On my to-do list for the last couple of years has been a wood-store. We've been stacking wood in rows between the pillars of the carport. Sort of works ok, but if we have a lot of rain the underlying ground can be damp, and that wet the bottom layer of the wood stack. Its notionally underneath the roof of the carport, but many times a stormy rain-burst has drifted in sideways and got the wood wet.

It all dries out because it catches most of the afternoon sun, but we've had some dud weeks in winter when it rains for days and the firewood ends up getting wet and doesn't get a chance to dry out.

Last year I had the brilliant idea of draping used oil bags over the pile. The bags are large metallicized plastic bladder bags like a wine-cooler bag. They hold up to 250 litres, but when used and empty they flatten out to the size of a beach towel. I thought if I draped them over the wood it would shrug off the rain. It did, it worked quite well, but the plastic in the bags breaks down in sunlight and I found all my wood this winter was coming into the house covered in blue plastic micro-fragments.

So I have started with a proper store. Concrete floor, raised slightly above the soil layer. Tin sides, to absorb summer sunlight heat and dry the stack, and a semi-transparent roof to allow sunlight through. I had to buy cement, but otherwise its all made from stored farm "resources" (i.e. stuff from the junkpile). But its relatively straight/square, looks neat. I've done one bay, and am starting on the next one.

New woodstoire ready for filling

I can fit two rows of 30cm logs to a height of about 110 cm, and the bay is 3.5 m long, which is about two and a half metres of wood. A second bay will get us almost five metres. Not enough for winter, so I will end up stacking a third row in front of the shed. It might score a little bit of wind-drift rain, but not very often. Happy to see how it goes. I can always add to the structure next year.

When we first started here the place was mostly bare of mature trees suitable for firewood. But in ten years a lot has happened and grown, and for the third year now we won't have to buy firewood, as long as I can cut, cart and stack it all!

Two days ago, with the first woodstore bay completed, I had a wood carting day. Some of it is cut windfall, a lot of it is the loggy branches from pruning oversized olive trees. Its a mix of Ash. Olive, Red Gum and Black Wattle. Anyway, a day with a trailer and dumping it all under the carport. It all has to be cut to size and then stacked.

All I have to do is cut this, stack it, split the big ones, and we are set for next winter!