First full season burning...how much do I need?

[Bigg_Redd]

Here are a couple of my heap-hausens. Very stable, never fall over and easy to stack. They may not season as fast as others, but after a couple of years, its all good.

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

ROTFLMMFAO


GOLD!

 

[kbrown]

My wife says that I'm cheating on her...with wood! I have been cut off from any more scrounging until everything is split and stacked this weekend. What gives?! Just wondering, how many others are what I call the "suburban loggers" around here? I find myself looking around at people's chimney's trying to find fellow wood burners. Most people that find out we heat with wood think automatically we much live 50 miles from the nearest town!

 

[jdinspector]

My wife says that I'm cheating on her...with wood! I have been cut off from any more scrounging until everything is split and stacked this weekend. What gives?! Just wondering, how many others are what I call the "suburban loggers" around here? I find myself looking around at people's chimney's trying to find fellow wood burners. Most people that find out we heat with wood think automatically we much live 50 miles from the nearest town!

Interesting comment. I live in a small town, but a suburb of Chicago. Granted, I don't heat exclusively with wood, but it's a HUGE part of our winter heating. People come over to our house and are amazed at the amount of wood I have stacked. (Probably 5-8 cords now). I am jealous of those that have space for 4-5 years of wood. I wish!

Suburban Logger, I like that.

 

[kbrown]

I look at it this way, the space now taken up by stacks no longer needs to be cut, so now there's more money being saved by running my lawn mower less! It certainly would be great to have the space to hold at 5-8 cords let alone 4 years worth. Because of that, I tend to not want to pass up any opportunity for free wood; starting to think about making a deal with my parents to store wood on their property. Problem is they are about an hour drive but at least have an acre of space to store. DON'T TELL MY WIFE! LOL. Heck I may even see if I can talk them into letting people drop off wood there and stop by occasionally to process it there! Always need a backup plan no?!

 

[SolarAndWood]

how many others are what I call the "suburban loggers" around here?

My guess is you have a lot of fellow suburban loggers here. We live 4 miles from downtown and heat exclusively with wood. Our immediate neighbors don't understand the 10 cord currently in heap-hausens and 3 cord stacked under the roof from last season. However, At the city mulch pile a couple weeks ago, I met a gent who turns out has an EKO and lives 1/4 mile up the road from me. A neighbor a few houses the other way just had their annual 5 cord delivery this past week.

 

[Jags]

.......in heap-hausens

I think I may have started something. :lol:

 

[LLigetfa]

.......in heap-hausens

I think I may have started something. :lol:

I do a hybrid variation on those by stacking the perimeter in a rectangle and then loosely heaping the splits in the middle. It helps to reduce the sprawl and lets me mow in closer.

 

[Slow1]

Hi - I'm a fellow urban logger here

I have my estimated 4 cords stacked next to the driveway in a block, roughly rectangular (12x9.5x9.75x9.5 walking around it) and on a slope so one corner is over 7' tall the shorter is about 5.75'. Yup - makes it harder to exactly figure out how much is in there - top is pretty much level, but center is mounded a bit as I plan to cover it when rains start in the fall and I want there to be a slope to the edges when I do... That's my "ready for this year pile". Hopefully it will be enough... if not, I'll just have to burn oil (humph).

Along my property line on other side of house I have a cord+ of oak on two pallets, then 1/3 cord of pine on another, then next pallet has 1/2 cord of birch (love that minty smell) followed by another with just over 1/4 of poplar(?) and something else that looks like it. These are making a nice wooden fence line for me - they run from front lawn down the side... nice windy area but not much sun. Oh well. I'm still building on the last three piles. When I get done cutting/splitting the logs at the end of my driveway I estimate I'll have a total of 3 cords lined up there so I still have work to do to have my 10/11 supply lined up (literally) there.

