New Member, New Woodshed, and Thanks! (Pic Heavy)

[Manitoulin Maples]

Hey all,

Been a lurker for awhile and learned loads from many posts and threads. And thanks to Hearth.com for allowing full search capability without registering - that's pretty cool and you can't do that on every forum. So now that I've signed up, here's a bit about me and what lead me to this forum. I live with my wife in Northern Ontario on Manitoulin Island and aside from lots of great wilderness and conifers, we have no shortage of hardwoods, so it's great for the wood burner! We're currently renting a place on the water (Lake Huron) and the owner had the amazing sense to install a Pacific Energy Super 27 about 8 years ago - what a great stove. Aside from a baseboard rad in the bedroom, we heat the whole place with wood. We moved here last October and had to buy wood when we arrived, and like so many have posted, we suffered with green wood and making do for the winter. We also had to learn about heating with wood and how to use the stove correctly, etc. Well I vowed to change things for the better this winter, and I have. For starters I found this place online (and woodheat.org too - good site) and I learned a ton. Then I started talking to local wood burners and getting tips and advice from them. It didn't take me long to get an old chainsaw and I started to cut, scrounge and trade labour for wood....so I started this summer with 10 face cords of 16" maple, ash, elm, and poplar for shoulder seasons. I stacked it in our front yard on pallets in a single row with loads of sun and wind and it seasoned perfectly. I checked it with the moisture meter recently (another thing I learned about here) and I'm good to go for this year. Yes I split the pieces and did it the right way It really is satisfying to have all this seasoned wood and that it only cost me some chainsaw oil and gas and a few pounds of sweat! No heating costs this winter...wow!

So after being inspired by all the awesome woodsheds I figured what the heck and took a shot at one. Last winter was a mess with piles here, piles there, tarps and all that nonsense. I really wanted to re-stack my seasoned wood in one place that was sheltered and had good access from the house. And all my hard work deserved a nice home! I used the basic plan from woodheat.org and stuff I saw on here. Then I just winged it as I went...it's the first thing like this I've built. It's 7 feet tall at the front, 5.5 feet at the back and dimensions are 10x10 with a 12x12 overhanging roof. It will hold 10 face cords easily plus kindling. Guess that's just over 3 real cords...everybody round here uses face though vs full cords. Anyways, we have lots of cedar and spruce so that kept costs down as I was able to cut all the posts, and supports on site. We have a gravel beach so that solved the gravel base issue - just lots and lots of wheelbarrow trips! I did buy 2x4 rafters, 2x6 joists, lag bolts, screws and the cedar siding for a total cost of $105. Important note is that the siding is from a local mill and are all offcuts, knotty or unusable pieces - perfect for woodsheds, outhouses and that sort of thing. I bought extra and now a huge of primo kindling! I'm just trying to scrounge some metal for the roof now but in the time being I will tarp it for rain.

So here's lots of pics, cuz it seems everyone likes pics on here!

Debarking cedar logs

Site levelled, gravelled and the back is up, front ready to go

Supports on, back and one side

Had enough siding left for full front and door - was not going to do this but will help immensely with snow and rain off the lake.

Free pallets for the floor

Back and side

This morning, after loading it up yesterday

Wow!

Waiting for the woodstove

Leftover siding turned to kindling and bigger rounds and "unsplittables" for the colder nights

Shoulder season wood by the back door (mostly small hardwood branches and poplar, some ash on the bottom)

Thanks again!

 

[cygnus]

That is a blockbuster of a first post! What an excellent pic of the shed, axes and colorful foliage. Welcome.

 

[shawneyboy]

Hell of a nice set up there. For a first year burner, since it sounds like you were just a smoulderer last year with green wood, you are in great shape WTG you should be proud of what you have accomplished. Please stick around and participate, then we can all learn and benefit.

Shawn

 

[Danno77]

Awesome! For the life of me, though, I can't figure out why you'd need so much kindling! I guess if you want to get it blazing faster you could throw it in at the start of every load, but when I load up I wanna pack as much of the big pieces as I can instead.

 

[thewoodlands]

Manitoulin Maples, very nice job on the woodshed.


zap

 

[Got Wood]

Very cool - Welcome and thanks for sharing!

 

[mainemaul]

Super shed and I like the cost even better.
Welcome

 

[Iembalm4aLiving]

WOW, nice setup! Welcome and enjoy yourself.....you'll certainly be warm this winter!

 

[fossil]

Very nice, indeed. Welcome to the forums! Rick

 

[smokinj]

Awesome use of timber!

 

[Danno77]

I forgot to mention that this is just about the best first post i've seen. I can't remember, but my first post was probably something like "hi, I'm dan. Is it ok to like burn newspapers in my open fireplace? My house is 4000sq ft and I would like to heat it using just the sales ads that come in the Sunday paper."

 

[Manitoulin Maples]

Wow, thanks for all the comments guys! I really wanted to show what I've learned here and pay it forward so to speak. Now I'm gonna be post shy! Seriously though, when I started down this road last winter, if I had know about this forum then, my first post would have been much different. Like I said, I've learned lots from reading stuff on here and I was long overdue on registering. And truth be told...my wife has given me fair warning recently....she told me the other night: "I appreciate everything you've done for us but all you want to do is talk about wood and I'm done talking about wood with you!" Nice to also discover I'm not alone in this!

Danno - I do have too much kindling, it's overkill but it will last for a long time. The cedar board siding I got was $10 a bundle for about 20 to 30 boards. All the bundles were random offcuts ranging in length from 6 feet to 10 feet and about 4 to 8 inches wide so I bought an extra bundle and chainsawed the whole thing in 12 inch lengths. Splitting it was like butter and only took an afternoon to do.

 

[maplewood]

Super pics. Thanks.
Planning a log garage next year - nice to see you are using your own trees.
Good luck finding your roofing!

 

[Stax]

Dude...your freakin awesome.

 

[jimosufan]

welcome, but now you have a lot to live up to........................................without pictures it never happened!!..Great job....Jim from Ohio (we Know you have a camera, and can post them)(something to keep in mind, we love pics)

 

[Thistle]

Holy crap that shed is amazing! Beautiful design & workmanship.It blends in so good looks like its been there for years already.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

I forgot to mention that this is just about the best first post i've seen. I can't remember, but my first post was probably something like "hi, I'm dan. Is it ok to like burn newspapers in my open fireplace? My house is 4000sq ft and I would like to heat it using just the sales ads that come in the Sunday paper."

Yes! a very untypical first post, he went 'all in'. This is who I am and this is what I got...very nice shed, nice setup...enjoy

 

[wooddope]

Nice setup! Do you have plans to roof the shed?

 

[Shadow&Flame]

MM- Welcome... Great post...love the woodshed. Got a great rustic appeal to it.
First post and already got that much done and (sniff) it just isnt fair... :-/

 

[tfdchief]

Wow! You are going to fit in around this place for sure :coolsmile:

 

[Hass]

Nice pics! great post.
The only thing I'll deduct points for is I didn't see your saw anywhere in those!

and the good news is that if you ever do run out of firewood, you can just go tear your shed down and get some :]

 

[red oak]

Welcome! I can see you learned a lot in your first year of burning wood - it took me over a decade to finally get it right! Glad to have you hear and the woodshed looks great!

 

[littlalex]

Great post and pics. Beautiful shed - great work!

Welcome aboard.

Littlalex

 

[blacktail]

That shed is nicer than the apartment I had in college.

 

[onetracker]

heck with the woodshed. i'm seeing those boards overlapping, a metal roof, a pot bellied stove and a poker table in there.

seriously, great work and welcome to the forum.