Several people have mentioned their efforts to minimise the work in cutting stacking and carting logs, and I'm interested too, so thought I'd raise it as a topic. Does anyone have a system that works especially well? (Apart from insulating well and not needing any, thanks Tony)

For the last few days we have been burning 'logs' made from the branches of trees - rather than the trunks of windfalls.

Hubby used a chainsaw to prune all the low branches in a copse planted 20+ years ago. He then pulled them free and laid them out for a few months. We went out together and I held the long pieces while he cut them (with chainsaw) straight into the tractor trailer. Tractor then went straight back to the house and wood has been unloaded into yard and put on the fire.

Using this wood has cut out the 'chopping/stacking' stage you would get with thicker pieces. Have got to thinking about using even younger wood - stuff I could cut with a lopper - no chainsaw fuel involved - but query how much more we would need to get the same amount of heat.?

having posted the above...

does the tradition of burning dry wood come from open fires though?? you don't want to burn wet wood due to spitting!

just a thought!

you are burning logs in August??!

i know it isnt the best Summer we've ever had, but it surely isnt time to fire up the old grate yet, is it?!

splendid

summer has been a bit 'poor' hasn't it!

The thermal store I had in mind is varying between 400 litres and 1,200 litres at the moment. It will be located in the garage. If it was located on the outer garage wall and one of a series of log stores is outside on the opposite side of the wall - would this have any benefit do you think in drying out the wood? Or will I just have a cosy haven for critters?

Also, should I seriously be thinking of locating a heat dump radiator outside at the back of the wood pile?

Grandma tried ring barking a couple of sycamore, then she tried poison, then ring barked them again, then hammered in a few nails. . . the b**gers still wouldn't die. In the end, the hubby sawed them off at the bottom and now they are shooting from the stumps!!

The Doctor. I'm interested in your 'long stack', but I'm not sure what you mean exactly. Could you post a picture?

We are experimenting with where to store our wood. Last year we had some in a shed which was open at the East and West ends, kept off the earth floor on wooden pallets. We also had some in a Byre - off the cobbled floor on pallets with the stable door left open. Then we had some uncovered, outside on a concrete hard standing.

The well aged dry stuff in the byre went mouldy in a matter of weeks (not sure if that's because we moved it in the rain) The stuff in the potting shed open at both ends went a little mouldy in the middle of the stack, and the stuff outside was fine - but wet because of the rain.

This year we have a massive stack of chopped stuff ready for the winter. We've left it outside and strapped a couple of sheets of corrugated iron over the top. . . .(and raised it off the concrete standing on a few pallets) . . . I'm hoping it won't have gone mouldy in the middle when we start to use it - but we won't know until we start burning.

Outside, without a cover?? In winter??? That would make it really wet wouldn't it? Or doesn't it matter if the wood is wet with rainwater, so long as it isn't wet with rising sap?

Seasoned (dry) wood that is re-wetted by rain will soon dry off again when moved inside - ideally near to your stove (though not TOO close!).
Unseasoned wood won't.

'Timber' is right to stress the importance of ventilation when drying wood and preventing fungal growth. Our cousins on the other side of the Atlantic often stack their woodpiles in the open air with a small tin sheet or tarpaulin over the top of the stack, or more often, with no rain cover at all.

Look at old threads: this subject explored in great detail, from which you could all learn a great deal.

Mike: my comment mainly directed at those introducing side issues to your question. I'm afraid a disadvantage of this and other fora is that too often the same old lags hi-jack a new thead and the original question never gets a full discussion or answer.

I have a lot of experience with firewood; it's hard work if you cut it yourself. It needs to be as dry as you can make; every bit of moisture uses up the heat to turn it in to steam, so you end up wasting a lot of effort, plus getting tar in your chimney due to low temp gases. So if you are using wood as a major fuel source you need an awful lot of storage - ideally 2 year's supply. Late summer or autumn is a good time to cut as sap is low, but that's not critical. You must cut into logs to suit your grate and split if need while green. Wood dries mainly through the end grain, and doesn't split easily when seasoned, so very bad idea to store in lengths. Logistics depend on site: hauling in lengths and ringing up next to the store is simplest. Store outside under a simple 'car port' with pallets underneath and on the side of the prevailing wind if exposed. At the end of the second summer, try to transfer your winter supply inside your house or a really dry shed: timber absorbs water from the air so even dry firewood in the carport becomes much wetter as winter humidity arrives.

Closed wood free-standing cast iron wood-burners are the most efficient, open fires the worst. If you find the wood burns too fast, it is NOT to dry, it simply needs better control of the air supply.

'Tis my brother-in-law, plus barnet of my sweetie.

Thanks Doc - there goes another barking idea of mine ... ah, maybe not. Not having thinned my wood as much as might be recommended, I have a lot of tall thin birch which means that much of it is 100mm or less diameter which I would'nt split in any case. Also, I seem to remember birch being easy enough to split even when dry. (Edit: I've just nipped out to check - memory is false. Splitting dry birch is hard!) Unlike elm, which I found next to impossible.

<try to transfer your winter supply inside your house or a really dry shed>

That's a lot of additional handling if you use the volume we do. And even very solid barns are pretty much at ambient humidity, unless you're actively drying/heating them.

Personally I fell, skid to one of a couple of trackside points and leave on stickers for a year, ring to length with chainsaw, split with tractor, stack in leantos or potato boxes for 9-12 mths, bring indoors 2 days ahead of use. Seems to work.