Neighbors walking by almost always stop and ask questions if they see me out there... so far no complaints but I am keeping things as neat and clean as I can - stacks stable, straight etc so hopefully nobody will take offense at a mess. I clean up my splitting/cutting area after each session as well so it doesn't look like a wood lot (everything is visible from the street). I would love to get more than one year ahead (I would consider having 10/11 lined up to be one year ahead), but somehow I suspect it will be difficult to find space to put it anywhere. Perhaps I'll get lucky and find that the new stove and our burning habits will require less than 4 cords/year on average... somehow I doubt it though.

 

[Jags]

.......in heap-hausens

I think I may have started something. :lol:

I do a hybrid variation on those by stacking the perimeter in a rectangle and then loosely heaping the splits in the middle. It helps to reduce the sprawl and lets me mow in closer.

I meant the verbiage, cuz I sure as heck didn't invent the pile of wood. :coolsmile:

 

[Slow1]

.......in heap-hausens

I think I may have started something. :lol:

I do a hybrid variation on those by stacking the perimeter in a rectangle and then loosely heaping the splits in the middle. It helps to reduce the sprawl and lets me mow in closer.

I meant the verbiage, cuz I sure as heck didn't invent the pile of wood. :coolsmile:

Oh I'm sure Al Gore must have beat you to that invention by at least a few days

 

[SolarAndWood]

I meant the verbiage, cuz I sure as heck didn't invent the pile of wood. :coolsmile:

Speaking of verb iage...what is the verb form? heapen-hausen? as in, I've been heapen-hausen all day and am ready for a cold one?

 

[Jags]

I meant the verbiage, cuz I sure as heck didn't invent the pile of wood. :coolsmile:

Speaking of verb iage...what is the verb form? heapen-hausen? as in, I've been heapen-hausen all day and am ready for a cold one?

Heap-hausening??

 

[wldm09]

heap-hausen is just brilliant.

 

[Slow1]

"Heaping Hausen Batman is that good seasoned wood I see there"

"No Robin, don't let that superficial checking on the ends fool you, always verify with a moisture meter if it hasn't been split for at least two years or your chimney too may fall prey to the dark influence of the evil Dr. Creosote!"

 

[kbrown]

Borrowing a friends splitter this weekend to clean up the yard and get everying stacked. You can see the racks I built in the background - there are more along another fence line with more to come. Hopefully the picture loads right...

 

[kbrown]

That was a neighbor helping split in the previous post. Here is a look from another part of the yard. Anyhow, I just wanted to post some pics as I had promised from my original post. I think once everything is finally split and stacked, we should have almost 3 cords, but at least 2/3 of a cord will not be ready for this season, it's some maple and cottonwood that is just way too green still. In another photo you can also see the sawbuck I just built from plans found here in another post. Works great.

 

[SolarAndWood]

I meant the verbiage, cuz I sure as heck didn't invent the pile of wood. :coolsmile:

I have never seen a heap haused like yours before

 

[LLigetfa]

.......in heap-hausens

I think I may have started something. :lol:

I do a hybrid variation on those by stacking the perimeter in a rectangle and then loosely heaping the splits in the middle. It helps to reduce the sprawl and lets me mow in closer.

I meant the verbiage, cuz I sure as heck didn't invent the pile of wood. :coolsmile:

Well, hausen means house so one may have visions of a house like shape... but a mound of wood is not unlike a beaver house so you're off on a technicality. Here is what I mean by the term you coined as heap hausen. I keep the heap from sprawling by containing all four sides with stacks. This is just my interim Summer drying setup. It gets neatly stacked in the shed come Fall.

 

[rustybumpers]

Borrowing a friends splitter this weekend to clean up the yard and get everying stacked. You can see the racks I built in the background - there are more along another fence line with more to come. Hopefully the picture loads right...

HeatIt, Do you mind sharing your wood rack design? They look nice but I can't quite tell how they are built. Thanks.

