We stack our fire wood outside. Bob doesn't have time to build a shelter for it. We've used tarps & plastic garbage bags. They get ripped by end of winter. Also the bottom wood gets frozen to the ground & in WI that means it's unusable until you don't need it any more. We'd like to cover it better so it doesn't get full of ice & snow, as well as figure out how to unfreeze the stuff frozen to the ground. We had stacked on pallets & we're not sure if we want to continue that or not. Any ideas out there? Thanks1

-- Bob & Laura (buksnort@mwt.net), March 27, 2001

Answers

The way my husband would always stack our wood is he would put the smallest stuff on the very bottom. (you know, 3" or less in diameter) Then as you pile the wood on, at least the rest remains up off the ground. The bottom row does have a tendancy to freeze to the ground. We never covered our wood until late in the year. You want it to dry out real good and if you cover it too good, it'll prevent it from doing so. So usually in October after we've had a long dry spell, I'd go ahead and cover it. I use either the brown 3' wide tarps or the blue ones from Menards. The main thing is to cover the top. We weigh them down with a few pieces of larger wood. What part of Wisconsin are you from? (we're central)

-- Pat (mikulptrc@aol.com), March 27, 2001.

I stack wood in a "beehive" fashion. I make a small pile with the pieces lying on their sides, then stand the rest of the pieces on end and leaning against the small pile. Keep going up and out in a circle. Some of the stacks get as high as I can reach. I usually don't bother to cover it. These stacks won't fall over. Because the pieces are on end, the ones touching the ground are easy to break free when frozen.

-- Paul (hoyt@egyptian.net), March 27, 2001.

Another trick is to stack the wood with the bark side up. The bark sheds the water naturally and helps prevent the wood from soaking up all the water. I usually do not cover until later in the year just before heating season like someone else mentioned.

-- JimR (jroberts1@cas.org), March 28, 2001.

My question to you is do you have access to pallets? We get them free, just watch the free ads, or stop in and talk to certain businesses to see if you can have the broken ones, usually it's only a board or two that need replacing. We lay them out and level them as much as possible, then using two T posts( metal used for wire fences) set up pallets at each end and drive in the posts( usually you can drive in posts and slip the pallets over them.), this helps support your stack and you can stack more, not having to slope like in regular stacking. It looks like this: I____________I pallet on each end and pallets on the bottom. This keeps it up off the ground and helps with air circulation in the drying out process. We never cover the wood in late spring or summer. When we do cover it is with tarps, held down with bunji cords, you can hook them to the pallets easily. The pallets usually last around three yrs before really falling apart with rot. You might check with trucking companies and see if they have tarps used on tractor trailors, we got most of ours, they were worn or torn( I patched and sewed), for free and paid $5 or less for a few. These are long and narrow and work perfect for covering wood stacks. Hope this gives you some ideas.

-- Kelle in MT. (kvent1729@aol.com), March 28, 2001.

Hey I like the idea of putting pallets on end that way. I also like the idea of the bee hive pile. We'll have to experiment & see what works for us. I think we need better covers than we have, as well.

-- Bob & Laura (buksnort@mwt.net), March 28, 2001.

We have been experimenting with coverings for wood for 6 years now. After the past winter we have come up with an idea that we are going to try to implement this year. We currently have a greenhouse that we grow greens in all winter. We are going to build another one for the firewood. We figure that we can put our wood (we usually have a year ahead) inside on pallets and vent it well in the summer and it will be like kiln drying your firewood. It gets really hot in there in the winter (90+ in Feb!!) Besides that we won't have to shake the snow off the wood to bring it in the house.

-- Mary (cntryfolk@ime.net), March 29, 2001.

It's better to leave it uncovered anyways.It get air dryed (seasoned) better.As for sticking to ground in winter put old boards down works great.Take it from me I cut wood for a living!

-- Norm R. (scanner13069@hotmail.com), November 02, 2001.