Holzhaufen

Image Gallery Set and level the pole.

Easy to erect, space efficient, and a joy to behold. Is this the ultimate woodpile?

"Every man," wrote Thoreau, "looks at his woodpile with a kind of affection." Well, maybe so, but some woodpiles merit more fondness than others. There are those that are piles of logs dumped on the ground like pick-up sticks, and then there are those that approach the level of art.

Witness the holzhaufen, a traditional German firewood-curing stack. Able to hold as much as two and a half cords in a six-foot-diameter space, the conelike structure is a marriage of form and function—a marvel to look at and a model of efficient design. And though the structure looks elaborate, building one generally takes only a little more time than making a conventional stack. North Carolinian Don Jennings and his son, featured in the photos, finished the nine-foot-tall, twocord holzhaufen you see here in about two hours.

There are several essentials for a holzhaufen: split wood 12 to 24 inches long (the pieces needn't be precisely the same length, but uniformity helps) . . . a supply of smaller, kindling-size splits . . . and a sunny, level site. If the ground isn't level, the pile could tip, so choose your spot carefully. You'll need from four to six feet of circular space; the shorter the wood, the smaller you should make the holzhaufen's diameter (Don's is six feet across). You'll also need a straight pole (Mr. Jennings uses a sectional aluminum tent pole) the same height or higher than the pile you intend to build—a ten-foot stack, which can contain from two to two and a half cords, is considered maximum, while four feet is as low as you should go. (Remember, though, that this is a curing stack; if you want your dried wood to be easily accessible, and don't want to restack it, don't build a holzhaufen that's higher than you can reach.) Last, get a lightweight board, cut it as long as the pile's intended diameter, and drill a hole in its center just big enough to slide the pole through.