Logging truck load delivered yesterday
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Lumber-Jack
Minister of Fire
Same here, there is birch around here, but sparse, and it's either green or rotten already.
I live in between the Similkameen and the Okanagan. Lots of Lodgepole pine, Douglas fir, Ponderosa pine, and Spruce.
Here is a 10.5 chord truck load of mostly Hard Maple that my neighbor just bought for $1100. I scrounge all of my wood and its easy to do it up here but he won't do it so he buys a truck load every 3 years. This same load always went for $800 until recently it went up since the loggers are getting that much from the mills.
3yrs for $1100 still sounds like a deal , still looks like a lot of nice furniture could be made out of that pile it would be about $8.00 a board ft for dry maple lumber here.
iluvjazznjava
Member
Yep, I do like my larch. It's the second best after birch and WAY easier to find. Nice thing is, all the larch are dead this time of year ... ha ha
On a serious note, burned mostly fir this year because I found a mill willing to sell me the scraps off their logs cheap. It had all been laying around their lumber yard for at least two years - good and dry. They even cut to length and delivered it for me. All I had to do was run the axe through each piece once and stack. I do have it as my mission this spring though to get out and find at least a cord of birch to add to the wood collection. I found a decent stand about a half hour away from my house the other day, so I think I'm in business.
Lumber-Jack
Minister of Fire
Seanm
Minister of Fire
Nice to see so many BC folks posting, I do think our numbers are growing here! I love my larch as well. Birch is slightly better in btus but will rot quicker if not taken care of right away. As you say larch is much more plentiful for us in the eastern part of the province than birch. That being said if there was a larch and a birch laying side by side Id take the birch and c,s,s right away and then go back the next day and grab that soft wood gold!
Seanm
Minister of Fire
I have a lot of White Birch going down on my lot after a drought and the ensuing Bronze Birch Borers laid waste on them. But like you say you have to be on it and I'm not. I have too much wood in the stacks most of the time so they just go to rot. I do like using the bark for stove starter though!
I know birch will rot so my main priority with this pile is to cut everything touching the ground first, old hydro poles for dunnage under the main part of the stack.We got started yesterday , forgot how heavy birch is feels like lead compared to pine.
I thought I saw some Birch on 5a outside of Princeton near the lakes, my load is out of the Clearwater area.
bobdog2o02
Minister of Fire
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
I heard that it you take a length of birch and chain saw it long ways the entire length no deeper then one inch it allows the wood to dry out and not get punky as quick, I think someone here called it unzipping.
Seanm
Minister of Fire
Yeah! I harvested just under a half cord of green birch in November that was dropped by a power line work crew. Carrying the rounds to my truck was a heavy task indeed. I have it c,s,s on dunage and top covered now so I can try to get ahead on the drying for next season. Last year I had a small amount of birch that was green and was able to get it just under 20% and have been burning it this winter.
I believe that is poindexter from Alaska. Was it zipping or unzipping? I cant remember although unzipping would make more sense. Ive been doing that ever since I heard him talking about it.
Hogwildz
Minister of Fire
No chaps... one glove....
I'd rather have chaps, then ear muffs.
Get the lad some chaps and another glove.
I'd rather have chaps, then ear muffs.
Get the lad some chaps and another glove.
iluvjazznjava
Member
Yes - this works. It also makes splitting a whole lot easier too as the paper bark on birch kind of acts like a straight jacket. One quick gash down the length of each tree will make your life easier.
bobdog2o02
Minister of Fire
How long do you season those half log, giant splits. I'd make 3-4 pieces out of some of those.
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
Wow, I am humbled. I did drop a lot of what I know about birch in this thread: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/im-gonna-burn-a-lot-of-birch.132184/
I suspect if the OP gets all that bucked, split once, stacked off the ground and maybe covered on top in the next two months or so he won't lose any of it to rot.
I don't know how fast it is going to get how warm down there in balmy BC. I do have a couple rounds of birch in my garage this winter, about 14" in diameter that I zipped or unzipped (I actually 'stripe' them with the tip of a saw blade myself, I don't know if zipped or unzipped is correct), anyway the the rounds in my very low humidity garage were striped four times about 90 degrees apart. They are I guess about 30-35cm in diameter. One I am using to split kindling on, the other is going to have my anvil sitting on it here directly.
I find in general birch rounds under 4" in diameter (~10cm) will dry out in one season (outdoors) with one stripe cut lengthwise. Birch rounds up to about 8" in diameter with one stripe will start to rot at the end of one summer outdoors but still be worth burning after they are split and seasoned. Over about 8" they got to be split at least once asap before spring thaw or they will be crap by August.
Split once, birch half rounds will be noticeably lighter to handle after even a week outdoors in temps above about 50dF or so, maybe +10C.
I suspect if the OP gets all that bucked, split once, stacked off the ground and maybe covered on top in the next two months or so he won't lose any of it to rot.
I don't know how fast it is going to get how warm down there in balmy BC. I do have a couple rounds of birch in my garage this winter, about 14" in diameter that I zipped or unzipped (I actually 'stripe' them with the tip of a saw blade myself, I don't know if zipped or unzipped is correct), anyway the the rounds in my very low humidity garage were striped four times about 90 degrees apart. They are I guess about 30-35cm in diameter. One I am using to split kindling on, the other is going to have my anvil sitting on it here directly.
I find in general birch rounds under 4" in diameter (~10cm) will dry out in one season (outdoors) with one stripe cut lengthwise. Birch rounds up to about 8" in diameter with one stripe will start to rot at the end of one summer outdoors but still be worth burning after they are split and seasoned. Over about 8" they got to be split at least once asap before spring thaw or they will be crap by August.
Split once, birch half rounds will be noticeably lighter to handle after even a week outdoors in temps above about 50dF or so, maybe +10C.
Wood Duck
Minister of Fire
All the birch out in BC is Paper Birch. There is no Yellow Birch out west.
That is a great view behind your pile of birch.
That is a great view behind your pile of birch.
I don't know why I'd split them any more, not making kindling we are feeding a boiler as big as a car at 75lbs of wood per fill.Our climate is semi arid very hot summers with almost no humidity should have no problem seasoning this wood.
Thank you for all your research on Birch , I had never heard of zipping the log. These logs were harvested with a processor which scored the bark full length. Do you think that is enough or in the event I don't get the whole load CCS soon zip them?
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
What is your target moisture content, and in September of what year do you want to be there?
If you are shooting for Sep 2015 and want to be under 20%MC wet basis (electronic gizmo) you probably want all that split to roughly 10x10cm not later than April 15 2015, stacked off the ground on pallets that are on cinder blocks, and covered on top with one good and one excellent among sun and wind exposure.
I don't see anything in there small enough to dry out without rotting using just a stripe or zip. You might have some little guys hiding in there, but the average size log in there (in Fairbanks) would to have to be split once, stacked off the ground left uncovered this year and covered next year to be at or near 20% in Sep 2016.
You weather, I hope, is a little warmer than mine. You might be warm enough to get away with splits at 15x15 or even 15x20 cm and make 20% in Sep 2015, not sure.
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