Original oil painting by: Grandfather’s wife
Grandfather says he doesn’t mind a little frumpiness indoors, but the missus wants only clean firewood in the house.
Well, OK; Grandfather will have to abandon the woodpile and store the firewood under roof.
No spare roof onsite?
The missus says: “Well, build a woodshed.”
Well, OK:
Scaffold board laid over ladders so corrugated composition roofing can be fastened to the purlins.
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About the Author: RD Blakeslee is an octogenarian from West Virginia who built his net worth by only investing in that which can be enjoyed during acquisition and throughout life, as opposed to papers in a drawer, like stocks and bonds. You can read more about him here.
Photos: Courtesy of the Blakeslee Family
Yep RD, your wife is right. IF you’re gonna seriously burn wood for heat, you definitely need to plan for handling your wood.
I built a set of four sheds over the years similar to yours, except mine are mobile when empty so I can deploy them at various spots around our 60ac of woods, depending on where I’m thinning or clearing.
Each shed is on 6×6 wood skids with a wood floor and 3 sided like yours. They measure 6’6″ x 12′ inside, back wall about 6′, open front about 8′. They each hold about 4 cords when I stack plumb into the rafters.
Been working this week on re-filling the last one, which will be wood for the winter of 2020-21. We use 4-6 cords/yr. Each fall, we use our tractor front bucket to haul the contents of a shed into the basement and stack it there, so there will be at least 4 cords in the basement by Thanksgiving, plus any left from the previous year.
From the basement stack, wood goes on a home made dumb waiter I built, lifted to the main floor of the house where our stove is located. Out of that car right into the stove…..no mess tracking wood inside.
Ashes go out in a bucket into a 55gal drum in the garage….a winter’s worth of burning fills that drum by spring. Then the drum load goes to the compost pile, and eventually the garden. Wood ash is a good source of potash and lime.
Nice system, Andy!
(Andy also sent me some pictures, which I wish you-all could see … )