Through the kindness of our neighbour we now have enough firewood to last us until next year, at least! A handful of trees were brought down in the lower part of his property to allow light to the eco home that will be going up on the lot below ours, which was sold last year. Anything J could buck up and move was ours for the taking. He has since filled the wood shed, the carport, the side of the house and beside the tool shed. That’s a lot of wood!

^ Before

^ After!

Tips for stacking wood!

Start by creating some kind of barrier between the bottom of the pile and the ground. Moisture from the ground will seep into whatever is touching it and cause rot, making the bottom of your wood pile mildly and useless. We used palettes as they are free and designed to carry heavy loads. 

Always stack so that the pile won’t fall towards you if it shifts. See in the photo above how the end of the stack was on the open side of the enclosure? Whoops! J pulled it all out and restacked it so if it were to shift the pile would be held in place by the walls and wouldn’t fall out onto whomever was standing there. 

If you are stacking against your house always leave a gap between the wood and your wall. Freshly cut wood needs to dry out before it will burn properly, and the moisture comes out of the grain end. If you press that end up against something it won’t dry properly. 

J cut up some old palettes to make a wood rack in the carport. It looks so neat and tidy!

Still lots left to stack…