Storing firewood outside is absolutely horrible, where I am in upstate Western NY. We usually get lots of fall and spring rain, and frequent winter lake effect snow. I went about (3) years without inside storage, and that taught me that it’s not worth burning firewood, if I got to store it outside.
Before that, I had a couple old timber framed barns that my great great grandfather had built in the late 1800’s. They worked great for drying and storing firewood.
Unfortunately, they were built on too low of ground without proper drainage and the roofs and foundations failed at the same time, making it cost prohibitive to save them.
I had to store my firewood outside in the years when I was dismantling them, raising the grade, and building a new pole barn. I completed a 24 face cord capacity (4 years worth for us) woodshed on the back of the new barn a couple years ago, and now all is well again.
Without the woodshed, stacking and storing wood was my least favorite part of the operation. Now that’s my favorite part. I can’t wait for the weekend before Christmas when I’m going to split up and fill that open end.
Like WD, I also use the first in first out method. If there’s any oak in the mix, it will have at least 3 years of covered storage before burning. It’s been about 90 percent ash for me for the last 15 years though, courtesy of EAB.
My favorite wood to burn is cherry. There’s a lot of that in my parents 50 acres of woods and I pounce on every one that falls.
