I said I wouldn't do it...

Hopefully this will be a good summer for drying wood. I can stack a bunch of dead White Ash and dead Red Oak branches....all of that could be good by fall.

Today my wife came home and saw the pile of new wood and said sarcastically "Don't you think you have enough?", then went inside to the warmth of the fire.

I've had to dip into next year's stash too. Unfortunately, for me that means wood seasoned 6-8 months. Stretched out w/ seasoned wood and a little bit of Hot Bricks (like Eco Bricks).

Not ideal, but I've only been scrounging 1 year and haven't managed to get far enough ahead yet.

Edit: The 6-8 month stuff is elm and sugar maple, not touching the oak.

I love my wife, but she says the same thing, "don't we have enough wood"? Of course, I'm down to my last cord. I have next year's 6 cords ready and stacked, but I'm getting ready to split 5 cords of oak for the 2016 winter. She rolls her eyes, but loves the warmth of our house at 74 degrees, something we could never do with propane costs. So, I keep cutting, splitting, and stacking, regardless...............

Doing the same here.....I was hoping to season the Oak stash properly, but I gotta keep the house warm....I'm sure I'll have some left over for next year, and then I got a bunch of Ash I gotta split and stack and hope that will be ready by Winter 2014.....then the search for some other fast seasoning woods.....what do you guys think, will Ash be ready to roll in 6-8 months if stacked in full sun ??....what species of wood should I be searching out ??

Beer Belly said:

Doing the same here.....I was hoping to season the Oak stash properly, but I gotta keep the house warm....I'm sure I'll have some left over for next year, and then I got a bunch of Ash I gotta split and stack and hope that will be ready by Winter 2014.....then the search for some other fast seasoning woods.....what do you guys think, will Ash be ready to roll in 6-8 months if stacked in full sun ??....what species of wood should I be searching out ??

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I've had good luck w/ maples seasoning quicker. Sugar and Norway are good options in our state.

Yep, me too, I'm digging into wood that I had no idea I would be using this year, last September I was looking at the yard saying, I gotta stop myself......and I really need to start buning some of this to get rid of it.......I'm gonna sell some of this wood..... Now I need to re-evaluate in spring and start scrounging again....

Paulywalnut said:

I'm going to have to dive into my 1 and a half and two year seasoned stash. Not oak,but have 8 cords sitting
here. My wife said "what do you mean you're out of wood"? You have 300 hundred feet of wood.

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We REALLY got walloped this season here Pauly....it's like we moved to Canada....NORTHERN Canada

PA. Woodsman said:

We REALLY got walloped this season here Pauly....it's like we moved to Canada....NORTHERN Canada

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Even in northern Canada, it`s been colder than usual. In fact, it`s the coldest it<`s been in 10 years. Saw an article this morning in the newspaper of a couple in New Brunswick that had to pay 1900$ for their electrical bill for december, and 1800$ for January.

And the models predict a colder-than-usual March. We haven`t finished sending down the Polar Vortex to you guys!

I`m glad I have the stove....

Laurent
Québec, Canada

I can't remember where I drew the 'line' for what I thought I'd use. I think I'm about 5 pallets away. I have two left inside.. that mean's 7 pallets total. So, 2 cords and change. Not gonna make it. I even offered up one to the snowmobile club for family fun day bonfire. Think I've got some hemlock slabs for that. Oh well.. just need to cut more to get ahead further. No one can have planned for the cold this year. If you can keep up this year, you can do it any year!

JP

Beer Belly said:

search for some other fast seasoning woods

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Not much that seasons faster than pine. We burn tons of it.

Beer Belly said:

Doing the same here.....I was hoping to season the Oak stash properly, but I gotta keep the house warm....I'm sure I'll have some left over for next year, and then I got a bunch of Ash I gotta split and stack and hope that will be ready by Winter 2014.....then the search for some other fast seasoning woods.....what do you guys think, will Ash be ready to roll in 6-8 months if stacked in full sun ??....what species of wood should I be searching out ??

