Full cord? Really?

[jaydee]

Unfortunately the green emerald ash borer has made ash trees in my locale a non-possibility.

 

[jaydee]

Update: I went ahead and stacked the wood: it filled two 4 x 8 racks completely, but only 1/2 of the third (16 in. length.)

I'd ordered another cord, and brought the matter up on delivery. The wood guy tried to tell me that two racks equals one cord. Mentioned 128 cubic feet, intimating that he was giving me more than that.

Sheesh. I like the wood, but his is a bit high priced for the area. At least give me what you say I'm paying for!

 

[oldspark]

Update: I went ahead and stacked the wood: it filled two 4 x 8 racks completely, but only 1/2 of the third (16 in. length.)

I'd ordered another cord, and brought the matter up on delivery. The wood guy tried to tell me that two racks equals one cord. Mentioned 128 cubic feet, intimating that he was giving me more than that.

Sheesh. I like the wood, but his is a bit high priced for the area. At least give me what you say I'm paying for!

That's too bad andybody selling wood ought to know how much a cord is, like someone else said the first year will be the toughest.

 

[begreen]

Update: I went ahead and stacked the wood: it filled two 4 x 8 racks completely, but only 1/2 of the third (16 in. length.)

I'd ordered another cord, and brought the matter up on delivery. The wood guy tried to tell me that two racks equals one cord. Mentioned 128 cubic feet, intimating that he was giving me more than that.

Sheesh. I like the wood, but his is a bit high priced for the area. At least give me what you say I'm paying for!

You might check to see if the state sets a standard and regulates this. In WA a cord of wood is clearly defined as 128 cu ft and if one is selling it, they need to follow the regs or get fined.
http://agr.wa.gov/Inspection/WeightsMeasures/FirewoodInformation.aspx
Looks like GA has similar regulations though I don't know how well they are enforced. Your wood seller needs some education or get another source that is more reputable.
http://www.georgia.gov/00/article/0,2086,38902732_0_150614179,00.html

 

[lobsta1]

I've burned a lot of oak over the years that I split and stacked the previous spring. Mostly, if the splits are smallish, it's cross-stacked and protected from rain with a top but no sides and put in an open location, it's good to go by October. Yours seems to fit all those criteria. I like to pull the top covering off when it's not rainy to let wind/sun act even more quickly. It's of course worth noting that summers in Georgia are a lot more humid than they up up here on the Canadian Shield, and that will slow down the seasoning process.

I do also very much like to lay in a supply of white birch or ash, also well seasoned, for getting a nice bed of coals to lay those first oak splits of the day on. The birch and ash are about medium on the heaviness/BTU scale, and an armful of that stuff followed by oak the rest of the day has been an excellent recipe for me. When I've been in oak country (I'm not right now), I generally like to lay in about 4/5 oak and 1/5 lighter stuff (not including kindling).

Sounds to me like you have found one good woodseller, the one who sold you the first bunch. See if he's got any lighter wood for sale to go with the oak. If not, and he finds out you want some, he may very well start supplying it.

Have fun with it. Wood, there's nothing quite like heating with it.

I don't mean to be picky but if Jaydee has a new EPA type stove then I seriously doubt that your advice on burning unseasoned oak will apply as your sig says you have a 35 year old Kuuma furnace. The burning characteristics are even further apart than apples & rutabagas.
Al

 

[jaydee]

Thanks for the link, BeGreen. Although I think you're being charitable about him needing education. He's been in business a long time and should know better. I think he does know better. He offered no receipt and wanted cash, which indicates some dishonesty in my opinion. It's a shame, because he has a good product.

The wood is going to have to season a while - my a/c broke down, so that's first priority and the stove will have to wait.

 

[LLigetfa]

Mentioned 128 cubic feet, intimating that he was giving me more than that.

Did you give him a math lesson? Since he mentioned 128 cu ft, he obviously knows what the regulations are and he's counting on you not being able to do the math.

Hell, you don't even need a calculator for that since the wood is bucked to 16 inches and you ranked it up in face cords (4 x 8).
16 x 3 = 48" (4')
4 x 4 x 8 = 128

How can he dispute that?

