How to speed and improve the seasoning of firewood

Started by doc henderson, February 26, 2023, 12:04:15 PM

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doc henderson

to start, I do not have the answer (s).  Kind of thought we could throw out what we are doing and or thinking of doing.  I have thought/planned to build a solar kiln, and if I then graduated to a Nyle kiln, I would just use the solar for a wood shed/kiln.  Have any of you used your solar for firewood?  Has anyone build a woodshed with a solar dryer component.  It could be better than just air drying or a way to go faster and dryer esp. if partially air dried.  I convey mine into the metal part of the 300 gallon crates.  I thought about just covering a row with plastic with a big fan in the opening at one end.  would have to look at the efficiency (drying rate vs cost of electric and initial cost of fan/plastic).  @jimbarry uses a dedicated Nyle for his wood I believe, and makes his own crates.  I have a stove in the house and shop.  I burn the best wood in the house and that and junk wood in the shop.  I keep the thermostat at about 55° in the shop and build a fire each day when I work out there.  I thought of this as I listened to @Old Greenhorn talk about leaning his stove and giving the caveat of his wood not being dry.  Of course we can think of the steam from the wet wood going out the chimney as water vapor and heat.  So he knows he will get more heat or a longer lasting fire if his wood is dry.  we all seem to be happy under 20%, but no question we get even less creosote and more heat in the room if the wood is even dryer.  not to mention easier to light.  lighter to carry.  thought about making the "tunnel" over the crates more solid with a return duct to the other end to recycle some of the heat.  it would need a solar component or a heat source.  thought about a wood furnace.  also if solid, you could push and pull air to get it through the length of the stack.  at what length would the process break down.  no air flow or sir that is cool and 100% humidity.  maybe a thermostat that kick the fan on with a certain temp.  Higher temp, lower RH.  Or a humidistat to kick the fan on if the air in the tunnel is over a certain amount.  even better a humidistat the kick on the fan when the RH outside is less than inside.  I am not as concerned with initial outlay as cost to operate relative to drying rate and overall lowest MC in the wood.  I could have put this in alternate methods, or wood drying.  
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

barbender

I've been thinking long and hard about this, Doc. I'm kinda stuck in a spot with my small firewood business where I can't keep up with air dried wood, yet I don't have enough business (or even know if I want to grow it that much) to justify investing $30K in the smallest kiln set ups. 

 I'm thinking a small chamber that I can either load with baskets directly with my skid steer, or with a track system. Heat from my OWB. About a 2 cord capacity. 

Nyle sells a kit designed to work off of an existing OWB, with all of the heating components, fans, and computer controls and program for logging temp etc. It's about $20K. The main benefit to me with that system is the computer system that would allow me to do certified heat treated firewood, but again, I'm not sure if I want to grow into that area or not. There's already an established heat treated wholesale bundled firewood market with plenty of competition. 

 Mainly, I would want this to be able to turn out dried hardwood firewood on demand, which would make life much easier for me.
Too many irons in the fire

Southside

Won't make it any faster but a nice steak rub will help with the seasoning I suppose. No guarantee on helping tenderness thought.  :D
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

doc henderson

Yes I will try chicken rub to see how that works.  

My brother bought a barely used outside wood furnace.  basically a wood stove surrounded by a sheet meatal cover (shroud) and air circulated over it and blows hot air.  If you build a tunnel it could be extended to go around an old wood stove (if your have one it is free).  I am thinking about the old boxwood stove.  stamped Sheetmetal.  Wood furnaces are about 1800 bucks now.  used to be $700.00

can also cover the pile with 6 mil plastic.  I have a 36 inch big fan from HF.  If you use plastic it would puff out under positive pressure (fan blowing in) so might add a similar fan to suck out (negative pressure) and this may improve air movement on the far in and help to suck the plastic back in.  the plastic puffing out will allow air to bypass the wood. 

with a track system, you could put into one end and remove from the other.  pushing in one crate with forks and power, could push the other end one out.  I would remove from the pushing fan end so like in a "countercurrent" system, it would be the driest.

on a slab with solid walls using a wood fired boiler or furnace for heat, I could prob. slide about 6 crates and avoid the track.  the track is often angle iron open side sown, so sourcing wheels and making reusable carts or pallets with wheels would be an expense.  

