Yeah, that could be the only downside to sheltering your firewood from the elements, it just makes it that much more inviting to critters looking for a nice dry place to hang out. The squirrels love building nests and storing their walnuts and pinecones in my woodshed. And the longer the wood sits the more they set up shop. They love that three year plan.
I stack on pallets, with three pallets in a row, then a vertical pallet attached to each end, on top of the bottom pallet. Then a vertical pallet goes between the stacks down the middle. The bottom pallets sit on blocks under each corner, this causes them to sag toward the middle and be locked into the center pallet. The pallets keep the air flowing all around the wood
My only storm casualties were my stack covers. They were all blown off except for the tonneau cover. The two silver sheets are diamond plate aluminum, they were the floor of an aircraft we bought at work, just to part it out. They gave me the aluminum, which is quite heavy. The shorter sheet flew over into the street. Luckily one of my neighbors grabbed it and leaned it against the fence before the metal scavengers grabbed it
Don't leave rounds cut side down in the interim. The end grain will draw moisture. Remove bark with hatchet if possible. Bark is where rot starts.
As you can see, many opinions here! I leave my stacks uncovered for the warmer months. Once the snow flies, I cover just the tops with some steel roofing material an neighbor was kind enough to give to me instead of tossing it. The only reason I cover the stack is to make things easier when moving wood from the stacks, closer to the house during the winter. I'm not fighting with a layer of snow and ice on the top of the pile and all over the top few rose of splits. For any wood that I'm not burning over the winter, I leave it uncovered. We may not a a consensus on covered vs. uncovered. But I think we can all agree on not fully tarping your wood stacks. By that, I mean covering it from top to bottom. That's a great way to trap moisture from the ground and will pretty much ensure a good sizzley burn and a nice layer of creosote in the ol' chimney.
I do cover mine (for this winter) entirely and have never noticed a problem, but you bring up a good point.
It is true that you can draw moisture out of the ground with a sheet of plastic or waterproof tarp covering. In fact, I've seen people store their vehicles in those portable sheds with the doors sealed shut tight and they become like greenhouses full of moisture and high humidity and eventually mold and mildew starts forming inside. Definitely not good for your car. The moisture gets drawn up from the ground and trapped inside. You need some air circulation or have a waterproof ground cover to stop the moisture from coming up out of the ground.
Made that mistake my first year. Couldn’t believe how heavy those maple rounds got! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Made that mistake my first year too. It happened to be a really cold winter and the ground was basically frozen all winter, so luckily moisture wasn’t a huge problem. The real problem was the tarp frozen to the ground and stuck under 1-2 feet of snow. I hadn’t considered that. I try to only make mistakes once! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Get it split. Locust is typically a really easy wood to split... Cleaves nice and even knots come apart easily
