Holz Hausen

Ok, so this is Maine, which means it gets gets bonechillingly cold in the winter. A year or so after Annie and I moved here, we purchased a nice wood stove. Wood Stoves are great as supplemental heat. We keep the thermistat down low (about 60) and run our stove all day. However, with oil prices rising, when we called around about wood everyone was out of seasoned hard wood. We finally found a place and were able to get a couple of cords. However, so as not to be in this predicament again next year, we decided to buy a couple more cords of green wood and let it season for the winter.

This means that we have spent the past few weeks cutting and stacking firewood, both seasoned and green. It's very reassuring to have all of these stacks of wood around the yard and know that even in the dead of the brutal Maine winter, we're going to be warm.

However, since we purchased green wood for the first time this year, we did some online research about stacking the wood, to help it to dry as quickly as possible so it will be available when needed. One method, from Germany is called the Holz Hausen. It has a cool name, and looked cool on the website, so we decided to give it a try.

You start with a circle of wood, seven to ten feet in diameter. Wood on the outside is stacked wagonwheel style, with wood in the center stacked vertically. This is supposed to create a chimney effect, drawing wood through the stack and drying it out quickly. We decided to start small, using a 7 foot diameter base. You end up with a round "hut" of approximately 2 cords of wood, about seven and a half feet tall, tapered at the top to allow the rain and snow to slide off. We are very happy with the results. We'll let you know if it works as advertized next year.