I have dried lumber down to 7% using just plastic and fans.  so another option is just plastic and fans.  plastic for solar heat, and maybe 22 buck cheap box fans to circulate air one end to the other.  It would be nice to weigh each crate to follow water loss.  we are not worried about degrade.  you could follow optimal size for splitting.  smaller cross sectional size would dry faster.  you could figure drying rate vs cost of plastic, fans, and electricity.  If I get mine done in early summer, Kansas heat and wind goes pretty well.  for stand alone ones that are left in place, it may be kin of ugly, like solar panels and wind turbines.  you could orient the "in" side toward the direction of the summer wind.  ours is out of the south.
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

doc henderson

loose thrown into crates, it takes two to fully fill my 1/2 cord wood rack neatly stacked.  so in my system, I get 1 cord for 4 crates.  so you would be looking at room for 8 crates for 2 cord.  assuming we are talking about the metal crates with the plastic inner liner.



 

 

 

 

 

 

a few pics of how I use the crates to not handle the wood more than needed.
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

doc henderson

We were cutting standing for 5 years dead elm.  I then dumped unsplit wood that had been bucked into the crates by the splitter, and split them back into a crate till full.  or I buck trees in my  yard, by the splitter and split them into a crate,  they are set in rows so the wind can blow through and sun shin on them.  the wood is not touched by hands again until taking into the house or stacked on the wood rack.  the crates come up onto the sidewalk by track loader, then moved by pallet jack to the rack.  of used out of the crate near the sun porch into a rolling plastic crate to roll near the woodstove.  
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

doc henderson

Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

beenthere

For one's own firewood for heat, get minimum of three years supply split and air drying. Let the weather take care of the seasoning. The "speed" is 3 years, and the cost is investment in time, space, and containers/pallets. 

south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

doc henderson

good point beenthere.  I am only usually one year ahead.  some is for camping fires (crap wood) and the rest is for heating the house and shop.  so this applies to the rare bird that is not that far ahead.  I have about 16 crates so at most that gets me 2 years.  I have a handle on the next 16.  old green horn is in that boat.  

any good ideas on weighing a crate of wood at a time.  looking for cheap, fast and accurate.   :) :) :)
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

doc henderson

I have tried labeling the crates with species and date split.  some wood is already dry so the date split is not as important.  if I have a mix, then the species is also not as helpful.  I may label as junk for camping, but if we run out, or in a warmer season, it may get used in the house or shop.  cutoff scraps get used in the shop stove.  Unless my wood turner buddy is around (not in Arizona) @Jim Thomas or sawdust Jimmy.  my wood is mostly for myself, but a few neighbors buy some for the firepit, chimenea or campfire.
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

barbender

 There are hanging digital scales you can get on Amazon, I bought a bison from a guy and that's what he used to weigh the carcass. Hung on the forks of a skid steer.

Mike Belben made what he called a "hillbilly firewood kiln" I think it was, his was a rocket stove he made inside a small chamber. It worked but it was coming pretty close to igniting the firewood instead of just drying it😁
Too many irons in the fire

stavebuyer

Just an observation; My house is on a hilltop. Great views but the only way to describe the wind from fall through late spring is "relentless". I have a concrete slab down below where my old sawmill building is that I spilt and stacked mostly dead and dying Ash last year for this years burning. I stacked the wood in long rows spaced 3' between them and oriented the stacks east to west. My concrete pad was still full from last year's efforts, so I started stacking what I cut this season(so that's going on 3 years supply) along the yard fence on the hilltop behind my house in full exposure to the southwest wind.

