On the stacking thing--somewhere around '76 Pappy shut off the oil furnace, prices were just crazy he said. Wood was the answer, so come summer time it was off to the woods we went, a bike and 3 wheeler in the bed of the pickup and 2-3 chainsaws, 2 gallons or premix gas for the saws, and a jug of bar oil, 2 mauls, 4 wedges, 2 axes, and an empty gas can for the bikes. We would cut big rounds from downed trees, (fir, no hemlock allowed) roll them down to the truck (unless of course it was the best of the best old growth, which we would roll up hill, across a creek or whatever was in the way), roll them into the truck and repeat until the wood was almost level with the cab. Run it home and dump it in a predetermined spot (wood shed is about 100 yards away, but seeing as this wood is for a couple families close to the road so they can get their "split" after we split the wood). Repeat this several times during the day. Eventually we would get the green light to go ride ( we filled the gas can on the way back from dropping off a load of wood). While we were riding Pappy was getting the last bit of wood, usually the extra thick bark and other easily handled bits, run that home (about a 1 hour trip each way). We would get back, load the tools and toys, spend an hour in the dark finding at least one of the wedges, and head home listening to the Mariners on the AM radio. Sunday was the day to start splitting, no stacking yet, as we still hadn't "split" the shares yet. Sunday eve it was back to moms place. The following Friday saw us splitting some more, repeat splitting on Saturday, with the family who is getting a "split" of the wood showing up to help split the pile. Needless to say the split pile is really stacking up by this time. A truck is backed up to the pile and is stacked neatly into the truck as it can carry more this way (yes, a 3/4 (camper special with helper springs) ton truck can hold an entire true cord (4X4X8, no gaps greater than a squirrel size) of wood if stacked properly. Do this all day, if we had good old growth fir we would usually be done splitting by the end of the day. Go ride around the property as a reward for working, Pappy would start hauling his "split" of the split wood to the wood shed using our old Gibson tractor and home spun trailer. I forgot to mention the movement of last years seasoned wood to the basement, once the basement was filled, we would move the seasoned wood to the front left bay of the wood shed (8X15 bay 10' tall). Sunday saw us moving the split wood to the shed and carefully stacking the wood, at 4 foot intervals (vertical) we would string some barbless fence wire to the end poles to keep the piles from shifting (who wants to re stack all that wood, right?) Once the back bay was filled we would start stacking the wood in the right front bay. Once the wood shed was filled (Brian has seen this wood shed FWIW) anything left over got added to the families split. We often helped several families out as that is what friends do, we had the saws and we had the truck that was dependable and sturdy enough to haul the wood. Pappy also had the 2 sons that could be coerced into working for the price of a gallon or 2 of gas. I neglected to mention the back porch-it has a space below for wood to be on hand for the inside stack to feed the basement stove. The porch itself has space to stack a weeks worth. Inside the house we had a wood box to be filled for the evenings fire, yes stacked neatly. Many years later (think 1999) Pappy was starting to age and good wood was getting tougher to find, and my brother and I had our own families and didn't live close by. I convinced him that a pellet stove would be much easier and more efficient. He caved in and got an insert model for the upstairs and made a space to STACK the bags of pellets in the basement. Finally, something that only needed one stack
We still have the basement stove, but that cut our wood needs by a third (heat rises and Pappy likes a nice warm floor for his feet). So, go ahead, skip the stacking, we understand who the Maryjanetinklepants is
Remember, this is all because the price of fuel oil went up to some 75 cents a gallon.