Firewood Questions

[trailmaker]

Agreed that it is a nice photo, a few Holz Hausens would make some nice hardscape for the homestead. Just a few grazing sheep for contrast.
Q: How much time does it take to build Holz Hausens , vs dumping a front loader full of of wood in a pile, and covering with an old piece of roof tin?

The HH takes a ton of time and effort compared to a dumped pile of wood covered with tin, but piles with tin scrap roofing just don't really pass muster with me. I guess if I had a seasoning spot that I would never have to look at I might just dump some wood but I'll be up on this hilltop hundreds of times with friends and family over the next few years while this oak is seasoning.

 

[DennisArrow]

Surely not to dimish the round method of curing/storing wood; but for me when I go up on top of my mountain to reflect on the view, it surely isnt to sit back in front of my friends with some fine vintage and brag about my woodpile........kinda funny actually.....but my wife long ago gave up trying to change my values............

What happens to that oh so lovely pile when you load up your first RTV load.........??????


Anyway, for me just stack it however wide and however tall. Usually 6 to 8 feet wide or a couple of pallets that it is stacked on by 5 or 6 feet tall and then run it out till I hit a tree in the way.....Again on pallets........Then long about the end of August cover it the TOP with a tarp and let it really season........Right now have perhaps 2 cords left from last years ready to burn and still covered to the stuff split and stacked this year that is perhaps 8 cords...............

God blessed us with 27 acres of hickory and oak and then He came along this year, since October, 2010, with heavy duty storms that leaves me needing to clean up perhaps 20 more cords............lolol......Bring your wine drinkin buddies, contemplate this beauty, do a bunch of cuttin, haul it outta here, and stack it any ol way you please......God bless.....Dennis

 

[trailmaker]

Well I don't drink wine or brag about my woodpile, I just don't like having tin scraps and tarps laying around the nicest spot on the property. To each his own I guess.
I'm not sure I understand your question about RTV loads. When the pile is done seasoning the splits get moved next to the house.

 

[EE_Bota]

Well I don't drink wine or brag about my woodpile, I just don't like having tin scraps and tarps laying around the nicest spot on the property. To each his own I guess.
I'm not sure I understand your question about RTV loads. When the pile is done seasoning the splits get moved next to the house.

I like what you did, and if I walked up on that scene, I'd gladly lift a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale to that stack of wood, and to that scene.

 

[trailbuilder]

One of my favorite topics!
Seasoning the wood dries it. How dry the wood needs to be depends on the fireplace/woodstove/furnace or outside boiler. Fireplaces like nice dry wood so split almost every piece since splitting makes the wood dry well. If you are burning roundies you need to allow more time for drying or throw them in on the hot coals. Wood dries due to many factors: time, the air flow, humiduty/heat, storage, wood species and most importanly how it is prepared split or round.

Most folks up North cut live trees and split them in the summer, July, stack them and burn them in the fall, November, in their wood furnaces. These wood furnces draw well and stay burning until May or June. We do not cover our wood during the dry process.

Why do you need a fireplace in Mississippi? Is it for heat or?

 

[jimmyj]

We cut in the winter when the forest and the trees are frozen and then split before spring. We keep it for 2 years before burning to season properly as we use the woodstove as our heat source for the home.

This is our woodshed, it holds 7 cords and I can take the sides off in the hot summer to really cook it dry. It doesn't get too dry though as it's very humid up here near the great lakes. Any wood that does not fit in the woodshed gets stacked on pallets in a windy sunny spot with tin on top until it can fit into the shed.

Love a full woodshed, it's like money in the bank.

 

[EE_Bota]

Love a full woodshed, it's like money in the bank.

I've heard it said, and this is very informative to a newby:

Firewood is money in the bank, and while it is drying, it is drawing interest.

 

[jnelson]

Firewood is money in the bank, and while it is drying, it is drawing interest.

I subscribe to that train of thought and agree completely. It's kind of interesting that once you start heating exclusively with wood how much differently you look upon a stack of cut and split wood. There is a real secure feeling gazing upon large stacks of seasoned wood in late summer and knowing that it will be there for you when the mercury takes a plunge towards zero.

Once you burn wood for heat you also learn how much more heat you get from a cord of properly seasoned wood vs partially green wood. There is a big difference between just burning the wood and extracting all of the heat potential from it in the process.

While I agree that splitting does help season wood the biggest factor is cutting it into firebox lengths. Think of wood as a large bundle of straws wrapped together capped on the ends with water in them. If you want to get the water out of them the best way is to cut them into sections opening the cell structure to allow the moisture to escape. The reason that a log rots in the woods is that there is moisture trapped in it. Even a log that has been dead and down for years is not really seasoned until it has been cut to short lengths and allowed to cure.

I also believe that it is easier to split green wood than to wait until it has dried out. It seems that the water moisture in the green wood provides more 'hydraulic' effect when I split with a maul. I don't have a splitter. I cut logs to length and then split them down right where they fall into easy to carry and stack pieces. This seems less work to me than having to lift and carry logs to a splitter.

JN

 

[DAY]

"Firewood is money in the bank, and while it is drying, it is drawing interest."
-And wood split with my beer powered maul has "sweat equity" :laughing:

While I agree that splitting does help season wood the biggest factor is cutting it into firebox lengths. Think of wood as a large bundle of straws wrapped together capped on the ends with water in them. If you want to get the water out of them the best way is to cut them into sections opening the cell structure to allow the moisture to escape. The reason that a log rots in the woods is that there is moisture trapped in it. Even a log that has been dead and down for years is not really seasoned until it has been cut to short lengths and allowed to cure.

I also believe that it is easier to split green wood than to wait until it has dried out. It seems that the water moisture in the green wood provides more 'hydraulic' effect when I split with a maul. I don't have a splitter. I cut logs to length and then split them down right where they fall into easy to carry and stack pieces. This seems less work to me than having to lift and carry logs to a splitter.

JN

Would the firewood dry just as quickly if it was cut into, say, 6 or 8 inch long pieces, and not split at all? Because splitting doesn't expose 90% of those "straws" to the air.

Different types of stoves burn wood differently. Masonry stoves are fired with a very hot, quick burning fire, using small pieces of wood, the idea being to get that masonry mass hot, and then let it radiate the heat over a long period.

 

[bellweather]

I store firewood in a shed with open sides, located about 50 yards from the house, it is south facing for maximum sun exposure. I usually cut/split green wood in the late fall and winter when there are less insects around plus I really enjoy splitting with an axe on a cold day. I split wood from 15"-18" logs, burn the smaller pieces the following winter and allow the larger pieces an extra 6 months or more to season. I burn nothing seasoned under 12 months. Most of the wood I burn is Norway Maple (an invasive species), some Larch, Ash, birch as well. Don't waste your time trying to split Elm, if you can still find any. There's lots of good web sites on this subject by the way, just google firewood.