The wood cut this fall and stacked in full exposure to the wind for six months is just as seasoned if not more than the wood on somewhat sheltered concrete pad that's been seasoning for 18 months on the wind sheltered concrete. Both sites open to precipitation. My hypothesis is that air flow has a large influence on firewood seasoning.

barbender

Maybe I'll just haul my split firewood out to my Aunt and Uncle's place south of Gillette, Wyoming. The dang wind never quits blowing there!😁

In all seriousness, I think you're right, Stave. Airflow is the biggest factor in drying firewood.  
Too many irons in the fire

OH logger

I have sort of a unique situation. For my bulk firewood sales I have a 40'x120' concrete pad for seasoning firewood that I pile wood on. That's good enough for me. I deliver in august and September and tell the customers to let the wood breathe as long as possible. Never had one complaint. My bundle wood operation is different.  I want that wood to be bone dry but I hate touching wood more than I have to. My brother has 13 (I think) large greenhouses. So I have a hay wagon with 16" tall sides
On it that drop (hinge down). So I split the wagon full of wood with the processor and park it on the greenhouse for a few weeks. No heat on. Just solar doin it's thing. Wood is BONE dry soon.  Make the bundles and put the completed bundles in the totes like doc has but the fronts of mine are cut out.  Split the wagon again. And the wood is drying while I'm sellin the 4 or so bins of bundles. Pretty good and cheap system for 1500 bundles /year. 
So doc do you or your wife want a greenhouse? 😂 
john

peakbagger

There is a guy on the Hearth forum I belong to that has been doing some pretty good research on "poor mans" solar kilns. He just piles the wood on pallets and then wraps the piles with clear wrap including a triangular section above the stack with a couple of air holes at either "gable" end. He is getting some really impressive drying from wet to burnable hardwood like oak in three or 4 summer months.  

Old Greenhorn

Well I am not a seller of wood because it takes all I can to take care of myself. I need a minimum of 8 cords to get through a season. Like Doc I have a stove in the house and the shop. Both run 24/7 and unlike Doc my shop is only heated from wood. I do have oil/air out there, have not turned it on in 3 years now. It's all about the money for me. So I do a cost/benefit analysis. First, the house must have dependable heat, so we go with oil as the primary on that and wood supplements it well to keep oil cost down. The last time I did a real numbers analysis, about 13 years ago, using real cost and wood consumption, at that time with oil at about $1.90 a gallon I saved $800. in a year that I added wood heat to the house (again) verses the year prior when I had no time to cut wood and went without. Using today's costs, obviously that would be a whole heck of a lot higher, plus I changed and have a much better efficiency stove now that carries more of the load. SO wood is a no brainer there. In the shop it's easier to figure because I just don't make enough income to maintain that concrete block building on oil heat all winter. Maybe I could heat and produce work for a week here and there, but that would be it. So it's gotta be wood, or nothing. The new stove in the shop has made life good and it's VERY comfortable out there and easy to control now. Life is good. But I still need that 8 cord minimum a year. That's pretty much what I burn, most times a little less and the left over carries over to the next year. I look at my woodpiles like a dam that is keeping money from flowing out of our bank accounts. I sure don't make money on firewood, but I do save it with firewood.
 Maybe I have the wrong attitude, but I look at 'doing wood' as a necessary evil, you just gotta do it. Nothing makes me happier than having all my firewood put up by June for the following year, but I have only pulled that off twice. That's make for an easy summer with lots of enjoyable work time. In some years, like this past one, I have so much work there is not time to do wood and it keeps getting put off. This year I really got in a hole big time and have been suffering, as I knew I would, all winter, but still staying just ahead with questionable wood. I am learning some things about what I can get by with and still do 'OK'.
 I told you all that so I could tell you this: I am thinking folks put a lot more stock in how dry wood can be than it deserves. Yes I get selling commercial sterilized wood, no debate about that and the reasons for it. But speaking about the home/shop burner, well, I see it different. Ash for instance can almost be cut green and burned within a week after splitting because it starts with about 25% MC and that drops quick once it is split and gets airflow. The other woods vary a lot more. RO takes quite a while to shed moisture, maple a little less so. I am convinced airflow is the big key, hands down, no doubt at all. My shop pile has a big tarp and most clear days I fold back that cover during the day to get air into it, then re-cover at night. It's very humid here at night. I am not in a windy location, so I need all the air I can get. My house pile has the porch over it as a roof and open on 3 sides all the time, so airflow is constant but again, not much wind here. I think that MC of 16-20% is fine for burning, especially if you have mixed loads of really dry and 'not so dry'. I believe winter cut wood dries a LOT faster than summer cut because it has a lot less sap in it. Yes I have read the science about using heat from the fire to final dry wood until it ignites, thereby robbing your space of some heat to make that happen and I get it. But I think it is splitting hairs to a large degree. This questionable wood I have been burning this year I expected all kinds of problems with, but they never materialized. I split it and got it protected from precipitation and got as much air it to it as God would provide. It has performed a lot better than I expected. No dying fires or fighting to get a fire going or any of that stuff. Yes, BTU output is lower, but I got heat and I can work, I just burn a bit more wood. If I get all my wood put up by June 1, I have always had good wood to burn by October 1st. Of course a large part of that was always Ash and that is going away here, we have pretty much cut up all the dead ash we have. That is my favorite wood by far, but we get less every year.

