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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

More thoughts about the wood burning:
As I loaded the wheelbarrow to load the porch a bit ago, I realized that
someone else might benefit from doing what I do.
I have long stacks of wood, about 5-6 ft tall and 12-15 ft long.
Currently, I have 6 stacks like this, split and ready to burn.  It's
only about 30 feet from the back door, side by side stacks on pallets to
avoid ground contact.
The way I organize it is a bit erratic looking in the summer, but by
winter it makes total sense and saves me steps.
In our climate, the first couple of months of heating and the last
couple of months of heating are rather mild.  In October, I may be able
to keep the house warm with one fire a day, built of poplar, sweetgum,
or other 'inferior' woods.  By November, I am starting to mix in a bit
of oak or higher BTU wood.  December is about 80/20 oak/poplar, January
and February are almost 100% oak and hickory, fires 24/7, and then I
trail off for March and April like I built up in October November.
Logical stuff.
Each of my 6 stacks of wood roughly represents a month, so each stack
has a different mix.  I start on one side and work my way across.
Basically, each stack matches the month needed, and when I am stacking
it, I even fill in the gaps with smaller branches and other kindling
type stuff.  Each stack is kind of a pile of firewood for individual
fires, and you can almost see it.  It takes maybe two armloads to build
a decent fire-if you wrapped that up it would be about 2 ft in diameter.
 When you look at any 2 foot area in my October/March pile, you can see
the makings of all kinds of wood needed to build a fire...small stuff,
split stuff, whole logs, woods like poplar and maybe an oak log or two.

So then, in the winter, when I am bringing in wood, I don't have to run
all over the property getting wood from here and there, I just grab it
all in one place and load the porch from there.  Having it all in one
place allows me to protect it better, too.

This year, we built a covered wood shelter out by the barn.  Currently
we have next year's wood out there, unsplit.  It is all oak, hickory,
and cherry, but by the time I split it and move it to the area near the
house, I will most assuredly have some poplar or sweetgum to mix into
the pile.  Winter and Spring winds always thin trees and branches.

Bev

--
The true significance of Sacajawea's involvement in the Lewis & Clark
expedition is that it was the first documented trip in history where men
asked a woman for directions and followed them, allowing them to arrive
at their destination.