Almost September and these guys aren't ready for Winter

[PA. Woodsman]

I often drive by two guys I know that burn wood and am just amazed at the condition of their wood supplies; the guy down the alley has some unsplit rounds but not many just sitting there, and another guy has about two unsplit rounds sitting on his pallets. These guys have always been late, usually by August they finally get around to stacking their supply, but this year is even more lax. I know it's none of my business and they can do whatever they want to, but I would be losing my mind if my supply for this upcoming Winter looked like that.

And I can't imagine how any wood split now would even burn decently unless it was standing dead, must burn like wet newspaper.

Good luck to 'em!

 

[clancey]

People are so very different--heck you think that people are different in just a few areas that they might disagree with but it winds up sometimes we look at them and think they are alien or something because they contrast so much with our own type of lifestyle..When you see it in real life all you can do is shake your head but I tell you I am like you for I want to feel ready..lol Also it makes you feel better too like your accomplishing something...Glad your ready forum friend..old mrs clancey

 

[Woody5506]

I'm nearly convinced the only people who split and stack wood for 2 or 3 or even more years in advance are the people on these message boards.

 

[Sawset]

Next door here they go out to the "log pile", 12ft logs, cut off a few rounds, up to the yard, split and stack next to the front door (if its over 10"round), enough for a week or two, in the stove it goes. Last year I saw a ladder outside so he could run something up and down the chimney - clean enough. He's already burned one barn/shed. I think someones living in this one. Seems like a bright enough guy, but what a contrast in what matters.

 

[hedge wood]

I am one of those guys not ready for winter either. Don't get my wrong I have the 15 cord I need to get threw until next year loaded on trailers and in the shed and probably another 20 cord stacked in the shed that is my emergency wood. Usually we get done spraying crops in June and then try to get some firewood put up before fall grain harvest. Between my health issues and the heat firewood just has taken a back seat. We did finally get a couple of Saturdays in during August and got some hedge cut and brushed out and logs hauled in to the bucking and splitting area. I hope I can get my two helpers out a couple more time in Sep before we start grain harvest to get some hedge bucked,split and loaded on some trailers. Seems like once harvest starts by the time we have time for firewood its time for deer season and my helpers are gone for that. Maybe this year we will have a mild winter and I can get some firewood done then.

 

[peakbagger]

My neighbor has just started sawing and splitting his tree length wood that was delivered in June. He has an OWB and inadvertently tried to burn his house down with chimney fires multiple times with in indoor boiler due to creosote until he bought the OWB so his creosote now just gets distributed around the neighborhood.

Folks do not realize, dry wood is not optional for recent model stoves and gasifiers, unlike in the good old days they just do not run right with damp wood.

 

[Rusty18]

I’ve burnt seasoned pine (thanks to this forum) for the last 3 winters <1 cord a winter and none of the neighbors can believe I haven’t plugged my chimney let alone cleaned it during that time. They let their logs season a few weeks the first part of October before they split it for the winter.

 

[Caw]

Just measured the 4 x 1 cord stacks I intend to burn this year and they are all sitting pretty at 15-20% . Mostly red maple, ash, and cherry c/s/s this Jan-March with some oak leftover from last year.

The stacks get hit with the PM sun and good wind exposure so I can usually season everything but red oak over one year. I could use my 1 year red oak in a pinch, it's mostly 18-24%, but it's best after 2+ years.

The best time to process is mid/late winter IMO. Ground is still nice and hard and it's easy to do hard work outside when it's colder out. I did 15 cords last year to get ahead so I'm looking forward to only having to do 3-5 cords this year to stay that way. Unless I get ambitious and expand which, let's face it, will almost surely happen lol.

 

[fbelec]

peakbagger said it. (they just don't realize) i see it also. it's become such a pta that a neighbor just took out the wood stove because it's a royal pain to get going with wood delivered a month before it is burnt

 

[BCC_Burner]

With buying a house over the summer I was a bit behind on my wood, too. Fortunately, the sellers left about 1.5 cords of wood that was split in the summer of 2019.

In western Colorado, we have low humidity and lots of wind, so 6-18 months is plenty for most wood to season.

I got lucky and found a wood seller who brought me 2.5-3 cords of log length dead standing lodgepole pine. Got all that cut, split and stacked over the last week. That stuff was reading under 20% straight off the splitter.

