Alright, I have a confession to make. A few years ago when I started on my RMH build, I thought I was doing a pretty decent job of heating with wood. I would go out about this time of year and get the seasons wood cut, split, and stacked. That's not entirely true, I sometimes didn't split it all before I put it up. I thought that getting it under cover was the most important, and since I was processing a whole log truck of logs for the season I just tried to get it bucked into rounds and under cover, and some I would split as I went through the winter. Here's a video that shows my woodshed in 2009. Sorry for the swearing!
Nice throw by my friend Eric there, huh? Also, look how dark it was before I got rid of all those trees! Anyway, that woodshed is now my greenhouse, but you can see how dark it was, and how I just had it plugged with 10 cords of wood that was mostly not split. Man, I was bad. That wood all packed in there like that had no chance to dry, and I was only giving it a few months to dry anyway. No chance. It burned terribly, but I thought it was great because I would load the stove, shut down the air and go to work or bed and think how awesome it was that it smouldered for 12 hours.
Geez, I'm embarrassed now, knowing how terrible that was. You would not believe the smoke I put in the air, and even worse, my old stove had one of those heat reclaimer thingys that just made creosote problems worse, and then a 4' section of horizontal flue before the thimble. Oh man, I had chimney fires every year. I thought it was a great way to clean out the chimney! I think about all this now and am really, really, really glad to have learned what I have over the last few years, but I'm also pissed off at myself for being such an idiot.
So, I'm putting this here in hopes of helping others skip the decade of stupidity that I went through. If there's one thing an RMH teaches you , it's that you MUST have dry wood if you want to burn for heat. They will just flat out not work with wet wood, and let me tell you, it gets frustrating very, very quickly. So, I've been learning. My goal is to get a few years ahead on wood gathering and processing, but it's a big job. I'm slowly getting there, splitting and stacking almost everyday. Dragging wood down to my processing area weekly, then going through it. One of the most important things, and a major error of my old ways, was that dark, enclosed shed. Wood would just mold in there in my climate. I've since started to stack out in the wind and sun. Loose stacks, single rows. Trying to get the most sun and wind through 'em I can. It's making a difference. I bought a moisture meter last fall and the bulk of wood I have for this year is already in the 12%-15% MC range.
So, here's my stacks, and my processing zone. How are you guys doing for wood? Got any tricks or tips?