 I'm sure there are guys that need that dry wood and by their location and other requirements a solar kiln makes a lot of sense. But I can't justify that for 8 cords because the other issue for me is handling. If I had something with forks, that would change things overnight. If I had a solar kiln with idle time I sure would shove in crates of wood and let them cook.

 One last thing. I do believe wood can be too dry. One year I had not burned but had wood that was already well dry. I used it the following winter (so about 3 years drying with no rain on it, just airflow) and it burned SO fast I couldn't control it and the stove would run away constantly. I finally had to cut some green stuff to mix with it and calm it down. I recall thinking that was much worse then 'not dry wood' because I couldn't turn my back on it.

 BTW, if you ever want to test the engineering of your stove and installation, try filling it with a load of well dried cedar shake shingles. I did that once in a 55 gallon barrel stove. In short order it was dancing across the shop floor vibrating like mad. I shut off the air inlet and it calmed a little but kept dancing, so I put the tips of a forklift in it's path to stop it moving and parked a 55 gallon barrel of scrap steel on the other side. That wood did not need much air at all to burn 'well'. It was one of the most exciting half hours of my life. I thought it was gonna pull the chimney right out of the wall. The radiant heat was so great that it cooked the oil off all the steel in that scrap barrel. So if you have the opportunity to try that...Don't. :D ;D I think that wood was a little too dry maybe. ;D
Tom Lindtveit, Woodsman Forest Products
Oscar 328 Band Mill, Husky 350, 450, 562, & 372 (Clone), Mule 3010, and too many hand tools. :) Retired and trying to make a living to stay that way. NYLT Certified.
OK, maybe I'm the woodcutter now.
I work with wood, There is a rumor I might be a woodworker.

SwampDonkey

Fresh split surfaces here.

Outside under cover of the porch, this is as dry as it gets in my climate outside. This sample is probably 16 months old, but I get that dry at the end of a summer, cut in October usually, sometimes some summer cut to finish a pile. 16% range +- 1 percent, that's the equilibrium MC up here.





Inside the basement, stored since April 2022. Dehumidifier all summer, heat of stove in the cold months. Around 12% +- 1 percent.





Doc, I understand your intent. But, unless you're in a hurry for some reason, just let the environment do the drying, under cover with air flow, dehumidifier if in the house or heat off the stove. If you plan on stacking in the basement like I have to for winter, I like to have it cut and stacked before bugs are at it. Out under the porch it don't matter so much, the bugs are out there and not in the house until I shove them into a hot fire. :D

Keep warm. fire_smiley



"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

doc henderson

I have been doing it that way as I mention for about 30 + years with stoves, and longer including fireplaces in apartments, (but not great for heat).  I burn less dry, less dense wood in the shop cause I can mess with it all day instead of more set it and forget it in the house.  dryer wood puts out more heat, and like my thread on drying thin stock for coasters that fit in my engraver (18 x 24 x 1/8th inch thick), this is to learn more and poss. set up an experiment, for fun!.  

