I barely had any seasoned firewood in the summer of 2022. As a result, I almost purchased a couple of cords of firewood at $250 a cord to keep the house warm. Fortunately, or unfortunately, my dump truck broke down, and I didn’t want to pay for firewood delivery.
I knew it was going to be touch and go.
I have a source of wood that can be hit or miss, depending on the day. In summary, you never know if there will or won’t be wood. If there is wood, you don’t know if it will be fresh-cut or ready to burn.
This video shows me at the start of the 2022 firewood season.
Gathering Firewood
Once every week or two, I visited my firewood source with the battery chainsaw.
There were a lot of Ash logs because an insect called the Emerald Ash Borer is gutting forests across the US. Whenever the Emerald Ash Borer attacks a tree, it slowly dies.
Standing deadwood trees that Emerald Ash Borer killed are a great source of firewood. In addition, many ash logs were six inches in diameter or less. I don’t mind burning smaller logs; they’re easier to move around.
I stored the wood on a trailer to keep it off the ground and minimize bending. To demonstrate, in the video below, starting at 7:22, I show ready-to-burn firewood on my trailer and saw horses.
2023 Firewood Supply
I’m in a similar place as I start the 2023-2024 firewood season. Again, I have less than two cords of firewood ready to burn in a Holz Housen. Luckily, I have seasoned wood that only needs to be split and stacked for drying.
Here’s what the trailer looks like today.
This is the woodpile ready for the 2023 firewood season. Unfortunately, it’s not much. Overall, it’s more than I had at the start of 2022. I purchased a 10 x 10 square tarp to cover the Holz hausen. Consequently, the tarp fits the pile much better than a rectangular tarp.
This ash under the tarp is ready to burn once it’s split.
The processing and storage area for smaller logs and branches. I cut and split Ready to Burn firewood first, then wood that needs seasoning. The wood you see here won’t be ready until the 2023 season.
I’m happy to have found enough dry wood to make it through the 2022-2023 winter. Not having enough firewood was a ‘fun’ challenge.
I got this!
Note: I wrote this post in the spring of 2023 and posted it in early December 2023.