Really Green And No Place To Go

After a wild year of scrambling to have enough seasoned, dry firewood available to contribute our share for  delivery to stores for the Oregon Woodland Co-Op, we are already making plans for the upcoming fall and winter season.

When Mike started to edge into the forest to begin logging, he decked up some of the tops or trees that were too small to make viable logs. Last month we cut the first small deck and got it all split into firewood sized pieces.

With the upcoming hay season and the need to have all three barns cleaned out and ready for equipment being moved in and out along with all the bales stacked for a full winter of feed for the bulls, the show barn animals and the main herd. Having stacks of wood in there would be a big problem.

Having a stack of wood out by the landing where the sun shine and warm weather would cure the wood beautifully is an issue because the main herd just loves the area around the log deck and they lounge around in the wood chips, rub on the logs to relieve pesky itches, and tend to either knock down or poop on any stacks I have in the area. A safe place was needed to begin the drying process.

I started with one pallet at the back side of the wood shed that holds our personal supply of firewood for the outdoor furnace. The space is big enough to hold about six pallets,  which is around four cord of firewood. Here the wood will season throughout the summer and before the winter weather turns bad, I will move the wrapper (bundler) to this area to bundle it all up for delivery.

Having the wood on a pallet keeps it up off the dirt and helps with airflow around the seasoning wood. Once it is mostly dry, the pallet can be covered to keep the fall rains from hitting and soaking the drying process.

By using this spot, I am hoping to have a jump on what is shaping up to be a busy season of bundling and delivery for the Co-Op. Once hay season is finished and I can again use space in the barns, I will stack many more cord of dried and seasoned wood pieces to be used well into winter.