That 4-5 cords should get me through the winter in good shape, considering I’m also putting 3.5” of spray foam in the attic (with R-38 FG batt on top) and have a 500 gallon propane tank.

Once things cool off a bit in another few weeks, I’ll probably order another 2.5-3 cord log load to process for next winter.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

With buying a house over the summer I was a bit behind on my wood, too. Fortunately, the sellers left about 1.5 cords of wood that was split in the summer of 2019.

In western Colorado, we have low humidity and lots of wind, so 6-18 months is plenty for most wood to season.

I got lucky and found a wood seller who brought me 2.5-3 cords of log length dead standing lodgepole pine. Got all that cut, split and stacked over the last week. That stuff was reading under 20% straight off the splitter.

That 4-5 cords should get me through the winter in good shape, considering I’m also putting 3.5” of spray foam in the attic (with R-38 FG batt on top) and have a 500 gallon propane tank.

Once things cool off a bit in another few weeks, I’ll probably order another 2.5-3 cord log load to process for next winter.

Yeah but you had a reason to be behind, these guys do this year after year and I can't imagine that their fires burn with any great success, must burn like wet newspapers. And you are taking steps to rectify the situation, these guys aren't. I know both of them but I don't know why they put things off so long, this year even longer, they either are getting tired of the work or they don't care how it burns?

Go Broncos Been a fan since 1973 here in Pennsylvania!

 

[ABMax24]

It's quite often that we cut trees in the middle of the winter, split them, and burn them immediately.

Now before steam blows out of someone's ears I should explain, these are dead standing pine/spruce trees that have been dead for a few years, we generally have low humidity year round, and when measured this wood sits at 18%-22% with a moisture meter.

Now last year I was ready for winter, so I thought, I had lots of pine and birch CSS ready to go, but we got an unexpected dump of rain right before freeze up which soaked the wood and then froze days later. Much of the top of the stacks measured over 25% MC, and hissed and spit water when burnt. So back cutting wood we went. This year I'm not doing much better, figured this year I'd get the wood under cover the first week of September and I'd be set, its rained more in the last 2 weeks than it has all year... Hoping for a dry September, otherwise I'll be cutting most of this winters wood this winter again.

 

[patrickk222]

yea man i guess its different strokes for different folks me personally i try to usually have my wood split and stacked by the end of april tops for upcomin burnin year i typically have about a year and 8/10ths stacked up and dryin and from typically may/june i start orderin about 6 loads or so of rounds that i usually bust up asap then go out cut up some more as i can ..... now i do sometimes see some of my neighbors start to get wood in winter

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I think for most they don't realize how much better dry wood burns. A number of years ago I had to teach my neighbor about dry wood. He thought I was crazy with the woodsheds and the quantity of wood I was sitting on. I said nothing to him for years regarding him just splitting and burning. I was in his house one day and he had to have the door open on his insert to keep the fire going and that was it for me. I brought over a wheelbarrow of my wood and let him burn it. He was amazed at the difference in heat output. I spent hours with him explaining what I do and why. He started working on his wood right away and that year we made a kiln in his yard. The following year his house was warmer than the years before and he burned 2 cords less. He has a wood shed now that holds 10 cords and has done a kiln of 3 cords every year since then.. I think that some folks don't realize the difference in quality of wood and sometimes folks just get to busy with life. Right now I need to change how im doing things because I can see that processing all of my wood late winter will no longer work as there is no labor and I have less time for me and the things that I need to do. Im changing things so I can process in the fall and early winter when I get the time here and there. I made an area where I can process wood at the back of the property and just leave my gear with out having to clean up every time.. Plus adding additional wood storage. One great thing about this is the cost is very little. The majority of the materials are wood and roofing materials that just gets thrown away on the job site.. I like free to me stuff..

