I add to it as I take out
--I have more now then when I started this winter. I also have a ton cut up waiting to be hauled back, and around a dozen trees lined up for dropping along with a lot of big branches just waiting on me. When i walk the dogs I look for deadfalls and standing dead and leaners, mark them in my mind as "targets of opportunity" and go get them when I have time. Trying to build up to many many years in advance.
I have always thought of my firewood as "stored solar power" a sort of rechargeable battery, something like that.
One place I lived and worked as a caretaker had an outstanding big wood shed, they had some wood in there that was seasoned fifteen years! Man, that was some good stuff.
I *like* that firewood, especially stuff that comes from onsite, helps make you independent of outside utilities and 'bills". When we moved here, looked at several similar little houses and cabins, but we picked this one because it had two woodstove connections, plus its own water well, the other little houses had neither. Instant deal breakers for me. With a garden and firewood and well water and some chickens and access to hunting and fishing..you can be theoretically completely independent, no matter how bad the economy gets, etc. That's my main gig, getting independent, shooting for an eventual 100% self sufficiency. I know that is hard to achieve, but we are a lot closer than most people. I even have enough of a modest solar PV rig that if push come to shove, I could get by with that. Enough for a light or two, charge the cellphones, run a laptop, run a little TV etc. And I know it is enough, because that is what powered our Rv for a long time, we lived fine with that amount electricity.
For the well, I have what is called a "bore bucket", so even there I could still cruise even without mains power. I also have a small hand crank washing machine as my emergency back up! Doesn't do a lot, but it works, tried it out when I got it.