 

[kbrown]

I can't take credit for the basic design, but I modified it a bit to suite my needs and make it more pleasing to neighbor's. Below is a better picture. To me it reminds me of a long suspension bridge minus the cables holding the deck. They are made from pressure treated 2x4 off the scrap pile at Home Depot. The rails are all 8' long. The uprights are cut 5' long with 2 - 11" wide pieces secured between them; this was just my preference as this gives me an overall width of 14" since some of the rounds I have were small. One is 6" from the bottom to which the rails rest on. The other is at the top. Everything is secured with 3" deck screws. The rails rest on edge and what I did to conserve both lumber and space was to set the rail back 1 3/4" where it rests on each upright so you can then continue another rail for the next rack using the same upright. It may be overkill, but I use 3 screws for every connection point (rails to uprights, center brace across rails, etc). At the 4' mark of each rail, there is a 2x4 piece mounted on edge between them and under that I have a 4x4 to keep it from sagging under the weight. All racks were then placed on 6" landscape blocks leftover from a flower bed we removed. Those are set on a bed of crushed paver base which I also had a small pile from previous landscape work. I am hoping to minimize frost heave and having the rack so high off the ground gives me plenty of airflow and less attractive to it becoming critterville as my dogs can then police this area!

 

[kbrown]

:lol: For anyone who saw my post on the value of cottonwood, in the pic I posted in the last reply you can see it stacked to the far right - the dark center is almost pure moisture! The rounds on the left two racks are a Craigslist find of red oak that was cut back in summer 2008. All this has now been split and stacked; counting on the red oak being ready for this winter. Cottonwood will be a crapshoot, but that part of the yard is 100% sun facing south so it also gets good wind.

 

[JayD]

Heatit, Not sure wear your at. But I'm in Mt. Clemens area, I burned 2.75 cords last winter this was with {Good Wood} Ash, Elm, Cherry},. Get some Ash Its all around us, and It will be ready by Feb-Mar Lots of BTUs I scrounge also but I am selective only grabbing good stuff-{learn your wood type's by the bark & leaves }- Pass on lower quality wood you don't have the room for it. You will learn what to grab or pass on. Stove is a new Pacific Energy burned 24-7 Nov-April. My bench mark is 3 cords ready to burn, 3 cords seasoning for next year on site bye Oct, 6 total on site bye start of winter. Make those racks come out more from the fence and each one will give you a cord. Jay

 

[Hiram Maxim]

I'm in W. Bloomfield area and I went through 6 cords of wood this last winter. About 1.5 cords was pine and the rest was white ash,cherry, red oak, and white oak.

I have learned (thanks to Dennis) to get years ahead of the game. After I get the pile in my driveway split I should be sitting good for the next 4 years.

This was my second year burning 24/7, first year went through 4 1/2 to 5 cords.

From just about everyone I have talked in Michigan, this last Winter most folks went through about 25% more wood than normal. :-S

The stuff I will burning this winter will have been cut, split & stacked for 18 months.

 

[kbrown]

Thanks for the info wood and Hiram. I'm very familiar with Mt. Clemens; grew up in Fraser and most of the family still live in that area. I'm out in Commerce Twp; pretty much found that we are right in the bulls eye all winter; Hiram can probably attest to that also. Can I assume that you buy your supply Hiram or just have a good free source?! Last winter was mostly all ash and some oak. Got the ash from 3 trees I removed from brother's yard but that source has now dried up. I would love to get my hands, and axe, on some more but things on Craigslist seem slow for this area. Been putting the word out to friends and family.

 

[Hiram Maxim]

I get my wood from neighbors, tree services, and Craig's list free-bees.

I have only bought 2 face cords........ever. And that was because it was cut, split, and seasoned for $25!

If you need some wood, I can be on the look out for you. If the tree service drops some off, I will let you know.

One of best ways to get wood around here is to approach tree services in the neighborhood and look for them after storms.

After storms they will be more than happy to give it away so they don't have to haul the stuff. We are lucky here in Michigan with all the trees!

Here is what I currently have to work with................from a tree service, all for a case of Heineken! :cheese:

Red Oak,Cherry,and White Ash!

90% of the wood they dropped off was cut in 16" and 32" lengths.