Last post on wood we talked about DRY firewood.  Here’s my secret weapon in the war on wet firewood.  These pictures show two sheds.  The first is a small one, only about 4 ft tall.  Short, maybe 5 ft deep.  I show it to you just to emphasize what i said before about keeping wood covered.  That shed will be gone sometime this spring.  Never meant to be a woodshed.  but as long as i had it there i put some wood in it.  Smaller diameter stuff, most about the length of the shed.  That was last year sometime.  Then say 4-6 weeks ago i took out the wood, cut, split and brought it into the house.  Now i did store it near the stove.  Things do dry out easily there.  But the point i want to make is this – it lit easily, it burned fine, no sizzling to indicate it was wet etc.  Good dry firewood.

Now the bigger one, that is my main shed.  If you burn wood for heat, i recommend one like this.  note first the orientation.  This is a solar shed.  it faces almost due south.  So here in the northern hemisphere the sun shines into the shed all winter, and most of the spring and fall.  The roof keeps off rain & snow, the sun warms it and helps things dry.  The size is large enough to pile wood on either side with room to operate in between.  (around 8 ft deep x 12 ft wide, little over 9 ft tall in front).  The left side is from last year, maybe cut/split around 18 months ago.  The right side is what i started cutting this year before the snow stopped me.

This thing is a solar wood factory.  doesn’t cost me a nickel to operate.  Some day i may convert it into a full blown solar kiln.  Pretty sure if i make some kind of clear front cover the temp would soar well over 100.  Well anyway build yourself one. You’ll be glad u did. even if its smaller, make your woodshed open sided and face the sun.

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