 

[red oak]

yea man i guess its different strokes for different folks me personally i try to usually have my wood split and stacked by the end of april tops for upcomin burnin year i typically have about a year and 8/10ths stacked up and dryin and from typically may/june i start orderin about 6 loads or so of rounds that i usually bust up asap then go out cut up some more as i can ..... now i do sometimes see some of my neighbors start to get wood in winter

Yep same here. Wood I’ll burn this winter was stacked under my deck in April and that was after being in a wood shed for 3 years. Summers are too hot and humid to cut wood for me so I do all my cutting splitting and stacking in fall winter and early spring. Too many other things I’d rather do in summer.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

I think for most they don't realize how much better dry wood burns. A number of years ago I had to teach my neighbor about dry wood. He thought I was crazy with the woodsheds and the quantity of wood I was sitting on. I said nothing to him for years regarding him just splitting and burning. I was in his house one day and he had to have the door open on his insert to keep the fire going and that was it for me. I brought over a wheelbarrow of my wood and let him burn it. He was amazed at the difference in heat output. I spent hours with him explaining what I do and why. He started working on his wood right away and that year we made a kiln in his yard. The following year his house was warmer than the years before and he burned 2 cords less. He has a wood shed now that holds 10 cords and has done a kiln of 3 cords every year since then.. I think that some folks don't realize the difference in quality of wood and sometimes folks just get to busy with life. Right now I need to change how im doing things because I can see that processing all of my wood late winter will no longer work as there is no labor and I have less time for me and the things that I need to do. Im changing things so I can process in the fall and early winter when I get the time here and there. I made an area where I can process wood at the back of the property and just leave my gear with out having to clean up every time.. Plus adding additional wood storage. One great thing about this is the cost is very little. The majority of the materials are wood and roofing materials that just gets thrown away on the job site.. I like free to me stuff..

Good on you for helping him out and getting him to see the huge difference it makes! And you could very well be correct, they just don't know how much better it'll burn. Or they don't care...

I just drove by the neighbor's wood shed about 15 minutes ago and I looked closer at what he had-about 1/8th of a cord of splits from last season and about 1/8th of a cord if that of Pin Cherry still in small rounds or about 5" or 6" logs, nowhere near being ready, not even cut to length or split. Again, it is their business, I don't lie awake at night thinking about this but I just shake my head when I see it and think "if I was in that situation right now I'd be in panic mode".

 

[stoveliker]

I think for most they don't realize how much better dry wood burns. A number of years ago I had to teach my neighbor about dry wood. He thought I was crazy with the woodsheds and the quantity of wood I was sitting on. I said nothing to him for years regarding him just splitting and burning. I was in his house one day and he had to have the door open on his insert to keep the fire going and that was it for me. I brought over a wheelbarrow of my wood and let him burn it. He was amazed at the difference in heat output. I spent hours with him explaining what I do and why. He started working on his wood right away and that year we made a kiln in his yard. The following year his house was warmer than the years before and he burned 2 cords less. He has a wood shed now that holds 10 cords and has done a kiln of 3 cords every year since then.. I think that some folks don't realize the difference in quality of wood and sometimes folks just get to busy with life. Right now I need to change how im doing things because I can see that processing all of my wood late winter will no longer work as there is no labor and I have less time for me and the things that I need to do. Im changing things so I can process in the fall and early winter when I get the time here and there. I made an area where I can process wood at the back of the property and just leave my gear with out having to clean up every time.. Plus adding additional wood storage. One great thing about this is the cost is very little. The majority of the materials are wood and roofing materials that just gets thrown away on the job site.. I like free to me stuff..

Now that's what I call a good neighbor - you. Showing him, and teaching him.

 

[WoodBurnerInWI]

Just measured the 4 x 1 cord stacks I intend to burn this year and they are all sitting pretty at 15-20% . Mostly red maple, ash, and cherry c/s/s this Jan-March with some oak leftover from last year.

The stacks get hit with the PM sun and good wind exposure so I can usually season everything but red oak over one year. I could use my 1 year red oak in a pinch, it's mostly 18-24%, but it's best after 2+ years.

The best time to process is mid/late winter IMO. Ground is still nice and hard and it's easy to do hard work outside when it's colder out. I did 15 cords last year to get ahead so I'm looking forward to only having to do 3-5 cords this year to stay that way. Unless I get ambitious and expand which, let's face it, will almost surely happen lol.

When we bought our current house back in 2019, at that point I had close to 15 cords of wood split and stacked since 2017 sitting out at my wife's grandparents farm. We knew back in 2016 that we wanted a larger home, with a better wood burning set up than the one we had at the time so we planned way way ahead. The summer of 2019 we got our current house and by that fall I had gotten on the routes of the tree services here in the city that do free log drops. So after about 4 of those drops, I estimate it gave me over 12 cords of newly split stuff. Pretty much overnight I was 3-5 years ahead and (still) am Did mostly wood scrounging last year and picked up another 3 cords doing that. And so far this year no log drops, just some more scrounging that's gotten me a cord or so of honey locust. Now that my wood piles and wood cutting areas are all in order and I am so far ahead, going forward I see no reason to gather more than 3-5 cords per year to keep staying ahead.