I ordered the hanging scale, as once I have it, I will find other uses as well.  

feel free to offer all opinions.  I can certainly dry in nature.  I am not too obsessed (in my opinion) with this.  I will keep you all in the loop. 8)

Doc
Timber king 2000, 277c track loader, PJ 32 foot gooseneck, 1976 F700 state dump truck, JD 850 tractor.  2007 Chevy 3500HD dually, home built log splitter 18 horse 28 gpm with 5 inch cylinder and 32 inch split range with conveyor powered by a 12 volt tarp motor

Ljohnsaw

Re: weighing something big and heavy.  When I got my pop up camping trailer, the torsion axles were sagging really bad (1,900 lb rating).  It also sat very low to the ground that I didn't like so I planned on replacing with a spring hung axle, but what rating?  I made up a beam scale.  I used a 10' piece of Unistrut and a 10' piece of Allthread.  I made an unbalanced truss.  the peak was something like 2 foot from one end.  I made up some V-blocks to hold some 2" pipe sections to act as pivots.  So, I weighed the existing axle just inside each tire with the short length to the pivot and balanced it with gym weights on the long end.  Also weighed the tongue weight with a smaller setup using a bathroom scale.  A little math with ratios and I found my trailer dry weight was something like 50 pounds under the axle rating!  So I went up to a 3,500 lb axle ;D  I only had to lift my trailer about 1/2" to do the measurements.
John Sawicky

Just North-East of Sacramento...

SkyTrak 9038, Ford 545D FEL, Davis Little Monster backhoe, Case 16+4 Trencher, Home Built 42" capacity/36" cut Bandmill up to 54' long - using it all to build a timber frame cabin.

hedgerow

Over the years I have found at least with my little wood processing operation which is normally 10-15 cord a year to heat the house and shop with the Garn. Is to log the trees out when the sap is down. They seem to dry and season quicker if they were logged with the sap down. One year we logged about forty cord of locust in the summer and piled the logs. Mostly big trees 24-36 dia and forty plus feet tall. We didn't buck and split them until the next summer and they were still just as wet inside as we had cut them the year before. I know all kinds of wood is different but we mostly cut locust and hedge and it just works better for us if we log with the sap down. I normally have a year or two worth of firewood in logs ready to be processed. Probably have three years of hedge logs piled right now.

jimbarry

We run a L200M with 4 probes and 3 high velocity fans, all purchased from Nyle several years ago. Built a 10x20ft 2x4 building that is spray foamed on all sides, roof and floor. 5-6 inches thick with a soya based closed cell foam.

As noted several times, air flow is key. You want to have it moving through the stack, not around it. I generally get about 5-10 knots of wind coming from the stack crevices.

During summer time, it can take as little as 450 kWHr to dry 2 cord of hardwood (from logs that are 6months old) in  3-4 days.
This time of year in February in NS, it can take 800-1,000 kWHr to dry 2 cord of 'fresh off the stump' hardwood in 9-12 days. The extra moisture present from the green wood adds 2-3 days to the cycle. So does the fact of the wood going into the kiln is
at 0ºC or below. With the heat on. once the WB is up to 124-125ºF I run it for another full day with heat on to make sure the core temp of the wood is up there as well. Afterwhich the heat is shut off and the residual heat form the compressor and fans can maintain the WB reading to 115-120ºF.

Regarding weight, the difference between a green cord and a air dried seasoned one year cord can be about 200-400kg. Where 1 kg of weight is equivalent to 1 Litre of water. The difference between a cord of air dried hardwood and KD hardwood is generally 200kg. So yet again, another 200L of water. Which is equivalent to a bathtub full of water last time I checked.

As doc said, we build out own crates. Those aluminum toes here run $75-$150 each. I can build a crate for less than $20. Each crate holds 32 cu ft of stacked wood. The track system in the kiln has 4 rolling platforms. Each platform holds 2 crates. When loaded we push the platform into the kiln, set the probe and plug any large gaps with tarps jammed into place. The platform with two crates is every bit of 2,000 lb. It takes some effort but between the two of us we get it in place. After the cycle is over, it's much easier to pull them out with one person.

