Thread: Oops

I think I may have miscalculated. On the left is my new firewood pile that is being loaded with wood from trees being removed. On the right is my wood shed currently 90% full. There is more dry wood in the barn. There are a lot of trees to remove. Can you see the problem?
GPM.

I have never heard anyone say "I made the shed too big".

I see money in the bank

Good problems are good

I solved that problem when wood shed was full and I didn't want to build more fixed sheds
I made 10 of these transportable wood sheds
They hold a full cord
Built off the ground so my loader forks go under easily
All H4 treated pine from my own trees
Hungry boards at front are loose

I take them to the wood source
Process straight into them
Fairly heavy when full of green firewood
Stack them to get the sun nicely
Shift 2 at a time close to house in winter
Move the empty ones directly to the next green wood to fill them
Swing in 2 more dry ones



It does help if you have lots of cheap H4 pine and an 8.5 Ton loader

Originally Posted by Shearer

I have never heard anyone say "I made the shed too big".

Except it does cost a lot to fill a big shed with toys !

Lacking a Loader this is my lo tech version. Two 1.8 metre posts set on bricks, bits of concrete or whatever with 1.2 metre lengths of branch wood to form base. Branch wood is cut up later. Wood stacked on top. Wood dries pretty well here over summer in HB. Set up near where wood is being cut and I can get a trailer to for a later shift to the house wood shed. More work intensive but dirt cheap.
Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by akaroa1

I see money in the bank

sell it

Can you see the problem?

not a bad problem to have

the 1000ltr IPC containers work really well.... lots of folks using them around here for wood...as long as have forks to shift them when full its too easy. cut plastic up to make lid/roof and stack wood in the metal frame.

@Micky Duck is onto it.

Its actually very clever. I will take a photo tomorrow for you Plenty along the road from here !

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

With the IBC's I cut the lid off the top of the plastic bladder tank and when the wood is stored inside it stops the dust and bark crud going everywhere. The 'lid' or top of the bladder (I cut them off at the height of the second horizontal bar down) makes a handy rain cover outside or a planting pot/garden for veges etc.

Other than that I'm of the opinion that one cannot have enough firewood at all. Although I do run out of inside storage... In the current setup, firewood means if the power goes out I have hot home heating still going, hot water heating still going, and with a small generator I can still power the household water pump. Much better than relying solely on electricery - which when the magic stops leaves you completely buggered.

Originally Posted by No.3

With the IBC's I cut the lid off the top of the plastic bladder tank and when the wood is stored inside it stops the dust and bark crud going everywhere. The 'lid' or top of the bladder (I cut them off at the height of the second horizontal bar down) makes a handy rain cover outside or a planting pot/garden for veges etc.

Other than that I'm of the opinion that one cannot have enough firewood at all. Although I do run out of inside storage... In the current setup, firewood means if the power goes out I have hot home heating still going, hot water heating still going, and with a small generator I can still power the household water pump. Much better than relying solely on electricery - which when the magic stops leaves you completely buggered.

When power was out for a week during Gabrielle firewood and the wet back kept the showers warm and the gas hobb kept the meals hot. We have a header tank filled from a well with a pump which was out but the tank will last three weeks or so so we had water, We do have a house pump but can do without it as one of the showers is set up for low pressure. We were very lucky.
GPM.

Yeah, it pays to work on the contingencies... I have just picked up a 10" size water filter housing that has the rubber fitting that pushes over a standard tap size outlet, or a bench sink faucet or mixer outlet. Cleaned it up, got a 2 micron carbon block filter for it and it went into a click clack container for the "just in case" or even if we are travelling somewhere where the water is heavily chlorinated or has the nasty chemical taste that the kids don't do (our water is virtually tasteless and UV sterilised so 'gold standard' although some people seem to think that it's better with the microbes etc left in it alive - they are still in there just deactivated...).

Main problem I do have is that it's been so bloody wet around here that any wood left outside rots quickly and almost starts before it's dry enough to burn in terms of retained sap. It's a pain in the arse as anything we want as fuel wood effectively must be under cover unless it's a hard or fruiting type wood. Bollocks as we have about 3 or 4 years worth and with the improvements in thermal management to the house we have cut the amount we burn down to about 2 or so full IBC's. Really it is a super efficient way to heat a house, way more efficient than electricity or gas in terms of energy consumed it's just not as clean as electricity.

I remember when we wanted to replace our fireplace when we were in the city (Chch) we got the permit (mid 2000s) and the council lady offered us a $500 discount if we pulled the fire and replaced it with a heat pump. I said I already had a heat pump and did not want another one when there was nothing wrong with the first one....She seemed to be unable to fathom why we would want a fireplace when we already had a 'better ' heater with the heat pump.....I replied cos the heat pump wont work ing a power cut...her reply Chch is a city- we dont get power cuts that much....roll on 2011 and power was out for days or longer post quakes.....so glad we had a heat source that used wood...built a new place a few years back and got a fireplace.....

And as mentioned above bigger sheds just mean ore stuff inside 93sqm of garage and we still park cars outside......

I like the stacking ideas...these will help solve a small issue here too....

Originally Posted by akaroa1

Good problems are good

I solved that problem when wood shed was full and I didn't want to build more fixed sheds
I made 10 of these transportable wood sheds
They hold a full cord
Built off the ground so my loader forks go under easily
All H4 treated pine from my own trees
Hungry boards at front are loose

I take them to the wood source
Process straight into them
Fairly heavy when full of green firewood
Stack them to get the sun nicely
Shift 2 at a time close to house in winter
Move the empty ones directly to the next green wood to fill them
Swing in 2 more dry ones

It does help if you have lots of cheap H4 pine and an 8.5 Ton loader

You are the John Browning of domestic firewood processing. Very cool.