# How much Firewood is too much Firewood?



## meanwhile (Dec 13, 2007)

Just kidding - partly. Could I ever have too much firewood? At this point I do not think so.

Last winter we ran out of firewood. We had been working in another state for seven months to help my husband (who was sick) and then we finally were able to move him home in December. But - since we were trying not to use propane heat to save money, we used up all the firewood.

Now, we are collecting firewood again and I am wondering how much Firewood do I need? We are not sure since last winter we had to collect as we burned and did not think to keep up with it. 

Is it possible to have too much Firewood? An elderly neighbor told me he plans firewood three years ahead. He cuts it or collects it Year one and leave it in big pieces behind his barn. Year two he cuts it down to "chunks" about 16 to 20 inches long. Then, year three he splits it to burn. When I asked him "how much wood do you burn a winter" he just replied "enough to keep us from freezing" - which he thought was very funny! (I did too since he is funny.)

Today someone gave us several freshly cut poplar logs. They will be green this year and poplar is not great firewood anyway but we took it thankfully since we are desperate for wood.

How much firewood do you store up each year? And do you cut it years ahead like my neighbor? I know there are no definite answers - I am just thinking out loud and worrying.


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## jaredI (Aug 6, 2011)

We try to keep about 100 cord or more a year. Mostly cottonwood, a little ash, cedar and elm. If you were to split the green stuff now, it would probably be dry enough to burn come winter, otherwise a slightly green log on the evening fire lets a body sleep a bit longer before having to restoke the fire. 
We cover 2 house holds, mine burns about 7 cords, and the parents burn about 15 cords.


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## Space Cowboy (Apr 26, 2008)

Used to burn about 7 cords a winter. Need about 6 months minimum for the wood to get dry enough. To green and the wood has less heat value. Burn mostly pine, some oak and some coal. You can never have enough fire wood......

SC


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

The only thing that limits our firewood is space.


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## Guest (Jun 25, 2012)

we burn 4 a year is all. But we keep 6-7.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Our firewood for this coming heating season was cut and split during the fall of 2009. We allow the oak we burn to season a minimum of two full years.

The photo shows two long row of stacked firewood that are each about 50 feet long, 3 logs wide, and 4 to 4.5 feet high. A third row is being started in the foreground.


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

Ohio dreamer said:


> The only thing that limits our firewood is space.


The thing that limits our firewood is my energy (or lack of). I did snag a log splitter last summer and it made a *huge* difference.


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## bruce2288 (Jul 10, 2009)

cabin fever. Now that is a pile of wood. I have occasionally been known to be out in snow drifts cutting next weeks wood.


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

Last year was my first year of burning wood to heat the house. I went through about a cord of pine/popple and 3 1/2 cords of oak but it was a very mild winter. 

Yesterday I finished splitting and stacking enough oak so that I have a full 10 cords which is what I started with last fall. I burn the pine/popple when I just want a quick fire to take the chill off. You don't want to burn pine slowly because it produces a lot of creasote. 

If you want a longer lasting fire get a bigger, airtight stove. When you fill it up it can't "run away on you" like a non-airtight because you can shut the air almost off. I have loaded my stove at midnight and it's kept the house warm untill 4:00 the next evening when it's zero out.

You can have too much wood on hand. Wood stacked out in the elements will eventually rot. It takes about 5 years. Wood stacked under shelter is good almost indefinantly. I still have 6 cords of oak logs to cut up, split, and stack. I am shooting for about 4 years worth of firewood ready to go. If something medical happens and I can't put up wood anymore I will at least have that in reserve. The other consideration is that the sound of a chainsaw will say "come and get me" to a zombie if TSHTF.


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## Ceilismom (Jul 16, 2011)

Cabin Fever said:


> Our firewood for this coming heating season was cut and split during the fall of 2009. We allow the oak we burn to season a minimum of two full years.
> 
> The photo shows two long row of stacked firewood that are each about 50 feet long, 3 logs wide, and 4 to 4.5 feet high. A third row is being started in the foreground.


Would you mind describing your method of holding down the tarps? It appears there are chunks of firewood attached to the grommets, but I can't tell how.


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

I'm in a warm climate, so I only burn about a cord each year as supplemental heat so the electric central heater doesn't run all the time. I try to have two years worth on hand. What I gathered/cut last year will be used this coming winter and what I'm currently cutting/ gathering will be for the next. If I had more room, I'd probably try to have three years worth on hand.


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## Badger (Jun 11, 2010)

I use 6 to 8 ricks a year - thats 3 or 4 cords I think - I burn 2 year old wood and have next years cut and split - this winter I'll cut 2013/14 wood. I have a soapstone stove that works very well - alot of my wood goes into the smoker and outdoor fires.