Customers who reserve their order during the winter and early spring, we can guarantee seasoned wood for them come Sept/October. Otherwise we set split wood aside for kiln drying year round. We've been selling KD firewood for a couple years now. Each year we grow out client base. Most of them return to order again. There's only the two of us, the wife and I. We're not looking to grow the market because we know we could not keep pace with orders. Can't find anyone to do the work and honestly don't want that responsibility again, so we stick to what we can manage ourselves.

plenty of videos on our YT channel about the kiln, if anyone is interested.


KEC

I cut firewood for my own use. If I don't have a lot of wood and want it to dry a little faster, I may cut it to shorter length as moisture comes out the cut ends. I may also run the chainsaw down the length of the log or round to score the bark. It makes a difference in reducing drying time. I get wood as opportunities come along, winter, spring, summer or fall. The first step is always to render the wood to possesion.

KcMatt

There is a lot of good info in this thread! 

I heat primarily with wood but we are on gas as a backup.  My setup is posted on Hearth some time back under the same or similar user name.

Reading the various publications on drying lumber by Dr Wengert and comparing the drying time for lumber vs firewood got me thinking why firewood takes so much longer.  I started using the waste from my mill as firewood and stacking as you would stack lumber with a box fan blowing through the stack.  This dries wood to under 20% very quickly. 

Looking at a stack of firewood, you can barely see light from one side to the other and very little air will flow through.  In my limited experience (which jives with Dr Wengert's publishings) airflow is everything in the early stages of drying. 

We ran out of firewood this winter so I broke up a load of ugly boards of various thickness and split some uglies, mostly Walnut.  Stuck all of that fresh green wood in my homemade kiln, allowing as much through flow as possible, and cranked up the fans.  The kiln has a total of 6 14" automotive radiator fans blowing into a baffle which has a series of 3" holes to distribute the airflow.  With the DriEaz dehumidifier running along with 6x80w fans, temps ran roughly 90-100 degrees.  After a few days the RH was down to 20ish.  After 8 days, the wood was reading 16-18% on an Orion 950 at 3/4" depth. 

Surely the center had higher moisture but when it burned it lit immediately.  The centers steamed off on a few of the thicker pieces.

In my opinion a dedicated firewood drying shed would have as much airflow as possible.  Maybe a person could baffle it on 3 sides with a couple furnace blowers feeding each baffle. 

Wlmedley

I've been heating with wood for a little over 40years.While I have always had a furnace it's an electric grid furnace and pretty expensive to operate.At today's prices I figure I save at least $1000 a year on my electric bill.For years I was lucky to get 6 months drying time on my wood. I had a shed that held one years supply and once I burnt around half I would start refilling for the next winter.Finally got smart and built another larger shed and made myself cut enough to fill both.I stack my wood like stacking crib blocks which takes more room but helps in drying.It also takes longer and if not done properly stack can fall over and blocks of wood hurt when hitting side of head ( don't ask how I know).It has payed off.Firewood is one thing that gets better the longer you keep it so why not stock up.I haven't used kindling for years. I light my stove with a propane torch.Might use one tank of propane a winter.Sheds full of wood to me is like money in the bank or a insurance policy.Insurance that I will be warm  :laugh:
Bill Medley WM 126-14hp , Husky372xp ,MF1020 ,Homemade log arch,Yamaha Grizzly 450,GMC2500,Oregon log splitter

woodrat

I had to go out and buy a few cords of dry firewood recently to keep my bundles going until I have new dry wood. One guy I bought some from was drying his wood with wood heat... Wood all along one wall of an open RV shelter, 8' high, then every 6 feet or so a "finger" of stacked firewood coming out from the wall about 10', and in between every two of those "fingers" was a half a steel barrel with a wood fire in it. He claimed that he was drying red alder dry enough to burn in 6-8 weeks like that even in the winter here. 

The wood I bought from him was definitely nice and dry. And smelled like a campfire already... lol 
1996 Woodmizer LT40HD
Yanmar 3220D and MF 253
Wallenstein FX 65 logging winch
Husky 61, 272XP, 372XP, 346XP, 353
Stihl 036, 046 with Lewis Winch
78 Chevy C30 dump truck, 80 Ford F350 4x4
35 ton firewood splitter
Eastonmade 22-28 splitter and conveyor
and ...lots of other junk...