Who else in the Northeast is getting concerned their wood isn't drying

We've had tons of rain here in PA, but my Holz haufens seem to keep the wood reasonably dry, and I think I am getting some decent drying. The holz haufens are definitely shorter than they were when I built them. I hope this is due to wood drying and shrinking, not settling of pieces slipping into gaps below. I think the wood is drying.

I just cover the wood around the end of sept and it does fine. We are just coming into the hot part of the year...

I wouldn't worry that much about it,,,methinks we will hit dry spell next month...;-)

Wood duck, Make sure your Holz isn't sinking into the mud!
Just wait, it will be hot and dry and the cities and towns will be talking about drought emergencies!

I was rather curious how things were doing today so I did a little checking. My 10/11 supplies were measuring around 30-35%, Since I didn't measure these when fresh split I can't really tell if they have done much in the last few months... Now the pine I split some today and it measured 35ish, but some that I split a couple months ago is in the low 20's so that was a surprise.

My 'ready to burn' pile for this winter I checked as well. I pulled a piece off the top as well as one from the middle front that I could pull out without causing a collapse. Split them both and measured. One came in at 20% the other at 12% so I don't think the pile is soaking up too much there. Again - I didn't check before (I just got the meter a month or so ago and haven't yet developed a habit of measuring).

As a whole I'm surprised at just how dry the wood in the middle of the pile has stayed even with these wet days. I look deep into the pile and see dry surfaces on the splits in there so I just have to assume that somehow the wood on top is channeling the rain down in some way that it doesn't wash over a very high percentage of the wood. I'll bet there are some soaked pieces in there of course, but not all of it is getting that way when it rains and perhaps since there is good drainage it will all just flow off and thus dry up pretty quick whenever the rain does stop.

I am a bit concerned about drying - it has been a very wet spring in the Mid-Atlantic. This will be my first winter with the Jotul insert so I just started trying to build up my 2 years of supply this spring. I am also not sure how much I expect to burn in a season. Seasoned wood (3+ yrs) I have a face cord of oak and a face cord of apple. I have a cord of oak I am hoping will be ready by winter but that is my big unknown with this weather. I have another cord of red oak I split this spring and have it marked for 2010/11. I am waiting for my moisture meter to arrive from Amazon - hopefully that will alleviate some of my concerns.

BrotherBart said:

My wife and I were talking this afternoon and we cannot remember a day that it didn't rain sometime during the day or night since the first week of April. It has played hell with the wood cutting just like it did when it rained all spring and summer last year. At least I have two years under cover that has been seasoning for a year for one and two years for the other.

Year three is looking flakey if it doesn't quit this stuff. I usually have a season's worth of wood on the stacks by the end of May. This week I finally was able to lay in a quarter cord and that is all that has been done this spring.

Anybody have an ARK for sale?

Click to expand...

We're building one. And it's gonna float right down the lane.

Woods is checking, how ever ;-)

Murph wants to know what the sun is

Well yeah it's been wetter than normally but split wood left uncovered will still season if left 'exposed' to mother nature. We don't cover our until around Thanksgiving.

I have been curious too, this is my first year without covering my wood. so far I don't like it. I am seeing a lot of white mold/fungus. I think if we ever get a few days of sun to dry out the piles I will just throw a tarp over the top to keep it from soaking all this rain.

This is my first year leaving my piles uncovered too. I am a little concerned with all of the rain but I know a week of hot sun will dry off any moisture from the rain. I just need to see the sun, it has rained 21 out of 22 days in June here already.

No worries here . . . even with several days of rain all you need is a good day or two of sun and wind and the pile will be dry to the touch . . . and we still have several more months to go before it's time to cover the piles and anything can happen in that time. Plus, I am of the opinion that rain doesn't "unseason" wood . . . although admittedly it might make it a little more difficult to season. My main issue at this point is that I'm trying to clear a lot for the FD by August and build a woodshed which means rain = downtime.

I hear you on the downtime aspect. I still have a pile of logs waiting to be bucked that have been there for way too long. I refuse to touch them when they or the grass (now getting rather long) around them are soggy so I rather need some sun a day before as well the day of cutting... and of course it needs to be on the weekend since skipping work to buck them isn't really in my long term best interest as fun as it might be

Well, as long as it really isn't something of biblical proportion I'm sure it will eventually stop - then as someone may have pointed out, we'll all be on drought watch and perhaps complaining about being too hot as we look forward to winter again eh? However I think I do have a better appreciation now for what it is like to try and dry wood out in say Ireland eh?

I have to agree with you guys, it has been abnormally wet in the northeast for the last several weeks, fairly cool too. With that said, things have a way of averaging out when it comes to weather.

I was checking wood yesterday. It doesn't look like it has dried much over the last month... but since I have about 19+ cords with about half of it split (the other half bucked), I'm not overly concerned about one wet month setting me back. The problem is almost all of my wood is oak (with some beech mixed in), so I really should get more split so I it can season for a solid 2 or 3 years.

FWIW, it looks like things are going to get warm and sunny towards the end of the week.

midwest has been much wetter than normal and the piles are shrinking as normal

Its only mid June, I wouldn't worry about it too much. On average it'll dry up and be hot and sunny and your wood will dry up just fine. Cover it in the fall.

3 weeks from now we'll be screaming drought.

savageactor7 said:

Well yeah it's been wetter than normally but split wood left uncovered will still season if left 'exposed' to mother nature. We don't cover our until around Thanksgiving.

Click to expand...

Same here......it'll be fine.

I'm more concerned with my veggies which are doing jack with all this rain!

I'm beginning to believe that covered is the way to go. I can notice a difference between the wood in my new shed and the one stacked row I have outside exposed. Both had very nice checking going on the ends but when it rains or gets real humid like today those checks close up on the outside row and pretty much stay open under my shed. Me thinks disappearing checks is a sign of the wood sucking in moisture like a sponge.

Why be worried in June???? Stay cool guys. Let Mother Nature take care of things in her own time.

It is very natural for new people to worry about the rain hurting their wood pile. Soon you'll get over this (hopefully but some never do) and not worry a bit. Just leave it alone and it will dry. Even a little mold will stop as soon as the hot dry part of summer hits us. Well, we're about to be hit this week!

what ever happened to global warming?

I'll tell ya what - we had 5 or 6 inches of rain from Thursday through Saturday here. Hot and mid 80's yesterday and today. I went out to pick up one of my fallen stacks tonight and the wood was bone dry. I don't think it takes much time at all to dry off rain water. I'll be covering my stacks in September/October....