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More ash and maple

I've got about four cords of three year seasoned wood still in my stacks, so I'm in good shape, but I'd like to hold off dipping too deep into this supply just yet. I've been logging a hard to get to piece of or property the past two weeks cutting up some beautiful dead oak that's been out there for 5 or 6 years. The wood's not too far from the house, but it all has to be carried out by hand a piece at a time due to the steep ravines I have to work around. One nice oak tree had been hung up at a 45 degree angle in another tree for years and it has remained really solid since it's been up off the ground all this time. When I finally cut it up I was surprised to find it at 15% moisture on a fresh face of a split! I put it in the stack, but have made a point of keeping all the new wood going into that bay of similar moisture content, so if I get jammed up here in a year or two I know where I can go for good wood before the three year cycle comes around.

Yessir, looking at the oldest splits intended for next year to finish out the heating season. Natch, they're on the bottom of my 6' plus stacks. (sigh) Fortunately, there is lots of space for restacking at the moment, after I shovel off the snow on the pallets. I will not be leaving ANY of the softwood behind this season, which I foolishly did last spring. "Too far away." "Got plenty for the shoulder season." "It was a long week." The usual excuses. I took the summer off from firewood, really, leaving stuff out there that would be fine for April.

As a matter of fact, I've been looking further afield this week and realizing that if I get a move on with the sled, I can pull a couple of extra cord of fir, pine and spruce a whole lot easier over the 2' snow pack in the woods, rather than trying to wheelbarrow it out later in the year. The snow is packed hard now. When this all melts, it will be months before it dries up enough to barrow it out. Would have come in really handy later this month when I exhaust what I had for a "normal" winter.

Have to keep my eyes off the 11 month locust at all costs! That's for Jan/Feb of next year.

Snow logging is fun. You don't get your bar in the dirt! I have a snowmobile with a sled. I use winter to log in areas far too wet to log in any other season.

Seems a lot of us are in the same boat. Fortunately I'm well enough ahead now, but it wasn't without a fair amount of harrassment from the wife. I also got the " Don't you think we have enough wood??" on several occasions. Now I get " You better get your ass out there and chop some more!!" lol and she has even offered to start helping. This new stove was one of the best investments we have made. She loves coming home from work and hanging out on the couch by the fire, so I get a free pass when it comes to firewood time. She doesn't complain about the stacks here and piles of rounds there any more. We were talking the other night, I heard one of the guys I work with occasionally had spent around $4k on heating oil, and I said to the wife if that were the case this stove already paid for itself. Life is good here right now

Beer Belly said:

Doing the same here.....I was hoping to season the Oak stash properly, but I gotta keep the house warm....I'm sure I'll have some left over for next year, and then I got a bunch of Ash I gotta split and stack and hope that will be ready by Winter 2014.....then the search for some other fast seasoning woods.....what do you guys think, will Ash be ready to roll in 6-8 months if stacked in full sun ??....what species of wood should I be searching out ??

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To give you a frame of reference, I fell and CSS'ed Ash in Aug/Sept that I'm burning this year. It wasn't quite ready, but a day or two in the stove room made the medium to small sized splits pretty good for burning. I was burning hotter and better than a guy down the road that has been burning for years.
6-8 months of summer will make it that much better. If I'm you, I would just make them smallish sized splits to be sure. It might not be perfect, but it can work pretty well with a little pine mixed in.

If we start to run short of what is in the barn, we still have some we cut in the 2008-2009 winter. That will really burn sweet!

Backwoods Savage said:

If we start to run short of what is in the barn, we still have some we cut in the 2008-2009 winter. That will really burn sweet!

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Same here. I'm on next years wood, luckily its CSS for 4 years. To bad it has to be the red oak tho.

I always cut dead standing so 4-5 months and I'm good to go at about 15%MC. I should have a cord at least, left over this year. When I start to clear for the view of the valley in front of the house , I'll start to get 2-3 yrs ahead.

Beer Belly said:

Doing the same here.....I was hoping to season the Oak stash properly, but I gotta keep the house warm....I'm sure I'll have some left over for next year, and then I got a bunch of Ash I gotta split and stack and hope that will be ready by Winter 2014.....then the search for some other fast seasoning woods.....what do you guys think, will Ash be ready to roll in 6-8 months if stacked in full sun ??....what species of wood should I be searching out ??

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I've had excellent luck hot-rodding Ash, Cherry and Walnut. If you can get that stuff split by April, your odds are pretty good for next winter. My other strategy was splitting TINY. 3" max. And my mantra was "never wet". The outer layers of the stacks were sub 20%. Deep in the middle I did hit damp pieces, though.

Yah, know what you mean. We had to dip into this years wood. Next years wood hasn't been split yet.

It's still up on the mountain.