This morning's work

[Badfish740]

I woke up this morning around 6:00 AM and headed out to the pile at 7:00. I had a combination of wood scrounged from Craiglist, a house that my father had stopped at during a yard sale, and a windblown tree from my yard, mostly oak. The splitting for the most part was great due to the fact that the temps hit the low 20s last night. Good hard frozen ground and good frozen rounds that popped nicely under the 8lb maul. I only had to break out the wedges a few times. Once I split everything that I could by hand (I have a whole bunch of gnarly crotches left that I'm piling up for a log splitter rental day) I got to work on some pallets that I get from a local insurance restoration contracting company. They're mostly in premium shape and are good for more than just burning. I decided to make some simple racks out of them by nailing two pallets together at a right angle and then bracing them with some old 2x4s I had lying around. Basically I made two "bookends" and placed more pallets in between for the splits to sit on. This way I can keep adding as the pile gets bigger. The pallets are wide enough that I can stack two rows of splits with about 10" between them for air circulation. The best part about all of this is that at this point I'm just stocking up. I don't have a stove yet and don't plan to buy one until late winter/early spring during the sales-I still have five more whole trees to cut up too! So to cap it all off, a picture. I have to say that few kinds of work are more satisfying than cutting, splitting, and stacking your own wood. I know, I know, one day I'll get old and my back will hurt, etc...

 

[ccwhite]

Nice job. I like how simple the rack is. Like you said easy to just add pallets to make it longer.

 

[DaveBP]

That's just how I have been stacking wood for 30 years. Makes so much sense and good use of pallets.
Last 10 years or so I've been setting the base pallets up on rocks or scrap PT lumber cutoffs I scrounge from the town dump. Better ventilation. I stack 3 rows of 16" splits tight and cover the top with junk metal roofing (from you know where). It's always bone dry 2 years later when I burn it and no more than a few mildew stains. If the air can blow through it and the rain never touches it I have found spacing the rows in the stack to be a waste of space.
The best covers are the 4 or 5 ft. wide metal sides from outdoor swimming pools.From where else? Very satisfying to wrestle a big roll up on top of a 25ft. long row of cordwood and let it unroll itself and cover the whole stack in 5 seconds flat.

 

[savageactor7]

ditto to what ccwhite said......clean!

 

[raybonz]

Looks like a good way to stack your firewood for no money!

Ray