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You should try and have a roof type structure over it to keep it dry, like a leanto/carport. That way it should not start to rot.

Eventually when you come to burn the wood it may be differcult to get started and produce more smoke which means more residue gets deposited in chimney.

If you cover it with canvas/tarpaulin then you limit the airflow which you need to help it dry out.

Thank you I've a plastic sheet I can cover it with when I've finished stacking it.  Eventually they'll be space to store it inside when there's room.

for the duration of the summer leave it uncovered, when you store it inside you will naturally be stacking the driest on the bottom and the wettest as in not fully seasoned on top.

The Bulgarians in our village leave it out all summer uncovered

Kath, think you got wrong end of conversation, by covering with sheet you stop the air from circulating. The air circulation helps dry out the wood.

Thank you xx

Good work getting firewood early, Kath. I need to arrange to get some in now rather than wait till it gets cold.

Try to stack it away from a wall so that air can get to all sides, as that is more important to drying the sap out of freshly cut wood than it getting wet by rain. Ideally a rain cover is good too, but try to have it lifted up a good distance above the stack of wood, like a tent fly, so air gets to the top.

I see a lot of wood left out uncovered for the summer in our village, but summers are very dry there. My ricketty old woodshed is open on the sides and has a metal roof.

Well I've had to start yet another wood pile so fingers crossed as I'm still using wood that I bought in 2019 and still have an outside room full of it, plus trees and branches that I had to cut down if we have another mild winter I shouldn't have to buy any more for a few years.

Excellent! It's always good to have a decent stockpile.

    Excellent! It's always good to have a decent stockpile.
   

    -@janemulberry

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We have 10 cubic metres of hardwood drying away in our specially-constructed outside woodstore, which is a metal lean-to with a sloping plastic roof.  It gets cold up here, so we thought it'd be a good idea to have plenty to hand.  But here's the rub: we added 25cm external insulation to the house some years ago - useful to keep the place cool as well as warm.  Neither of us likes a hot house, so we don't have a problem with the kitchen etc being at 6C during the winter and as long as the bed is warm, that goes for the bedrooms as well.  Our original 10 cubes of hardwood is still outside - minus a couple of kamina-fulls when we wanted to have a pretty fire for visitors - only now, after nearly ten years, it's more like balsa wood..

Experience has also confirmed that aircon is cheaper for heating than any other method, and a lot easier to install and maintain, plus it'll cool you in the summer.   We do have back-up woodburners on every floor, but only one of them has ever been lit, and even then only for the "pretty fires" I mentioned.

LOL, 10 cubes is a little more than I was thinking of as a stockpile, but that's a pretty good one! Now it's dried to balsa weight, you will burn it up faster when your guests want pretty fires!

We aren't quite as hardy as you with regard to low temps, though we do keep our home cooler than most in winter. We intend to use a mix of wood and electric for winter heat and cooking.

I still get that atavistic thrill of cooking on a wood stove, and I just feel warmer when I can see the flames, though I suspect that thrill may wear off fast when I'm hauling wood and cleaning the ash box for the fires in the kitchen and the living room every single day!

But we do need to ensure we have a good supply, at least for a back up if not for everyday use. Our village is toward the end of the electricity line, so I'm told that if the power goes down in winter, it can take a few days to get restored.