Cheating?

It must be regional and climate determining the seasoning of oak. I have hot summers and cold winters, no snow. I have oak, Querces Lobata- white, red or black I don't know, we call it valley oak, other native oaks are blue oak, live oak, or pin oak. These native trees get punky in the heart wood at the base and fall over. The native semi-arid climate they prefer, and over watering of landscape does them in. I just went through 3/4 cord that was cut fall '11, split and stacked early spring '12. Maybe it could have been better, my Harbor Freight MM said anywhere from 18%-24%. It ignites quickly on hot coals, burns hot. The ignition test is supreme.

Yes that is cheating. Its not good for you.
On the other hand it would be great for me
I'll take it off your hands

Right on. Your summers and winters are much, much different out there; especially the summers. Funny thought that we've never thought of a pin oak being in an arid climate.

I had some storm downed post oak go to less than 20% in about ten months because of the extreme Texas draught and over 100 days of temps close to 110 degrees and hot, dry winds. That was a very unusual circumstance. I burn oak pretty much exclusively because that's what we have on our land. Even standing dead sits stacked and split for at least two years. Three is even better, even with standing dead.

Sounds like a good deal

Up here we pay $125/cord, mostly maple, with some yellow birch and beech mixed in. 4" to 14"

Yup full lenght, $200 blocked and split

I'd pay that....

$85/cord delivered? It costs me roughly $80/cord to cut snags,any deadfall,clean up any storm damage etc on parents acreage.That figures in 2hrs round trip just to get there & back,gas, truck/equipment costs,maintenance etc

But its better than any gym membership & it just wouldnt be the same if I couldnt work in the woods.....

At $85 a cord, grab as much as you can afford & cram onto your property....

Round here its about 85 for a face cord, seasoned, and about 55-65 for a green full cord. In my mind it'd be worth saving some money and buying it green. Then again it doesn't help when you need it right away.
Lucky me, father in law is a logger. :-D

I think single rows, stacked off the ground, out in the open with full sun/wind, top covered and split smallish will burn decent after 2 summers. Not perfect but it'll burn..........I burned some 9 month seasoned oak my first season, it was FAR from perfect but it burned decent. It was all split on the small side.....

I'd try to get some maple, ash, cherry with some oak sprinkled in and you'll have much better results.

The designs of which have yet to be released by the defense department.
Rumor has it this "shed" will be able to withstand a nuclear disaster and will be visible from space.

This will be bought before the road bans take effect this spring if not sooner. I wanted the smaller size oak as there will be less splitting and I like to have rounds for the over night burns. There are a few loggers selling semi loads of hard wood and got hooked up with a guy suppling small rounds of oak in 12 cord loads. Yes they are green, and 8 foot long, and was hoping to start using in the winter of 2014/2015. I'm sure it won't be ideal but maybe better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. This is by Hayward wisconsin.

Caudaray80, Sounds like a good deal. Do you know the guy or have you heard from anyone else about his deals?

An advertisement in a local paper but have a friend who buys from him every two years. There are a few loggers who sell this way in the area of my house. I like the idea of smaller easier to handle logs as the are stacked in a mound.

Heck, burn it semi-green next winter and make all these forum guys smoke! Its your money and your wood, do what you want with it...

$85 a cord for delivered rounds of oak is a steal. I would buy that if I could here.

There is a guy around here that will sell for $685 a truckload... green, tree length... typical straight logging truck... holds about 10 cord... I'd pay $85/cord for oak rounds

That's what I would have thought too, but I have oak c/s/s in late Feb 2011 that was useless in October 2012, and burning without a problem now.

TE

it all depends when the trees in your area "wake up"...here, you've got until about the second week of feb before the roots start pushing sap up.... the difference between wood cut in late january and late feb can be an entire year of seasoning.. sometimes it pays to listen to the advice of "old timers" (I'm not one of them)

At $80 per cord, delivered logs. Good price.
Be hard pressed to get a better deal.
I'd call it cheating getting 12 cords of oak delivered for $80 / cord, but I live in No Oak Alaska.
Ask him what he'd charge per cord to deliver a load to Wasilla Alaska LOL

Logging truckloads of green oak logs here go for $1200. Nearly 2x what you pay!

A little off topic, but all drying wood trends towards the avg humidity of the environment around it.

Wood in the Pacific NW may never get as dry as that in parts of TX for example

Bret, Where in Maine are you? I live in Monmouth, sure would like to get a few of those loads. Can you share with me the info. Thanks east6@roadrunner.com Foamit UP

I am sure my wood has more moisture in it than a similar aged stack anywhere in the southwest. However, if wood were to only dry to the average atmospheric humidity my wood would all be 50-60% water. It is dryer than that. I would also have to guess that wood in the south would never get dry with the extremely high humidity that they have there. Outside humidity here varies constantly between 20% and 100%, but is usually 60-70% in winter months on my weather gauge (63% right now). I have some 2 year old bone dry cedar and alder that I am burning now. I store my wood outside under tarps. Looking at several reasonable sources online, they say that if a 50% wet log is burned at high temperature, about 5% of the energy in the log is wasted through heating and evaporating the water vapor. Which seems about right.

In contrast most online wet vs. dry wood energy output graphs are based on wood weight for comparison. For example, many sites state that 60-80% moisture green wood has 1/3 to 1/2 the energy by weight compared to 20% moisture seasoned dry wood. Which is likely true, but the dry wood will weigh about half as much, so you can burn twice the volume of dry wood in that comparison. If you compare the same wood by volume you get a different result though. Comparing the same size and species dry logs vs. wet/green, the wet has an energy value between 2/3 and 3/4 the energy as dry wood, by volume. Not quite as sensational. Also the time of year that the trees area felled and the species makes a huge difference in the water content of green wood, and required drying time.

I was told once, by the owner of a lumber yard (that does not have a kiln) right down the road from where I grew up, that his pine would air dry to under 5% moisture... and none of his seasoning lifts are covered... ever.

I just hooked up with a guy clearing a large acreage, he has several hundred cords of hardwood on the property, sells it for $40 a truckload cut and split to 16". Im picking some up Fri, Im going to get all I can even if I have to stack it 15 feet high. Scored with a tree service today too, got 5 truckloads so far of maple and ash, theres several more truckloads to get. I have my work cut out for me.

FYI:


Pictures of the 15' tall stack when done