I've been on a bit of a mission the last couple of weeks to get a head start on my winter wood store.
This has mainly involved getting busy with the chainsaw as most of my wood is thin enough that I can handle it with the small Stihl I've got, but a few bits I've had to use the axe on to split, which is actually quite good fun, if not always 100% successful.
Anyway, I've got A LOT of firewood, way too much to store outside the house given my limited storage space, and so I'm having to store said wood on the land, and I need to keep that wood dry for the winter.
I've got two dry places already - the house and the kitchen, but a lot of the wood I've got isn't anywhere near those two places, a lot of it's in the other corner of a triangle that traces the boundary of the land, and it's just easier to cut it where where it is and leave it where it is, give that it's closer to the entrance than either of the other places.
So I came up with this extremely simply solution for a temporary wood shelter....
Yes - a simple tripod at one end (with commando style pro-lashings, learnt from the source of all knowledge that is YouTube) and then a long stick stretched across, note I debarked most of it and took any sharp notches out.
The other end I've wedged into the tree, and note that I deliberately started making my wood pile where it is thinking it would be easy to erect a shelter over it right here.
Then A massive piece of tarp....
This is actually before I cut it, it ended up being about 2/3rds the size of this.
And then I simply dragged it (carefully to avoid tearing) over the top of the wood pile....
Note that I can get about three times the amount of wood under this as in the picture above, which is around 3 weeks worth of autumn burning, probably more like 2 weeks in winter.
So under this simple shelter, I can get around 2 months worth of firewood.
Ideally the shelter would allow more room for the wood to breath, but it's had a hot summer to dry out already and the stuff I've burned so far is fine, so this shouldn't be a problem.
This is actually perfect for me as this is just about enough room to fit all of the wood we thinned out from this third of the land, most of which is further up the hill, and this is the easiest way down for it.
The tarp will degrade over the course of the winter, of course, but I figure it only has to last two months because I'll be taking this wood off the land first - the rest can go in the more permanent shelters on other parts of the land.
The simplest solutions are the best....
I had thought about putting sticks up against the main roof beam but this wasn't required in the end, the tarp stretched out nicely over the wood pile, and with care it isn't going to tear - if there are any sharp bits, I could always cover with some broom or something softer.
And if there are any major tears, I've got a second smaller tarp to make patches.
I will at some point make a more permanent wood store, but here REALLY isn't the best place for it - it's right in the corner, away from what I've designated as my firewood area, so that's another project for later on the winter me thinks!
It's all worth it in the end....
