Face Cord of Firewood Ordered For the Season - Winter 2017/2018

Back in November, I posted a before/after set of photos of the pile of wood that I had partially chopped and stacked near our back door ahead of the winter season.  That pile of wood was made up of a series of logs that had been left behind by our tree guys when they cleared out a bunch of dying/scrub trees.  Think it was a blend of Walnut, Ash and Maple trees.

As the weather turned, we started to use the fireplace in our family room.  And use it.  And use it.   We went through the entire stack of firewood by Christmas.  So, I had to order some.

It is funny, the whole idea of ordering firewood make me felt pretty manly.  You know who else is a man?  I'm a man.

I hunted around for providers and settled on one that had a good mix of wood, plus they delivered and stacked.  Yeah...stacked.

I have fond memories of going over to my friend Matt's house on Saturdays during the fall when his Dad would be receiving his wood delivery.  We hauled and stacked it in their garage every year.  So, when I was out looking for wood to be delivered, I called Matt and asked him what variety his Dad recommended.

The order was Birch, Hickory and Cherry.

I called and requested it.  Turns out, there's a fruit wood shortage.  Cherry is hard to come by this year.  So, we got no Cherry.  But, we did get other assorted hardwoods and added Birch to the mix.  A look at the stuff tells me that we have some Ash in here, too, based on the boarer holes that I can see in some of the logs. 

The woman at the firewood place asked me a simple question:  When you go to bed do you want your fire to go to bed, too?

I answered yes.  I told her our usual pattern of burning in the evening.

That steered her to making a recommendation on a particular variety of wood that she thought that we'd be happy with that was cost effective.

And, as you can see from the photo above, they hauled it and stacked it for us.  Part of the deal was that I had to shovel out a path from our driveway to the screened porch out back.  There isn't a paver walkway there yet, so it is mostly grass with some stepper stones.  I did my part:  shoveled it as best as I could.

Then one day, when we were out running around, I received an email from the firewood company:  your order was complete.

We got home and were greeted with this pile you see in the photo above.  I had placed my rack in there, but as you can see - it wasn't enough.

This is what they call in Illinois a "Face Cord".  In some other places, they call this a "Rick" of wood.  But, it is 4' tall by about 8' wide.  One log deep.

This image from NorthLineExpress.com  below does a good job of explaining the different sizes:

Image above via NorthLineExpress.com.  Not my image.  

After talking to my Dad, he recommended that I go out and kind of count how many pieces of wood were delivered so I can get a good estimate of both how much each piece cost and also how much I had on hand.  That way, I can figure the number of days left between today and say...March 1st - when fireplace season will mostly be over - and burn about that many accordingly.

Since the pile of wood has been delivered, we've had a fire every day.  On days when we're home more than others, we'll run the fire for a good part of the day.  But...every night, when we are home and puttering around the family room/kitchen, we'll have a fire.  And after we put the kids to bed and Nat and I catch up on the DVR or watch The Crown, I'll tend to the fire and keep it going.

This experience has me wondering how much I should order next year?

I had them stack this in the screened porch and if you look closely at the photo above, you'll see the outdoor fireplace on the right side of the photo.  So, if we don't burn through all the wood this winter season, it will be close at hand for outdoor fires this summer and fall.  I'm still in the market for a tv out there and Nat is still in the market for furniture for that room, but once we get those things set up, I can see us spending a lot of time out there this summer and fall.

For now, it is a heckuva wood storage room.  Right off our family room.

Could the room handle a full cord?  Or what would be, I think two Face Cords?  One thing is certain:  I'm going to need a bigger rack!