Wood Storage - Preparing For Winter

We'll be splitting and stacking fire wood this weekend. We know blog readers from far Eastern locales find this rustic, but it's a pretty common practice around the Inland Northwest. It does help to have neighbors who also heat with wood. A pellet stove in our basement keeps the chill out of the air and in the evening we light a fire in the wood stove. In the spring we cut down the dangerous and wind damaged Ponderosa Pine also known as Bull Pine on our property. By late summer it's dry enough for splitting and by winter it has just the right amount of moisture for a good fire. Bull Pine is probably not the best wood fuel, and you can see from the photo it has a thick, messy bark you have to get rid of, but we are surrounded by it, and it would just rot if we didn't burn it. All that aside we enjoy the ritual of storing up for winter.
P.S. This is a scan of a sketch done by family friend and Montana artist, Ace Powell.