 

[thewoodlands]

I often drive by two guys I know that burn wood and am just amazed at the condition of their wood supplies; the guy down the alley has some unsplit rounds but not many just sitting there, and another guy has about two unsplit rounds sitting on his pallets. These guys have always been late, usually by August they finally get around to stacking their supply, but this year is even more lax. I know it's none of my business and they can do whatever they want to, but I would be losing my mind if my supply for this upcoming Winter looked like that.

And I can't imagine how any wood split now would even burn decently unless it was standing dead, must burn like wet newspaper.

Good luck to 'em!

We have a neighbor who has burned wood pretty much for 40 plus years. Last year the guy he ordered wood from never brought it or would answer his phone calls so I helped out, he wanted four face cord so I brought it down. I told him last year when I delivered the wood that I didn't want to do it this year and he said fine that gives me time to find a supplier.

He calls me this summer in July and tells me he ordered his wood for this year, he was offered green or seasoned, I ask him if he ordered seasoned and he said no, he still doesn't have his wood yet.

He has some seasoned wood inside but not enough that will get him through the winter. He still has some seasoned wood outside, I offered to help bring it inside but he declined and said he would do it.

When I was covering wood in August, I covered extra thinking he'll need wood again this year. He likes green wood because it burns longer I've talked to him about how seasoned wood gives off more heat, burns cleaner and you'll need less air so you can get longer burn times but it goes in one ear and out the other so I don't bring it up anymore.

Wood heat is the only heat for the house so the winters are cold for him.

 

[Isaac Carlson]

People around here are usually the same. They buy or cut green wood and then split it when the leaves fall. You hear chainsaws running all over just before halloween. Some have dry wood and are ahead, but it's not the norm. We are now at least 3 years ahead, so no cutting fresh wood for this winter. It feels good to be ahead. Now we just have to get the new stuff cut, split, and stacked.

 

[fbelec]

he's had 40 plus years of good luck. and i say that because he hasn't burnt his house down.

 

[sweedish]

When I first moved in to my house, I was cutting the standing dead pines that were along the driveway leading up to my house and burning those quickly after, it was like January/February. Even though they measured 24 ish percent moisture, and they did burn, it was night and day the next season burning sub 20 percent vs that freshly cut albeit standing dead stuff.
I’m quite content with the effort I put in having 3 years worth covered, and my current wood I’m burning is about 16 percent.

 

[jaoneill]

We have a neighbor who has burned wood pretty much for 40 plus years. Last year the guy he ordered wood from never brought it or would answer his phone calls so I helped out, he wanted four face cord so I brought it down. I told him last year when I delivered the wood that I didn't want to do it this year and he said fine that gives me time to find a supplier.
He calls me this summer in July and tells me he ordered his wood for this year, he was offered green or seasoned, I ask him if he ordered seasoned and he said no, he still doesn't have his wood yet.
He has some seasoned wood inside but not enough that will get him through the winter. He still has some seasoned wood outside, I offered to help bring it inside but he declined and said he would do it.
When I was covering wood in August, I covered extra thinking he'll need wood again this year. He likes green wood because it burns longer I've talked to him about how seasoned wood gives off more heat, burns cleaner and you'll need less air so you can get longer burn times but it goes in one ear and out the other so I don't bring it up anymore.
Wood heat is the only heat for the house so the winters are cold for him.

What I hear from many is "I have an OWB that will burn anything I throw in it"

 

[thewoodlands]

What I hear from many is "I have an OWB that will burn anything I throw in it"

We have a neighbor across the road who has an OWB inside his garage, he cuts his wood into rounds in the summer ( the year he will burn it) and brings them home in the fall so he can split it. He has a hard time getting his house over 65 in the dead of winter, I've explained about seasoned wood but he refuses cutting his firewood so it has time to season.

 

[Caw]

What I hear from many is "I have an OWB that will burn anything I throw in it"

And pollute the air in the entire neighborhood. Some people just don't give a crap it's too bad.