in the same boat) then you can afford to be w bit more picky about what you bring home. I call it having high standards.

I try to only take the easiest, straightest, least knotty, no crotches, no rotten pieces if at all possible since I did most of the hard work the last 1.75 years. Whatever I don't like I can give away or just take it to the dump and exchange for nicer pieces.

Besides selling you could also donate some to a local destination of your preference. I donate a lot of scraps to folks who only burn the occasional firewood but also give lots of rounds to people who split too.

 

I've had friends (and others) ask me why I have so much firewood and why I am always looking for more (they call it a borderline obsession). Other than the standard "you can never have too much firewood', I usually just say "it's like having money in the bank". As others have said, there will be years when due to situations out of your control you won't be able to process your usual annual supply, so having multiple years CSS on hand takes a lot of that worry away. Then there is the possibility of an extended winter where you burn more than what you normally do (that happened here a couple years ago when we had a 9-month period with cold temps and snow...used two year's worth of firewood that season). Also, as others have said, to me the most important issue is fourfold: once you get to the point where you are multiple years ahead, the keys are scrounging wood that will survive multiple years without going punky, processing it within a decent amount of time (some species do not hold up well when left in log/round form, proper storage techniques (especially off the ground and plenty of circulation), and regular rotation of the supply (first in - first burned except for *#$@! oak).

Another aside to the adage "money in the bank" is that once you have multiple years CSS on hand, people will invariably notice, and sooner or later you may have the opportunity to sell some. This happened to me last fall and just this past weekend. I have no intentions of processing or selling commercially, however being multiple years ahead allows me to selectively sell some of the hoard if the situation arises. And that is money in the bank.

As for top covering, I've never had access to rubber roofing however metal roofing and tarps have always worked well enough for me. The only stacks that stay top covered through the year are those that will be going into the firewood shed for burning during the upcoming season, and those are covered with old metal roofing sheets. We have very high winds coming off the mountains on a regular basis and I've never had the sheets even move on the stacks (the roofing is weighted down with cinder blocks or pallets). The other, future year's stacks get covered with tarps only once the snow flies. I just weight the the tarps down with uglies or smaller log-length unprocessed wood and once the snow is on them, they don't move either.

In a nutshell, if you have the room for more hoarding and the time and energy to do so, my $.o2 is don't stop.