Stacking the firewood
In the U.P. many homes are heated with wood stoves and cutting and stacking the fuel for a cold, snowy winter is a necessary chore.
Woodpiles can be large here, as people don’t want to run out of wood if the winter is especially cold and long. Wood stoves generally start to be stoked around the time of the first frost (late September) and continue to stay hot until March or April, depending on when the thaw begins.
Yoopers take their woodpiles very seriously and spend many weekends falling trees, cutting them up, splitting the logs into manageable pieces of firewood, and then stacking it either in covered piles or in a nearby shed or barn. Ideally firewood should be seasoned, or given several months after splitting to dry out for optimal burning. Newly cut wood contains too much moisture and will produce excessive smoke.
Different types of wood burn very differently. Oak is a favorite, known for its long, slow burn and creates a hot fire. Maple and ash are also excellent firewoods. The emerald ash borer, an invasive species, has killed many ash trees throughout Michigan so these downed trees are creating a glut of firewood in recent years.
Soft and oily woods, including pine, birch, cedar and poplar, burn less efficiently and are less than ideal for the woodpile.
Stacking the wood is a bit of an art.
Most popular is the rectangular method, which often includes changing the direction of the wood for each layer for optimal air flow. These wood piles are often narrow and long creating easy access to individual pieces.
There’s also the Norwegian round stack and the German method, both of which have pieces with bark placed on top of the 7- to 8-foot stacks to protect the pile from the elements.
The Norwegian round stack.
The round enthusiasts say they are better than the traditional rectangular wood piles because they take less time to stack, shed water better, and are more stable due to the wider width.
Regardless of how you stack, it’s most important for the wood to be able to breathe and continue to dry out.
Well, it feels like time to throw another log on the fire…