Your wood pile

Mine don't either!
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Other than the white birch that's in or near the trailer that's all almost all red oak. Never before will i stack between two trees. Haha. I was able to keep that stack standing for almost three years but it took rope and a little effort. I've got it all figured out now.
 
I was thinking you stacked it that high because the trees were convenient to hold it and you stood on your 4 wheeler to stack it. You have a handsome place. DM
 
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Here's my family's (mine to remove from, add on to, and process logs for, so really, mine!). The mound of logs is now a mound of rounds but aside from that it looks the same. From the front of the stacks that do this IIII to the t-posts is 30-ish feet. It took all of summer to (have other people) cut, move, split, and stack all that. Looks don't count so long as its dry, right?
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David Martin said:
I was thinking you staked it that high because the trees were convenient and you stood on your 4 wheeler. You have a handsome place. DM
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Well thank you! This was before i started collecting and using axes exclusively(mostly). Hence the wood splitter there. . I collected as many 2-1/2" galvanized pipes as i could find and cut them to 7'. Now i just pound them a foot in the ground and tie the tops together. 8-10' apart. I burn about half oil(while I'm working) and then the wood stove after i get home and on days off. I go through about 3 cord a year.
 
actually.......
mine were pretty close. I haven't had a woodpile for three years, since we moved (TEMPORARILY!!) to town :( :( :( :( :( :( :(
but if you made a video of me making my stacks - it would have been really similar to that video, haha. I definitely had the tape measure out and made my stacks very similar to that guys. I'll have to dig up some pictures.

I would make stacks in the yard like that guys - but would position them where they would get a lot of sun. they would sit there for one year, then after one year, I would restack them in the shed, where they would sit for another year until they were used up that winter. so I had a two year process. I also made some of those beehive shaped stacks. man, I miss cutting wood!

and same thing when I went to load the stove. we had a soapstone catalytic stove so we'd only have to fill it two or three times per 24 hrs, so I was very careful and meticulous in loading it just perfect.
 
David Martin said:
DB, you must get 70-80" of rain each year to have all that green cover. Nice stacks. You guys wood splits different than mine. DM
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Yeah, we kinda let the yard go a bit this year. We're upstate in New York. A few years ago, we had a drought. But the last couple of years we have got a lot of rain - way more than usual - and of course this year we had some bizarre weather including a microburst or tornado that knocked over my beautiful old hickories.
My stove is fairly small so I cut the rounds to about 18 or 20 inches long. Means more splitting but they split a bit easier and I can surgically eliminate some of the nasty parts of the tree that are hard to split and still get a good yield for the work. I am burning it a bit under-seasoned this year, but I am happy and warm. So is the mutt.
FLINT77 said:
nice pile of hickory there
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Why, thank you! I have that pile a good bit higher now, though I have stopped harvesting and started burning. Frankly, when I get back to work on those trees in the spring, I don't know where I'm going to put it all. There are years of wood to burn and I have only scratched the surface of it this year.
 
DB_Cruiser said:
Yeah, we kinda let the yard go a bit this year. We're upstate in New York. A few years ago, we had a drought. But the last couple of years we have got a lot of rain - way more than usual - and of course this year we had some bizarre weather including a microburst or tornado that knocked over my beautiful old hickories.
My stove is fairly small so I cut the rounds to about 18 or 20 inches long. Means more splitting but they split a bit easier and I can surgically eliminate some of the nasty parts of the tree that are hard to split and still get a good yield for the work. I am burning it a bit under-seasoned this year, but I am happy and warm. So is the mutt.

Why, thank you! I have that pile a good bit higher now, though I have stopped harvesting and started burning. Frankly, when I get back to work on those trees in the spring, I don't know where I'm going to put it all. There are years of wood to burn and I have only scratched the surface of it this year.
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Oh you poor thing! You have YEARS worth of hickory! Whatever will you do! Hahaha. Joking of course.
I only own 4 acres and I've cut all but two of the red oak I'm willing to cut. Gotta leave some for the future. I have a bunch of white ash and some rock maple too but I've really been spoiled by that oak. It's burns so well in my airtight stove that I'm loath to burn anything else. Birch during fall and spring but oak in the winter. My stove can take a 21" stick but i cut mine 18" as well. I'll have to take some pics of my dry wood in the shed. This is a good thread!
 
DB, your area got hit with a Noreastern and it got cold at Niagara and Rochester area. So, having that wood pile gives you some comfort. I have a picture of my wood barn. We did not like digging through the snow to get a arm load. It's the silver tin building at the top left. DM
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Haha! Indeed. I enjoy the work, but there's some scary stuff I gotta figure out how to get on the ground without getting myself killed.
We burned oak most of the time when I lived in California. I think it burns a bit better than hickory and leaves less ash behind. But this hickory is only about 7 months from green so maybe it'll get better. In any case oak and hickory burn hot!
 
David, I've got a dry spot under my office I keep stocked with wood so I can avoid that trip in the snow. The big pile is on the south side of the house and catches the sun (when it is out), melting the snow pretty quick. Both are right outside my basement door so it isn't too hard to manage in any case.
 
oh yes, the hickory will burn much better once its dry. I definitely understand burning what you've got and I've done that before, but you always get more heat out of fully dried wood. That's why I did the two year rotation, so that my wood could dry for two years. I lived in a hollow so didn't get a ton of direct sunlight most of the year. Green red oak definitely took two years to dry, most other stuff a little less, but it all got two years usually. being in the hollow our draft was for crap, so if the wood wasn't real dry it would just smolder and smoke would back up into the house.
 
That guy in the vid reminds me of my next door neighbor. He was a tree worker and had the most perfect wood piles stacked up on the hillside behind his house but last summer as the wood was curing it collapsed and dumped a couple of cords of wood halfway down the hill:confused:. when I ask him what the hell happened he explained that that the side of the wood that was facing the sun broadside shrunk faster than the backside that was always in the shade. so for you boys who like to stack it high keep sun exposure in mind :cool::thumbsup:. Here is a pic of my wood pile, this will get me threw most of the New England winter. Nice and neat;)
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Haha, love the pallet of pellets. Wood sure does make a mess! Several years ago when fuel prices were way high a friend who had no experience with wood asked me about putting a wood stove in his house. I told him to get a pellet stove!! And he did :)
 
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