 

[oldspark]

I've burned a lot of oak over the years that I split and stacked the previous spring. Mostly, if the splits are smallish, it's cross-stacked and protected from rain with a top but no sides and put in an open location, it's good to go by October. Yours seems to fit all those criteria. I like to pull the top covering off when it's not rainy to let wind/sun act even more quickly. It's of course worth noting that summers in Georgia are a lot more humid than they up up here on the Canadian Shield, and that will slow down the seasoning process.

I do also very much like to lay in a supply of white birch or ash, also well seasoned, for getting a nice bed of coals to lay those first oak splits of the day on. The birch and ash are about medium on the heaviness/BTU scale, and an armful of that stuff followed by oak the rest of the day has been an excellent recipe for me. When I've been in oak country (I'm not right now), I generally like to lay in about 4/5 oak and 1/5 lighter stuff (not including kindling).

Sounds to me like you have found one good woodseller, the one who sold you the first bunch. See if he's got any lighter wood for sale to go with the oak. If not, and he finds out you want some, he may very well start supplying it.

Have fun with it. Wood, there's nothing quite like heating with it.

I don't mean to be picky but if Jaydee has a new EPA type stove then I seriously doubt that your advice on burning unseasoned oak will apply as your sig says you have a 35 year old Kuuma furnace. The burning characteristics are even further apart than apples & rutabagas.
Al

Nothing wrong with that info, burning wood for over 30 years and yes the oak can be ready by fall if cut stacked and split early, put it in single rows in the wind and sun and the wood will be dryer than a lot of people think on this forum.

 

[jaydee]

It wasn't worth doing a math lesson - I made my point. Maybe he thought he could throw a few numbers around and sound like he knew what he was talking about. With info at the fingertips via internet, the days of getting away with that are just about over.

 

[oldspark]

It wasn't worth doing a math lesson - I made my point. Maybe he thought he could throw a few numbers around and sound like he knew what he was talking about. With info at the fingertips via internet, the days of getting away with that are just about over.

Any other options for fire wood or you just gonna have to keep looking, do you plan on cutting your own later?

 

[Battenkiller]

I also think perhaps you are putting too much faith in the ends cracking. That can really give you a false sense of security. I cut wood during the winter and just stack it up until spring. Wood that I cut in January will already be showing cracking on the ends by March! Just remember that the wood will definitely dry on the ends of the splits first and it can happen rapidly.

If you buy more wood that you plan on burning next fall, you'd best stay far away from oaks. Ash, cherry, birch, etc. would be some candidates to consider. Whatever you do, do it quickly.

First of all, looks to me like you got a fair deal. Firewood isn't metered like gas or oil. Sometimes you get a little more, sometimes a little less. Your load looks close enough for me to be satisfied with it.

I agree with Dennis about the ends checking. It happens because the ends dry faster than the center - period. They shrink once the moisture content gets lower than about 30%, but the wetter inside doesn't shrink, so the fibers on the shrunken ends get pulled apart and splitting begins. Doesn't mean anything at all IMHO. In fact, it's possible to dry wood in a humidity-controlled lumber kiln and get no end splits at all, yet the wood will be lower in MC than anything you can season yourself. The only thing good about end checking is that the water can get out of the inside a bit faster.

I also agree that you should buy more wood like ash and save any oak for next year. Get it started now, the fall will be on us sooner than we'd like.



Oops, just read your post about the load being short. Hard to tell from pics. Looked fine to me.

 

[jaydee]

I agree it's hard to tell until it's stacked.

Don't have time to prepare the wood myself, but there's plenty of firewood dealers in the area, so it's just a matter of time
before I can find one who will do it right.

But I'm afraid the wood will have to season til next year. My old a/c and heating package unit totally bit the dust last month - I'd thought I could use its air conditioning and substitute wood heat instead of gas heat. But I can't go without the a/c (well, I could, but I have others in the house who would disagree!) so the stove will have to wait. Takes the pressure off about getting the wood dry for this year, anyway.

Here's some photos of my storage contraptions. The cover on the stacks is temporary: we had major thunderstorms and winds come through with more expected. It consists of heavy treated canvas thrown over a 10 foot long piece of conduit on top of the wood, anchored down with a few rocks. The wind came in big gusts yesterday, but it stayed fine. The "shed" has worked like a dream, and was cheap to put up. I bought the connector pieces at www.creativeshelters.com. It's anchored to the fence and also into the ground.

 

[oldspark]

I wood think AC in GA in the summer would be as important as heat in IA in the winter.

 

[jaydee]

You betcha!