So my "big" pile of well seasoned wood that I thought was going to last the winter is dwindling. To put it more mildly than the weather has been, I went to college in Troy, NY, and the winters there have nothing on the one I'm dealing with now. I know I need to get ahead and am picking the standing dead and fallen dead to make that happen as quickly as possible. So far, I've supplemented my pile for this winter with a bunch of unknown barkless dead standings with MC down to 16-21. I figured this was what I'd be seeing in other dead standing also. Now here's the tale of the tree that shocked me. Right at the edge of my woods, there's a bare spot that serves as a brush dumping zone, and there's an oak that splits into two trunks close to the ground....split one has been dead and with no bark over 95% of it for at least the six years I've lived here. Split two is still alive and kicking. I took down the dead half yesterday and thought it would be pretty dry, seeing as its been dead and barkless for so long. I put the moisture meter on it and it ranged from 36% at the bottom to 26% towards the top. I know I'm new to this, but that didn't seem right to me, so I brought the bottom cut in the house and let it thaw out. I cut it in half on my bandsaw and it was clearly wet inside. I guess the lesson I learned is all those posts I've read here are true: oak holds water longer than most camels as well as some lakes!
Barkless and wet
- Thread starter Lukas060606
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NH_Wood
Minister of Fire
Yes, crazy how well oak holds the water - even when dead standing for years. Oak really needs a lot of time post splitting to be ready to burn well - unless you get a lucky dead upper limb that has been dead for a LONG time - I love finding those! Cheers!
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
Yup. Doesn't surprise me one little bit. However, trying to teach others about this seems to fall on closed ears.
Wood Duck
Minister of Fire
I have cut dead oaks that seem wetter than live trees. In fact I think most dead oaks seem wetter than live ones. It may not help you now, but in a couple of years your work will pay off.
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