Sunday, November 22, 2015

Stacking Firewood

This is our first year heating our home with wood, and I've got to tell you, it's quite the adventure. Before this year, I'd always romanticized the idea of heating a home with only wood.  The thought of cutting our own wood and providing our own heat seemed very idyllic and homestead-y, which is sort of my goal in life.


To be fair, I do love snuggling up by the fire and reading a good book, or cuddling with Cody and the dogs. It is romantic and ideal in many ways.  It is also a huge amount of work though.  Aside from cutting the wood, which we did only a minimal amount of this year because of how late we moved in, there are many other chores. We clean the inside of the stove each morning before starting a new fire and this requires venturing out into the brisk morning air to dump the ashes into our designated ash bucket, which never sounds fun at 5 o'clock in the morning. 

The biggest chore that we are focusing on now is stacking the wood.  It took us quite some time to stack all of the wood that we had acquired for the winter.  Many, many hours of serious manual labor were put into this endeavor.  We have stacked about seven face chords of wood total (I think).  We don't fully know how much wood we will need for the winter, but we are crossing our fingers that we don't need to find more mid-winter.


Half of our wood went into our hut, which is an insulated building that sits next to our house. It actually has electricity and heat, so it has been used as a "tiny" house before, but we needed a designated wood shed. It's the perfect place to keep the wood dry.



The other half of the wood is stacked on top of pallets on the opposite side of our house.  The stacks that are outside are covered with tarps to help keep the rain and snow off of the logs.  We plan to gradually move more logs into the hut as winter progresses.  We may start moving them sooner though.  Wet wood is a big worry.


We also keep about 40 logs in the house at one time. These logs sit in a small wood closet next to our front door. Typically, we have been hauling these in on Sunday, but I assume this will get more frequent now that the temperatures are dropping drastically. I anticipate that we will have to fill it 2-3 times per week, but at this point it is all guesswork for us.  Lots of guesswork is going into keeping the house heated right now.  I've heard from others who heat exclusively with wood that it takes a while to figure out what is right for your house.  Here's to hoping that we figure it out soon! 

Your turn...Have you ever heated your home with wood?
Currently listening to...American Heartache - The Wood Brothers

11 comments:

  1. Wow! Sounds like an adventure itself! I used to babysit at a house heated by wood, but I never really had to do anything with it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was pretty much my experience before this year. I'd been around it, but never actually done anything with it. Haha.

      Delete
  2. My husband and I have property up by Traverse City and it's heated with a wood furnace. No one lives there full time right now, and we generally close it down for the winter. Mainly because neither my husband or his dad have the time to prep cut enough wood. It's a major factor in why we don't live there full time! Which makes me sad cause I adore it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is hugely time consuming. There are many homes on the island that aren't used during the winter for the same reason. It's tough to keep up with!

      Delete
  3. Sounds like a lot of up front work but it will be worth it. I love a good fire. Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  4. We did. It is a ton of work. It smells great, but makes a big mess.

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's a lot of wood there. Will that last you the whole winter season? We use our fireplace on some occasions but not usually. I definitely think having a nice fire is very romantic.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I miss having a wood burning fireplace - sets a nice mood during the holidays but our house lacks a fireplace at the moment because our natural gas setup is on the fritz.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It does sound really romantic! We don't have a fireplace in our home, but are hoping to get a fire pit for next year. The best I will be able to do is add the burning logs channel to our TV, ha!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ah, I love the thought of snuggling up with a good book and some hot cocoa near the fireplace. Sounds like this is a new hobby that's a great way to stay fit. Hauling wood is hard work.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ah, I love the thought of snuggling up with a good book and some hot cocoa near the fireplace. Sounds like this is a new hobby that's a great way to stay fit. Hauling wood is hard work.

    ReplyDelete

Leave me a comment :)