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## myheaven (Apr 14, 2006)

If I knew how to post a picture I would show my "pile". Last year we had our neighbor who owns a logging company bring us a semi and a half. So ummm 3 years at least at 80 f, 4 if at 70 f. Thats with never ending hot water and 23 loads Of laundry a week. We have 10+ people in our family. With 6 girls we use a lot of hot water.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Ceilismom said:


> Would you mind describing your method of holding down the tarps? It appears there are chunks of firewood attached to the grommets, but I can't tell how.


What we do is take a chunk of firewood and hammer a U-shaped nail (ie, fencing staple) into one end of the piece. Then, we attach a wood "weight" to each of the tarp's gromments using cable ties.


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## Vickie44 (Jul 27, 2010)

I use 4- 5 cords a year and am working on three winters from now . As stated above is better to be ahead, I try to do some every week. I borrowed a log splitter the past two years and it makes a huge difference.


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## Pam6 (Apr 9, 2009)

Cabin Fever, your wood pile made my heart go pitter patter!! 

We only heat with wood and have our house pretty good for insulation now. I bought 8 bundles of slab wood last year and we got 4 or 5 truck loads of split wood from some trees my MIL had cut down. We did not even go through all of the split wood, so we never touched the slab wood. 
I paid $160 for my 8 bundles, delivered. I will have the rest of the split wood and all of the bundles for this winter so I am not going to get anymore for this year. We keep the house on the cooler side and only light the fire when the house is chilly. 
My mom on the other hand keeps her house in the 90's and we sweat like crazy when we go to her house and she calls ahead before she comes to my house to make sure we have a rip roaring fire going! LOL!


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

We use 3-5 cords/yr, (depends on the winter) and I have about 8 cut ahead right now, and plan to add 6-8 more this fall for 2013-14. My goal is to have 12 on hand all the time.

I built two of these sheds ( and had an older one from years back, but it's about ready for the burn pile ) that hold about 3-3.5 cords. When empty, I'll drag them around the farm to places I'm clearing/thinning. Plan to build two more, which should give me an easy 12 cords when all 4 are full.


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## pumpkin (May 8, 2012)

As long as you can store it properly there is no such thing as too much firewood. Storing properly also means far enought away and making the area fire smart in case of forest or grass fires.


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## romysbaskets (Aug 29, 2009)

For anyone that asks this question...WE are proof that there is never too much wood..hubby says, stop gathering we are fine...I always say, no let's just fill up our wood shed to overflowing...it holds enough to last us two years...well when I got up today it was...52 degrees this morning in Washington with a high today of 56. I have already put a nice log and some kindling in the woodstove for my evening fire later, expecting 48 degrees or less tonight. We have had a lot of days like this lately..yes in June! I will not light a fire til it gets cold enough in here but seriously, I do not think you can over harvest wood. We are heading out this week to get started again. We still have some big maple rounds to split which are finally dry enough but it is time to cut up the bulk of what we will need for Fall, Winter and more than likely next Spring too! The entire island is cutting wood right now!


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## Heidi (Feb 19, 2005)

My dad has firewood stockpiled to last him at least 15 years....problem is that he is 81 and failing. My sister and I regularly have nightmares about what we are going to do with all of it.


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## Cascade Failure (Jan 30, 2007)

I try to stay at least three years ahead now. 

There is no such thing as too much firewood. Money in the bank...


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## demeter (Jul 15, 2010)

I think we have about 7-8 cord. Mostly oak. A really bad storm knocked down some fine old oaks our neighbor had and he gave them to us about 3 years ago. We have pretty mild winters so this should last quite awhile. Money in the bank to us.

Demeter


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## jessimeredith (Sep 12, 2004)

Right now, we've got nada! The new place has propane "backup" but since we aren't there yet, there's no wood cut. There are a couple of dead trees in the back that need to come down, so there's the start but looks like this winter is going to be a propane heat winter mainly.

Tons of folks are listing free firewood on craigslist around the area but with no where to store it yet (we refuse to put anything out on the property until we're there full time) we haven't jumped on any.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Cabin Fever said:


> Our firewood for this coming heating season was cut and split during the fall of 2009. We allow the oak we burn to season a minimum of two full years.
> 
> The photo shows two long row of stacked firewood that are each about 50 feet long, 3 logs wide, and 4 to 4.5 feet high. A third row is being started in the foreground.


How many years do you get out of the indentured servants you have processing firewood, before you have to replace em? 

Reckon everyone knows what you get to do in your 'spare time'!


