Why I Oughta...

We're now in the thick of things firewood-wise.  The burning will only increase in both frequency and length of sessions as we head towards the heart of Winter and the holiday season when we're hanging around the house more and more.  So, where do we stand?   Today marks the two-month mark.  Our firewood was delivered on September 30th, so that means we've burned through 60 days of wood.  With 90 days to go (that gets us to March 1st).  We had three facecords delivered on September 30th .  And, at that time all of the racks were empty but for the bottom of the porch rack and about 15 pieces on top of that.  What does it look like today?   The porch racks are full (mostly).  See below for the short one, followed by the double.  Note the wood on top of the double.  I'm claiming that's an equivalent amount that was remaining this Spring.   Outside, the smaller of the two racks has been exhausted.  The larg...

Back a week or so ago 1 , 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 (o...

Back in the end of June and early July, we had what felt like three-straight-weeks of constant rain.  My yard never looked better.  But it also had some other impacts - beyond having to cut the grass 3x per week to keep it how I wanted it.  I was moving some firewood around recently and noticed that a couple of the logs on TOP of our firewood racks were showing some new, white fungal growth: If you look at this post showing off the firewood rack that I built from parts I sourced dumpster diving next door, you can see that I put on a cedar shingle roof .  That *mostly* helps shed the water.  But, in one of those rain storms, our front yard Norway Maple lost a minor limb .  It came down and I cut it up into rounds.  But, I didn't process them fully as Summer tasks got away from me.  So, I just popped them up on TOP of the firewood rack.  They sat there thru all the rains.  And, you can see that they were already covered in moss from when t...

Last Summer, I built a few firewood racks in our yard based on scrap wood that I scavenged from our neighbor's dumpster.  I put two of them next to the house and loaded them with bought firewood .  And, I built an additional one back by where our fire pit is located and loaded it with scavenged Ash firewood .  Last Fall, I also acquired even more firewood from a neighbor and ended up stacking that on a couple of two-by-fours with the hope of being able to process it this Spring.   With my brand new battery-powered chainsaw ( gloves here) , I began to cut down SOME of the larger pieces to get em into a spot where I can process the rounds.  That started, but I didn't get it all done.   As part of my Spring-time " order of operations " list, we're going to be expanding our beds.  In order to do that properly, I needed to move that existing pile of Ash rounds to a new spot.  Hence, the creation of a new firewood rack.  I built this on...

We're moving into the cooler temperatures around here that means that the pace at which we burn through our firewood stash increases.  We've been using our screened porch a lot more this Fall and that means that we're burning in two fireplaces - the family room and the porch.  Based on the rumor'd 'firewood shortage' that we were facing, I ordered early.  In late August, we had three face cords delivered and I stacked them on our new firewood racks outside .   At that time (Late August), we had all five racks full .  Here's where we are today - below.  First the inside racks.  You can see that they are all full - with some wood on top of each: Next is the Oak rack outside of my office door (below).  That one, too, is untouched and fully loaded.   Next up is the Cherry rack outside (below).  This was FULL of Cherry firewood inside the rack and loaded on top with mixed hardwoods.  Today, it is about 1/3rd of the way full,...

Yesterday, I posted a couple of photos of a lot of the three face cords of firewood that we had delivered earlier this week.  Those three racks are a combo of Birch, Cherry and Oak Firewood and two of them were built this Summer in preparation for the delivery.  In that post , I mentioned that there are the two additional - indoor racks - that I also filled.  This post shows off those two racks. Well...it shows off all of one of them (the one in the background that is loaded with Birch) and half of the rack in the foreground (That is loaded with Cherry firewood).  The rack in the foreground is a two-level rack - you can see what the full thing looks like here - but we're using the top section as a sort-of plant stand with various potted plants.  So, for now, we're only filling this rack about half-way.  When the weather turns, I'm sure we'll move the plants indoors and I'll take that top part of the rack and fill it with Oak firewood.  That way,...

Earlier this week, I showed a couple of photos of the firewood delivery that we received from Best Firewood that included Birch, Cherry and Oak seasoned firewoods.  In that post, I mentioned that we ordered 33% more wood than we normally do - because of both the projected 'shortages' that might be coming for firewood AND the fact that I'm assuming that due to COVID, we're going to spending a lot more time around the house.  I built a couple of firewood racks to get ready for this delivery as I knew I wasn't going to have enough room on the current rack situation.  Here's a post showing one of the racks that I put a little cedar roof on top of and built with scrap lumber (not all of it treated).  This post is showing off three of my now 'outdoor racks'.  The past few years, I've kept all the wood that I've bought exclusively inside the screened porch and off the little covered stoop outside my office.  I'll post tomorrow to show those...

A few days ago, I showed off some photos of a firewood rack that I built from scrap lumber in anticipation of our annual Fall firewood order .  In that post , I mentioned that I had some additional scrap lumber around (some treated, some not) around to build a few more racks.  This post, shows at the top another rack that I built from the same basic plans.  The photo above, shows this second DIY firewood rack that I built and placed along the fence in the far back part of our yard.  It is holding just about a face cord of mostly Ash and a little bit of Hackberry/Osage Orange firewood that I acquired form next door in December of 2019 .  I started processing the rounds and by March of this year, had the wood stacked on itself along the fence.  You can see that firewood stack in the post here .  It was fine.  But, it was mostly laying on the ground and I thought I could do better.  So, I took the lumber and got started.  The bottom le...

