I did my first log collection trip of this year, a week or so earlier than originally planned. The weather was just so good and I had spare time so I thought why not. This was intended to be just a recce trip to see how much wood was available so I didn’t take my chain saw with me.

The trip was well worth it, there are logs in abundance of all shapes and sizes, so I set about loading up the car with logs that were easy to lift and carry and in the and in the end got a good car full.

Once I got home I got it all unloaded into the garage to take the weight off the cars suspension and then left it at that.

Next day I got the electric chainsaw out to cut the logs to length for our wood burner.

Now here is a little tip for you to stop the sawdust going everywhere. Put a piece of old washing line across your garage and hang an old groundsheet or dust sheet with pegs from it so it touches the floor. Set up your sawing so that you are facing the hanging sheet, now as you start sawing you will see that the sheet catches the sawdust and chips as you are sawing preventing them from going all over the place.

Sawing done, time to get the log splitter in position and get those logs split and stacked outside so they can season during the warm months to come.

You will notice I have a table set up on one side of the log splitter, this is just a couple of saw horses and a piece of old ply wood laid across them. This is  a great back saver as it cuts down of the amount of bending and lifting you have to do. For example when you split a round in half, you can roll one half onto your makeshift table and continue to split the other half. Keep you wheel barrow close to hand and you can just throw your split logs into it as you make them.

So all in all the first log collection of the year was well worth it, gave me about 12 wheel barrow loads that have started to fill the logs stores.

It’s the middle of March now and time to be thinking about getting the firewood in for next winter, the outside log stores are empty now and they need to refilled with logs so they can season (dry out) during the warmer months.

Check the Tools you use for making your firewood

So jobs to do, service the chainsaw and sharpen the chains, give the log splitter a thorough check over and perform a test run to make sure there are no hydraulic oil leaks anywhere and make sure everything is working as it should. It’s also a good opportunity to give the outside log stores another coat of wood preservative as they are all empty at the moment.

Then in early April I will head over to my friends yard and start cutting his felled trees into manageable sizes. Lengths of 12 to 14 inches are good for our stove. I do this cutting up at his yard for two reasons, the first being that petrol chainsaws are noisy little beasts and they can easily upset the neighbours, and secondly smaller pieces of wood are easier to load into the car. It’s always tempting to pick up a larger piece, but then you get that warning twinge in your back and you realise it wasn’t such a smart idea after all!

Once the car is full we come back home and unload and then set about splitting the logs. Once they are split that are stacked in the outdoor log stores. This usually takes me around ten trips up to the yard to completely fill the log stores so it is time consuming, but enjoyable work.

Now let nature take over

Now it’s up to mother nature to do her work by giving us lots of sunshine and a gentle breeze which are ideal condition for drying out logs. I usually find that 5 to 6 months is ample to dry out all the logs outside as it’s all softwood If it was hardwood you could easily double the drying time.

By mid September we should have good stock of seasoned firewood all ready for whatever the winter decides to throw at us. If you want to learn more about how I process my firewood you can read my Introduction to Log Burning for Heating your Home
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