Just got my delivery of not so seasoned wood

Maybe you could trade with someone who is ahead. What kind of wood?

Keep in mind that a moisture meter is only accurate into the 30s. (Read up on fiber saturation point). Once wood is at its FSP the electrical resistance doesn't change, no matter how wet it is. With readings in the high thirties your wood can easily be holding a lot more moisture than what your meter reports.

I don't believe there is any such thing as buying seasoned wood. Nobody has the room to stack and let the wood sit to season for a year at least. There is a local firewood processor nearby that claims he is selling seasoned wood. His processor and conveyor can cut, split, a pile 30 ft high in about 2 days and its all gone by the weekend . He told me that his logs are cut in the winter into spring and already half seasoned before he gets them................ Yeah right. He charges $80 / face cord delivered, only way its seasoned is to buy 2-3 years ahead and season yourself.

I think I got really lucky. I had 2 cord delivered a couple weeks ago. I mm'd a good cross section of the load and most were in the 15-19% range. Many were 9-10% and very few were 20-24%.

This was my first ever wood purchase so I was quite nervous about what I'd get.

I have only found one guy who sells mostly seasoned wood. I have picked it up from his placed and it is all stacked in rows in his field. Mostly 12 months after stacked. He lives quite far from me.

Every person I call from Craigslist somehow screws me. I have given up on expecting seasoned wood, but they usually get me with less than paid for quantity, pieces way too large, or crappy/softwood.

I managed to find a guy who sells *seasoned wood at a reasonable price. He has 40 cubic foot bins packed tightly with white/red oak for $50. He has an enormous yard where he has his own machine shop and a lot for stacking the bins on top of each other. Every fall he and a couple of his guys start cleaning up his woods, felling trees and bucking ones that are down. So, the wood I'm purchasing now was from last fall. I've purchased 3 bins each of the past 2 years. Last winter I was purchasing his Sandy clean up. It's not perfect, but it will do when you have horrible winters. I'm putting this years purchases away for next winter so they are ready to go. I'm slowly making inroads on the 3 year plan.

Well... look at the positive. You'd have green wood if you cut and split your own this year anyway. Still, the seller should be informed that you're not happy about paying for something you didn't get.

It's true though, what the folks say here. Not all firewood sellers offer fully cured wood. Many will leave a pile of splits to set for a year or so then move it as seasoned. It really isn't but they say it is.

One fella who's local told me he girdle-cuts trees then drops 'em a year later to split and sell that fall. Another guy I heard from leaves logs in the round a year or so, then splits and sells when the phone rings.

Had an old boy stop by the house last week to ask if we were selling firewood. I told him no, the stacks were for our use. And even if we did sell, the stacks out front aren't seasoned yet anyhow.

It's better to cut and split your own. Can have a load of hardwood logs delivered and work it up that way as you have time.

JTRock said:

Thanks For the brighter side Fred. I knew it was going to be a crap shoot this year and it didn't work out. However your right about being set for next year. Your right about getting logs and splitting myself. Then I'll know what's up

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Keep coming back and you'll pick up all kinds of tips. You'll probably catch the scrounging bug and start getting yourself ahead. This becomes a way of life.... a religion. I've converted.

I just want to find out who the idiot is around here who generally manages to put a last-minute stack of green wood right in front of the seasoned stuff...

Getting green wood delivered is a drag, but it can be worse when it happens in February. Half of that stuff was literally frozen together. That was the last straw and I got pretty serious about scrounging afterwards.

JTRock said:

Not sure how to scrounge with a Honda Crv and my company car lol!

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I predict your next car will be a truck.

When we started burning we had no firewood stocked. Plenty of trees in the woodlot for years to come but nothing we could burn right away. So we had a cord delivered that turned out not to be as well seasoned as the seller claimed. Called a different seller for a couple more cords... and that load wasn't cured neither.

What choice did we have? Had to struggle along with it and make do. Was up cleaning the cap screen every couple weeks. The wood didn't burn very well anyhow. The first seller called back to ask if we needed any more. Not after that stuff you delivered last time, I told him. It was green as a dollar bill. Thanks but no thanks.