A couple of years ago, I built a pair of custom-sized firewood racks that I keep in our screened porch .  They're made of Cedar 2x4's (larger than what you find at a Big Box store) and between the two cedar racks, we store a lot of our firewood inside the screened porch during the Winter.  I have another metal rack that I keep outside my office door and between those three racks, I can usually handle the two face cords of firewood that we order each early Fall/Late Summer.  You can see what two face cords of firewood look like in this post from last Fall .  We filled all three racks and had to pile or stack wood up both in the screened porch AND next to the metal rack.  So, we're already in a position to not have enough space for just two face cords. But, there's a theory going around - and seems to be manifesting itself in the southern hemisphere right now - that there will be a firewood shortage this Winter.  With COVID still here (hi there, pandem...

The last time I did a firewood consumption check was with this post on January 20th of 2020 .  A little bit over a month has past and we've exhausted probably 3/4 of the face cord that was delivered.  That's a fast pace.  In 2019, I ordered the backfill face cord in mid-February , so this year was running three weeks ahead of last year.  Last year, it seemed that the firewood lasted until right up at the beginning of Spring.  This year, I'm not so sure it will.  One of the things that we learned last year is that we wished we had firewood for during the Summer and Fall - to burn in our outdoor fireplace.  So, that means that if we burn through our rack in March, we won't have anything to burn - unless we turn to the Ash firewood that we picked up on our block . Knowing we're now in year three of buying and burning firewood, we might need to consider ordering more in the Fall or doubling the second order. 2017/2018: Ordered one face cord in J...

It has been seven weeks since I did the last "Firewood Consumption" check here on the blog with these photos on December 4th, 2019 .  Today, I'm sharing this (somewhat sad) photo showing the current state of our firewood hoard.   On the top is what Cherry firewood we have remaining (about a dozen pieces) and on the bottom is what Birch firewood we have remaining (about two dozen pieces).  This is in addition to the 'hearth-side' firewood storage box that holds about a dozen combo teams. This order was delivered in October of last year and was a face cord of Birch and a face cord of Cherry. Comparing this to last season (2018/2019), we're about two weeks ahead of where we were last year.  Check out the February 2nd post from last season (Feb 2019) and the 'stack' looks similar to today. I keep a tertiary rack on the side stoop outside of my office door that I've exhausted all the Cherry/Birch from, and once empty,  I moved the little bit ...

Exactly one year ago, I posted photos and details of our annual firewood delivery from Best Firewood and talked about how we went with Cherry and Birch as our early season woods.  When we built our house, Nat insisted on a wood-burning fireplace with a masonry chimney.  We have one in our family room and we use the one on our screened porch.  When we bought the lot, there was a little bit of wood that had been cut down that was laying around.  Our firewood journey began with that inherited lot and some chopping in November of 2017 .   That lasted us until about mid-December.  And got us going in terms of burning fires most days we're home during the Winter.  Since then, we've had wood delivered each season that we've lived in our new house in Downers Grove starting with a mixed Face Cord that we had delivered right around Christmas of 2017 .   From there, I've done check-ins on our consumption including: February 2018 consu...

Last year, I shared a couple of photos and tracked the progress of our firewood consumption during the Winter.  We started with a rack of wood I scavenged from our yard and split myself .  Having burned through that quickly, I ended up ordering a face cord of wood that arrived in early January .  By February of this year, we had burned through half of the Face Cord .  By March it was gone.   We ordered a mix of hardwoods last year and I think we got a bunch of Ash along with some Oak.   This year, I wanted to get ahead of things and decided to order in September.  And I wanted to order some specific woods:  Cherry and Birch.   Like last year, I used the same provider (Best Firewood and Mulch) but I ordered a full face cord of Birch.  And a full Face Cord of Cherry.  The Cherry for long-burning nature and, of course, the smell it puts off and the birch for the heat output and the bright and lively flames...

Just a few days back, I posted a link to these DIY firewood rack brackets that Menards was carrying on their site .  I ordered five sets and got busy working with three of them.  Here, above, is a work-in-progress show that shows the position of one of the racks that I'm building.  This one is the one right outside of the family room door and I've built the rack in a vertical orientation.  I ended up using some rough sawn cedar that was left over from my fence installation, but that move caused some issues.  Turns out, rough sawn cedar 2x4's aren't the same size as normal, dimensional construction lumber.  They're a bit bigger.  Not true two inches by four inches, but bigger by just a hair.  Here's the height difference.  On the left is a traditional, Home Depot bought 2x4.  On the right is a rough sawn Cedar 2x4.  And the thickness difference. I first went to Home Depot and the one by us has just an indoor lumber...

Image of firewood rack via Menards (not my photo above) Last year was our first Winter in our house and was also the first year where we ordered a Face Cord of firewood.  I documented that Face Cord - and the location of the rack - here on the blog .  I set up our only rack in our screened porch, where it was covered and protected from the elements.  But last year we didn't have any furniture in the porch, so it was easy to do.  This year?  Nat has set up the room with a full set of furniture and even an indoor/outdoor rug.  So, that means space is limited inside.  At the same time, I've considered firewood rack options - including posting some inspiration here on the blog .  The placement of the rack has been bouncing around in my brain for the better part of the Summer.  I want to put it in a place that is protected from the elements, but not too far from the door because I know I'll want to walk out there in my house shoes to grab w...