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## meanwhile (Dec 13, 2007)

Thanks everyone. We better get busy here. We only have about 4 cords split and dry. We just received a huge load of green, just cut poplar and we are going to split it but, of course, it will be green.

A neighbor just told the boys they can have a dead standing white oak if they cut and haul it off. That will be more wood that is dry.

We have four huge dead trees that need to come down on our own land but all are in dangerous places (one would hit a well head / one would hit a cement water cistern / two are plain ole dangerous) and so we are going to have to get help getting them down since we just need to be safe. I have enough challenges around here without someone getting hurt. 

Nice photos. I have Wood Shed envy!


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## tarbe (Apr 7, 2007)

Firewood is like ammo.

The only time you have too much is when your place is on fire.


Tim


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## ovsfarm (Jan 14, 2003)

I think you have too much firewood when;

-you have so much that much of it is rotting away and becoming unuseable
-you are losing the use of the rest of your property because you have taken up all the available space with firewood
-you are neglecting other equally important things in order to hoard firewood
-you gleefully rush to beat others to sources of free wood even though you have enough for 10 - 15 years and others have little to none for this coming winter.

I feel that like most things, firewood can become a commodity instead of a useful tool for keeping one's home warm. When that happens, it can lead to the same problems as any commodity; hoarding, selfishness, greed, fixation. An elderly man I knew when I was a child went kind of crazy with the firewood after his wife died. He began to fill his one acre yard to the point where he could no longer have a garden, had to park his car on the edge of the road, couldn't walk around his property and enjoy the views (as he and his wife had loved to do). He was reduced to one narrow trail from the road to the porch, and there was precious little room there. Just enough to hold his wood splitter. I know the wood was just a symptom of mental illness, but it was very sad to see how he became so greedy about it and would block others from getting any free wood available, even though he didn't have room for any more and had quite a bit that was starting to rot.


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## pumpkin (May 8, 2012)

ovsfarm said:


> I think you have too much firewood when;
> 
> -you have so much that much of it is rotting away and becoming unuseable
> -you are losing the use of the rest of your property because you have taken up all the available space with firewood
> ...


I would imagine that this sort of wood mania only affects a small part of the population. The rest would have the common sense to sell cords of split or unsplit wood and make a nice bit of money before the wood rotted or you had to have goat paths through your entire property.


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## meanwhile (Dec 13, 2007)

Good points ovsfarm - good points about greed and going nuts over it. We are not anywhere near that point here! We still do not have enough firewood for this winter. But, good points to keep in mind about firewood and other things too. I probably have too much fabric. 

My sons are out splitting firewood now. It is only green poplar - which is not great firewood but it is better than none. They are going to leave it in bigger chunks since we might not have to use it this winter and can let it dry. Also, poplar is easy to split and they can split it smaller later if need be. They hope to fetch the white oak given to use in exchange for cleaning it up - next week. It is going to be too hot here this weekend to do much of anything outside.


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## JohnL751 (Aug 28, 2008)

A friend of mine cuts and sells wood. Any extra time he has, he cuts wood. Looks to me like he has 3-4 hundred cords in his seasoned wood section and another another 60 cords in the green section which is always growing.


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

We only have about two cords right now. The winter was so mild that we burned more wood than planned and tried not to use the furnace much at all. Most of those two cords were picked up at the curb in early spring.

We will probably order another 8-10 this summer and put it away. I don't like running out of wood and like to have at least enough wood to get through two years. That way, if money is tight, we still have enough put away to get us through next winter. 

Once we move to a farm, I think we'll aspire to be somewhere between Cabin Fever and Tn Andy as far as having a long term supply. (I do envy those gorgeous sheds!)


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

same as everything else , when it goes bad before you get a chance to rotate it in 

or if you become a slave to it 

or run out of room for it.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

i cut mostly standing dead wood , but i found that putting a hard roof over my wood made a read difference in dryness and dry time 

after years of tarps , i built an 8x12 wood shed , when stacked to the rafters holds right about 4 cord what a difference it makes in the ease of starting fires and the efficiency of the fire to finally have dry dry wood , the tarps seemed to hold some moisture under them and always leaked a little , rain on the sides of the pile , snow blowing in them melting , just never had wood as dry as in the shed


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## meanwhile (Dec 13, 2007)

My sons posted photos of the "before" and "after" - they split all the poplar a neighbor gave them. It made almost a cord once it was stacked. 

I could not get the photo to post here in the message but the photos are here:
Meanwhile, Back in Saluda | Facebook

We still have to cut down one dead oak another neighbor said we can have. That will be about another cord.


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