Due to reasons out of my hands I was not able to get ahead of the firewood for this season. I had a cord left from last year (maple beech, ironwood) bought a cord, well almost a cord, a couple of months ago (red oak, maple) had 2 huge elm trees on the property that have been dead with bark off for a few years which sliced up into almost a cord, and just had another cord delivered on Saturday (maple ash, beech)
The seller who delivered my last load swore that the wood was cut and split this March. He is a large seller who advertises in the local weekly newspaper so I assume is kind of trustworhty.... I hope.... So he showed up and dumped out my cord. The plus side was that itt was indeed grey. Not all nice and freshly split. The next plus was that when I stacked it I was left with a cord that measured 4'hx4'wx9.5'l. No very often these days do you get the benifit of the doubt as a consumer. Pleaseent suprise.
The wood looked ok but it was raining when it was delivered and stacked it so dryness was not really evident. I pulled a selection of this new wood, and some from my other stacks to bring to my father in laws since he is a custom woodworker by trade and has a moisture meter.
The results:
My old stack that is almost 2 years old now measured out at between 16-16.5%
My "almost a cord of oak and maple was 16-17%
Did not bother with the elm. Without question the driest of all and will be burnt when lower btu's are desireable (fall/spring)
My new stack came out at 18-21%
Very pleased that I could buy from someone this late in the year and get wood that is 100% ready for this season. So, yeah, I think I got lucky!
The seller who delivered my last load swore that the wood was cut and split this March. He is a large seller who advertises in the local weekly newspaper so I assume is kind of trustworhty.... I hope.... So he showed up and dumped out my cord. The plus side was that itt was indeed grey. Not all nice and freshly split. The next plus was that when I stacked it I was left with a cord that measured 4'hx4'wx9.5'l. No very often these days do you get the benifit of the doubt as a consumer. Pleaseent suprise.
The wood looked ok but it was raining when it was delivered and stacked it so dryness was not really evident. I pulled a selection of this new wood, and some from my other stacks to bring to my father in laws since he is a custom woodworker by trade and has a moisture meter.
The results:
My old stack that is almost 2 years old now measured out at between 16-16.5%
My "almost a cord of oak and maple was 16-17%
Did not bother with the elm. Without question the driest of all and will be burnt when lower btu's are desireable (fall/spring)
My new stack came out at 18-21%
Very pleased that I could buy from someone this late in the year and get wood that is 100% ready for this season. So, yeah, I think I got lucky!