what to burn first...

[FishKiller]

Right now i have this year, next and into 19/20 on the stack in basically all oak. this year is 3-4 year old, and the younger stack is all red oak that came down summer 2014. in march of this year i got my hands on about 2.5-3 cords of silver maple. i dumped the rounds on pallets and have been chipping away at it by hand most of the year as a workout. i got tired of that and finished it with the splitter in august and stacked it. i have no experience with maple, but it feels extremely dry (no i don't have a fancy moisture meter yet). however, it feels extremely light and passes the fresh split cheek test.
I love my oak, and i'm kinda scratching my head over this maple. i'm okay with letting it sit, but i also don't have a shed and its only top covered. I don't know if i want it hanging around till 2020, i'm afraid i might start losing some to rot by then. whats your guys thoughts... burn it shoulder months? mix it in this year and next? sell it? don't worry about it till 2020?

 

[Rickb]

I actually burn a lot of silver maple. If dries pretty well after 1 summer split and stacked. Even better after 2. I mix it with not quite ready oak.

 

[FaithfulWoodsman]

I agree. I'd check it with a meter and begin mixing it in or exclusively use it during shoulder as soon as it's ready. No reason to burn oak if you don't need to.

 

[Woody Stover]

I wouldn't try it until after next summer; As Rickb said, it'll be dry for sure by then. Use it for shoulder season, and also split some smaller and use it for starter wood. Oak can be a bit slow to start so I will often put a couple small soft Maple splits on the front to get 'er rolling.

 

[zig]

If you can stack the maple in a open area off the ground it will dry very fast. I stacked 4+ cord in Nov. '14 and by April or was quite dry over winter. Warm temps and sun are your friend but wind and airflow is the key.

 

[CheapBassTurd]

I do it kinda random currently running off of the pallet factory and a scrounged mixture.

Once the real world cold hits, it's pine or maple baby splits over the kindle and under the
massive oak stash on hand. Once dry you'll find maple very handy.

My oak stock hopefully will be ready when summoned for service. Standing 1/2 dead felled June this summer.
It got split small right away and stacked on the dome of the property catching good air/ sun all along.

Fallback plan is the blessings of the ash borer to which there's nearly a full winter of that ready to cook up.
We'll probably start the 24/7 season on that and the abundant maple scrounge as the oak is of course what
we want for the best stability in the worst of weather conditions. The above oak over pine/ maple plan I hope
to use most effectively a year from now. The dead scrounge is certainly ready to serve the family now if the oak/ ash isn't in the mood yet.

CheapMark

 

[Lcback]

Maple certainly drys fast. I split and stacked it in feb this year. I checked its moisture in august 17%. So I am using a lot of it this year. And put 1 cord in next years stack. There is a lot of it around here anywhere it can get sun I see silver maple popping up under hickory and oaks.


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[mass_burner]

I actually prefer silver maple. Red oak takes too much time to season. I know there's a btu diff, but both heat practically the same in my home.