My next purchase was a saw. I got busy on some red maple, figuring it would be ready to use by the following winter. CS&S some 3 cord of the stuff. Then it was on to red oak and some gum to get ahead. The maple burned much better than the delivered load, after just 9 months stacked.

We bought a house last July which had a small wood stove. We had no experience burning wood.
Bought wood in Sept and hoped for the best. Tried to burn only dry stuff and restack the wet stuff.
We did pretty good as we had no creosote when we had the chimney cleaned over the summer.
Bought a more size appropriate second stove over the summer.
So now we have wood we've had since last year. And started next years wood stack as well.
If we run out this year, we run out. Live and learn for future years.
Now I'm trying to learn to scrounge wood.
I figure it's going to take a few years to get rolling well.

This weekend changed my perspective on buying wood. It was the first time I processed a log load and it kicked my butt.

I have a full 1.25 cord c/s/s and the rest in rounds probably totalling 2 cords. There will probably be 20 hours by the time I'm done.

Yeah... It was good exercise and fun but not nearly as fun as the random scrounge.

$175 or so for the occasional green cord is definitely in my future plans.

Yeah you can buy seasoned wood here as it don't take 10 year to dry. Even green cut will dry out after a year or less.

Hardwood might be the best but plenty of hardwood burners on here are gonna freeze this winter or be out of pocket.

mark cline said:

I don't believe there is any such thing as buying seasoned wood. Nobody has the room to stack and let the wood sit to season for a year at least.

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I will sell 44 face cords this year; 20 have already been delivered. It's all seasoned: Cut/Split/Stacked (not thrown in a heap) since last year (except some standing dead Black Cherry that I cut down last fall and C/S/S this spring). In fact, I have so much 3-4 year old C/S/S Oak that I'm even selling 12 face cords of that. I would agree that one can hardly find actual seasoned wood, most times you have to do it yourself. I stack it on pallets. I measure the stacks with a tape measure to ensure that people get the quantity that they pay for. It's a small time operation, just for a little extra cash in the fall, I enjoy being in the woods, and have access to wood (126 acres worth). I have the same customers and quantity each year. I have more and more people that want firewood all the time and I have to turn them away. Word of mouth is a good advertiser, I do not use Craigslist. I am getting more requests than I can accomodate! I wish I could say yes to everyone that calls, but that's not possible. Oh, and I split it all by hand, too. An axe is good for the body and soul! Here are two of the finest helpers one could hope for:

Fred Wright said:

Well... look at the positive. You'd have green wood if you cut and split your own this year anyway. Still, the seller should be informed that you're not happy about paying for something you didn't get.

It's true though, what the folks say here. Not all firewood sellers offer fully cured wood. Many will leave a pile of splits to set for a year or so then move it as seasoned. It really isn't but they say it is.

One fella who's local told me he girdle-cuts trees then drops 'em a year later to split and sell that fall. Another guy I heard from leaves logs in the round a year or so, then splits and sells when the phone rings.

Had an old boy stop by the house last week to ask if we were selling firewood. I told him no, the stacks were for our use. And even if we did sell, the stacks out front aren't seasoned yet anyhow.

It's better to cut and split your own. Can have a load of hardwood logs delivered and work it up that way as you have time.

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I agree 100%. If you cut your own log lengths or buy log length you can assure every split is of uniform length and segregate the wood based upon drying time. It is a total crap shoot if you buy firewood already split...and IMO a pain in the @#$.

JTRock said:

Not sure how to scrounge with a Honda Crv and my company car lol!

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One big advantage of living in the land of softwoods is the lower density of the wood. I can FILL my Subaru Outback with firewood (holds between 1/3 and 2/5 of a cord) without totally bottoming out the suspension. I don't think I could pack it to the gills with Oak with the same result. But keep you eyes out for scrounges anyway, I always keep a tarp, a long sleeved work shirt and a pair of gloves in the car, just in case. I bet you could get a face cord in that CRV if you stack it nice and tight and aren't driving far.