Fall Firewood Delivery of Birch, Cherry, Oak and Hickory - October 2021

Back a week or so ago¹, we had our Fall delivery of firewood delivered to kick off the burning season.  This year, I ordered (again) from The Grove Firewood out in Sugar Grove.  This is the second time I've ordered from them having been pretty happy earlier this Spring with a couple of face cords.  

Here, below, is the delivery being dumped on our driveway.  This represents three face cords - a full face cord of Cherry, full face cord of Birch, and a facecord of their "Supermix".  That "Supermix" is a combo of Oak, Hickory and Cherry, so the driver mentioned that since I bought a separate face cord of Cherry, he went 50/50 with Hickory and Oak.  This is the first year that I've bought Hickory wood - where I normally buy Oak, Cherry and Birch.

That load of three face cords is between six hundred and seven hundred pieces of firewood and is the same amount that I bought last Fall.  Here's the post showing three facecords of Birch, Cherry and Oak (one each).  The biggest difference this year is that I had some firewood on hand from an order that I placed in March - which I don't seem to have documented.  

The inside racks were (mostly) full before this delivery, so I ended up utilizing every other rack and all available spaces including a new spot in the garage.   For tracking purposes, here's what our firewood haul looks like before the season starts below.  First up, those screened porch racks.  These are (about 90%) full from this Spring's order. 

 

Next up (below), are the two racks on the north side of our garage - these are full up with a bunch of wood on top of them.

Next (below) is the stoop next to my office.  This is a covered space that has one rack (on the right).  I filled that one up, then stacked up a free-standing stack next to it.  I even put a dozen or so pieces on the ground in between these two stacks.

Another little small pile is below - just next to the steps to the office stoop.  This is about 30 mixed pieces of firewood that I'll get under a roof as soon as there's room.

And, finally, below, you'll see a five foot or so tall stack of firewood that I stashed inside our garage - along the wall.  This is a new spot for storing wood for me but, it seems to be working out.

My plan for pulling the wood is to utilize the wood on the stoop first that is free-standing, then move some of the various piles that aren't under roof over to the stoop.  Then, draw down from the outside racks while I give the newly-moved wood to the stoop dry out for a bit.   For as long as the weather permits, I'll pull wood in from outside most mornings and refresh the wood in the fireplace and on the rack.  At some point, it gets too cold for me and I just start drawing down from inside the porch.

The wood this year is a mix of seasoned and kiln-dried - so I'll be tracking how the kiln-dried wood performs vs the more-traditional seasoned wood.  I'm hoping for a lower-smoke and that the folks who say that kiln-dried is more efficient are right.  

One big tracking note for this year:  By early November 2020, I had cleared out the largest rack of firewood outside. 

This is the fourth Fall that I've ordered firewood ahead of the Winter burning season.

In 2018, I ordered in late September. 2 Face Cords
In 2019, I ordered in early October. 2 Face Cords
Due to the rumored 'shortage', in 2020, I ordered in late August. 3 Face cords.
In 2021, I ordered in late September (from The Grove). 3 Face cords.

For total tracking purposes, let's look at burning seasons in terms of firewood ordered. The first year, I burned a bunch of "found wood" and I supplemented the 2019/2020 Winter with a bunch of Ash wood that I picked up from our neighbor. It is really clear that 2020/2021 - with SEVEN face cords is the real outlier. That's (I think) due to a couple of things: First...I ordered really early (August) due to the treats of a shortage. Second, that was our first COVID Winter...so we spent EVERYDAY at home. And, third...I ordered two face cords late in February because I knew we'd burn through (at least) March. I ended up having about half of that remaining, so I started with a headstart this year.

Total Firewood Orders for Winter seasons:
2017/2018 Winter: 1 Face cord.
2018/2019 Winter: 3 Face cords.
2019/2020 Winter: 3 Face cords.
2020/2021 Winter: 7 Face cords.
2021/2022 Winter: 3 Face cords (so far).

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^{1. [This post is dated early October, but I had the firewood delivery arrive the last week in September.]↩}