If you love a blazing fire on a cold winter night proper storage for firewood is not something to ignore. Wood should be allowed to season for at least six month before burning it. If you buy firewood, look for wood that appears to be weathered and may often have shrinkage cracks on the ends. Weathered wood is lighter in weight and lacks the noticeable “fresh cut” smell of wood that has not been properly aged.

If you buy firewood well in advance of the months it will be used you will avoid the spitting and hissing as moisture is driven out of unseasoned wood by the fire. By purchasing more wood than needed for this winter you can have highly seasoned wood to use as fire starter and kindling next year and that well aged wood will produce more heat.

Firewood is usually purchased by the cord which indicates a neat stack of wood measuring 4 feet high by 8 feet wide. Of course you can always cut your own wood but cutting down trees and splitting logs is definitely the hard way to fill the fireplace.

Firewood must be properly stored if you want to assure good quality, burnable logs when winter comes. To keep out insects the wood should be stored off the ground. If you want real excitement try burning logs that have been in contact with the ground for a few months. You may find yourself battling dozens of black beetles pouring out of the wood to escape the flames.

There are steel racks available commercially that will hold a cord of firewood. However, you can make your own wood rack by digging four postholes, inserting upright 8 foot landscape timbers and adding quick setting concrete for stability. Place the post holes so there will be two timbers at each end to form the corners and one timber length between the two set of uprights. Secure two more timbers horizontally to the uprights to form a shelf. Stack the wood on the rack in a way that allows sunlight and air circulation. A loose tarp will let the wood to continue to age while keeping rain from soaking it.

It is tempting to place a firewood rack near the house but that can also be attractive to insects (think termites). It is much better to have a wood box or smaller rack on your porch or patio where you can keep enough logs for a couple fires and restock that smaller wood storage bin from the larger rack located away from your home.

When the snow is flying it will be a simple matter to step out to the patio and bring in an armload of firewood. During warmer hours of the day you can replenish the “ready” supply from your large rack. Proper firewood storage provides a ready source of kindling and logs for the fireplace or wood stove.