1. Apparently cheap tarps left outside long enough become porous, and if used to cover firewood actually end up conducting rain into the wood *more* efficiently than just leaving the wood uncovered. The top foot or so of wood in each stack seemed wetter and heavier than when I stacked it for drying a year ago.
What I've always heard is that it traps the humidity trying to exit out of the wood. Although both items may be equally true.
This also brings back another memory. During a summer job cleaning up old lots around the town, I found painted, ceramic logs that must have been part of an old fake fireplace. They looked horribly fake, especially as they were very weathered, but when I also hid my Dad's glasses, they were real enough in the wood stove to frustrate my father when they didn't light. The paper and kindling I preloaded with them lit nicely but the logs kind of cracked into pieces with some very nasty crackling noises that had me worried for a second.
