Beautiful sunny day today, high in the mid 40's, perfect firewood cutting/splitting weather. Finished up the last cord to go in the shed for two winters from now. Few years ago, I built a couple of '4 cord shed'.....on skids so I can move them around (empty) where I'm thinning out firewood. They are 6x12 inside and I stack split wood into the rafters and figure they hold right at 4 cords. Last winter, built two more, so I can store a total of 16 cords in the four of them. We use about 1 1/2 sheds or 6 cords/yr depending on the winter. Still have one emptied this year to fill for the start of winter 2019-20. Also welded up a couple of baskets that hold 1/3 cord....one goes in the hoop house in case we get a cold spell before we finish fall harvest, the other goes in the shop to feed the stove there along with scrap wood working cutoffs. We usually bring the contents of a shed into the basement in the fall. Most of this goes upstairs via a dumb waiter I built into the side of the fireplace to feed the stove in the living room....our primary source of heat. Some gets used in the basement stove if the weather gets into the single digit or below range to help the upstairs stove. Living room stove is sort of a free standing insert combo. The wood 'car' is to the right, accessed by a counter weighted walnut vertical sliding door. Car holds 3-5 days worth of wood. The last stove (#5) is a cook stove in the 'auxiliary' kitchen/ meat cutting room off the back of the garage. Only use it when it gets cold enough the water might freeze out there. Room is well insulation, and the two freezers in it usually put off enough heat to keep the room ok.
Very nice, Andy. I know how you like to work smart, economize on labor and use your tractor fork lift to move things around. So, I am curious... is there a particular reason you don't have a large number of the steel baskets which could be placed in the sheds and loaded with wood the first time and then eliminate one or two manual handlings getting it to the various stoves? Cost, still to do, other? I appreciate you sharing the ideas you have implemented on your homestead. I enjoy them and get some good thoughts for my place. AT
Looks like you have it figured out. I tell my friend he needs to cover his fire wood. He don't live here, he lives back on the east coast where it actually rains. Every additional pound of water soaked into yout fire wood takes at least 200BTUs phase change it to steam to burn off and it goes out the chimney. My estimate is some where around 300 to 500 BTUs to heat that pound of water to flue temperature.
Beautiful looking fire wood storage. Here in NH I have a large wood shed, concrete floor etc that holds about 12 cords, if I had to do it over, I would use your system of smaller sheds. Not limited to one location, don't need permits, don't pay property taxes, can empty whole shed and start with whole unit with one years wood, God forbid if there was a fire you wouldn't lose all of your wood, etc. Well thought out system and it can be built in increments as you process your wood for future years. Thank you for sharing. I use a wood box next to my stove that has 3 days wood and a canvas carrier that holds one loading of the stove. The width of the canvas is such that if the wood will fit on the canvas, it will fit in the stove and the canvas catches any sawdust or bark. Keeps the wife happy and the room neat. Have heated mostly with wood for the last 15 or so years, last 275 gal tank of oil lasted about 6 years. Nice to have oil backup to protect pipes if away or ill. While you can, one of the best preps I know is dry wood in a good wood shed, a good chimney, and a good stove. They will pay for themselves in a few years, are available now, may not be available if conditions change and would be invaluable in a grid down or SHTF situation. I burn the reject wood, too long, etc in the greenhouse. I have an airtight stove like your insert, mine is free standing, and the EPA tests showed it had about 84 % efficiency under test and their tests show that my old All Nighter, state of the art about 30 years ago, had an efficiency of about 50 %. That would save a lot of wood in 10 years.
Yeah, cost mostly...plus you'd still have to have a covered shed to put them in. It takes nearly two full joints of 1 1/2" square tubing, 12' of 1 1/2" angle (around the top), plus a sheet & half of 4x8 expanded metal (sides/bottom 32x48= 1sheet, back is 48x48= 1/2 sheet), plus 2 cans spray primer and 2 for finish, mig wire/gas, and you've got over 100 bucks in ONE. Maybe if one could scrounge a source for metal cutoffs, you might do better, but I have to buy retail. Each holds 1/3 cord (4'x4'x 32"), meaning I'd need 12 of them to equal one shed.....plus a shed to park them in. My sheds, I buy 2-12' treated 6x6 for the skids, 5-8' pcs of metal (and I buy seconds/no warranty stuff for that....we have a couple of local roofing metal places, often get it for buck/linear ft), plus nails/paint, I end up with about the cost of one metal basket in a shed. All the rest of the wood is off my place. I use oak 6x6's for the corner posts, mortise/tenon them into the treated skids. Help yourself.....as I say, I have very few original ideas, but I can copy something once I see it !
I do like the idea of different sheds for wood. We had one shed plus a couple cord stored on the porch. It certainly makes the rotation of the wood easier by having it stored in different sheds. Excellent thread @TnAndy
Is that door to the left a walk-in freezer? Something else? If a feezer, care to share how you designed and installed that? Thanks again. AT
Good point....depending on your local, that can be a factor. Here, on skids, no property tax....sink four posts in the ground,same footprint, property tax. I totally agree....when you consider a cord of good hardwood is equal to a couple hundred gallons of fuel oil, at say $2/gallon, 16 cords of wood = (16x400) 6400 bucks worth of fuel.....and here's the kicker....you didn't have to go EARN 8-9000 bucks to have 6400 left after tax to buy the fuel ! And as you say.....great prep....having several years ahead doesn't hurt come SHTF, or just a temporary health issue. And the new, high efficiency stoves are great. The old 'air tight' 50% efficient stoves from the 70's (Fisher/Bat Cave/etc) ought to all be turned into scrap IMHO, and folks embrace the gasifier technolgy...it's THAT MUCH better.
It's a walk in cooler....here's a thread from about 6 years back where I posted about it. Browse it, and if you still have questions, fire away. Busting down a pig out of the new cooler | Survival Monkey Forums
