It struck me yesterday afternoon that if only the EU would stop fussing about the size and straightness of our cucumbers (if, indeed, they do) and fussed instead about the size and straightness of a standard piece of firewood, then stacking the stuff would be a hell of a lot easier.
One of these days I’m going to be found at the bottom of an avalanche of poorly stacked wood and you know what? It’ll be the EU’s fault.
As stacks go that one looks really good, or should I say “Well stacked”? Innuendo intended.
what you can’t see is how it tends to bulge out alarmingly in the middle…
I know that feeling!
I can remember years ago working on a farm in Norway, stacking cord wood for sale and being told I was staking it too neatly. The objection was that was putting more logs into each cord than was absolutely necessary…
Amaranthine – so far it’s never toppled, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time…
Kim – air circulation is important too. But there’s something very satisfying about making a really neatly packed stack of wood
It wasn’t about air circulation, he was happy to have me stack the wood tightly for the house. It was more that if it was a little less tight them another cord could be made up from the same number of logs, and he wasn’t making much per cord…
When I was a lad, oh 40 odd years ago, I worked in an asbestos factory, during school summer holidays, my job, in a team of two, was to stack asbestos sheeting. We took pride in stacking neatly and straight. Now asbestos is a no go subject, and with good reason, many of the old boys, in their 40′s and 50′s back then, died from various cancers, including my dad. Sadly the link hadn’t been established then, so their families went without compensation. Sorry to be somewhat maudling. Anyway I have an interest, in everything “well stacked”, not PC, I know, as Leslie Phillips wouol say
“Well, hello….”
I have less than fond memories of stacking half a ton of wood at a time at my parents old house. Regulation size wood makes things much easier. I know this because the first winter here we burned fence posts and they were a joy to stack.
Maybe you need to have some uprights to stack the logs between — Not sure what you’re stacking the wood on — but if it is ground, some pairs of stout poles to act as “dividers” driven in at intervals will help keep “catastrophic destacking” from occurring. If it is concrete, then you might could make a wood rack with the uprights nailed to a set of rails. The rails would keep the wood off the concrete and give some air circulation.
“Catastrophic destacking”! Love it
Going to have to find a way to use that in day to day conversation.
There are ways to stack wood so it doesn’t fall over by putting sections in at ninety degrees to the rest: a bit like stone walls actually. I can send a picture if needed.
The wood is all stacked between walls, to keep it upright. It’s the falling forward onto the poor sod who went out to fetch the wood that is the problem … I’ve solved it by mostly sending the other half to do that job
@Dom — I felt “catastrophic destacking” better expressed the concept than “catastrophic stack failure.”