We live in Maine. Winters are long, summers are short. Heat is a necessity for survival – seriously. The saying goes, ‘Wood heats you three times; once when you cut it (we used to cut all our wood), once when you stack it (we still stack about EIGHT cords of wood each year!), and once when you burn it’ – so TRUE! It’s an incredible amount of work – a cord of wood measures, 4′ X 4′ X 8′ L – Stacking eight cords of wood is not easy task. It’s not a horrible task either, just time consuming. I’ve stacked wood while pregnant, with Finn on my back in a pack, and in good and bad weather – you do what you have to do…it’s a labor of love really – wood heats this house better than oil could any day, and I feel better about utilizing wood, I feel it’s the lesser of two evils… solar would be best – maybe our next house…but until then, wood it is. 
Under the best of circumstances we would have all our wood already stacked, dried, and ready for the season – well, we don’t. So much to do and so little time for the parents of a two old, growing an art based business – all on a tight budget…
We have a few cords ready (and a small amount stacked) and one more cord was delivered today.
Three more cords are on order and due to arrive shortly…wood, wood and more wood is what will be on our minds for the next few months.
Keeping it dry (covered with tarps in bad weather and uncovered in good weather), making (and finding) time to haul and stack it and then moving it inside to burn, unfortunately that will be sooner than later – we typically burn wood from mid October through mid June – we have a constant fire in our home for nearly eight months, equal to the amount of wood we burn – one cord a month…
So until we get that fire going, I will enjoy the windows open, the sounds coming through and revel in the fact that until then, there’s one less thing to do…may winter take its’ time…
Ripe Red Berries 
We will be getting our wood some time soon, but luckily we only need 2 cords. After dealing with the frozen tarps, we (husband) built a pole shed. Much easier. We get green wood, so we built a second pole shed. One for green and last years dry. It’s still a lot of work, but much easier.
Mim Pepper
Sounds like a good solution…we too get green and let it season then stack in a covered area (breezeway) between house and barn…when we own our own house, we’ll have a much larger area (covered) for storage (as you do) and hopefully get away for part of the winter and not have such an old (drafty) house to heat, thus not need so much wood…thanks for your comment!
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