How far ahead are you really???

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NordicSplitter

Minister of Fire
May 22, 2011
541
Western,NY
I've seen alot of posts about how much wood everyone has which made me think of this thread. Rules are simple. Wood that counts must be cut, stacked, seasoned and ready to burn today if need be...No fresh cut or green wood will count... I'll go first...2013/14..c/s/s/rtb 2014/15...c/s/s/rtb 2015/16...c/s/s/rtb.....Total 30 face cords. I have averaged burning 8-9 per season. How far ahead are you really???
 
By your criteria, combined with my plan to burn 2+ year seasoned wood,
& that I'm still burning & using my 13/14 wood,
I'm not ahead at all.:confused:
[Hearth.com] How far ahead are you really???[Hearth.com] How far ahead are you really???

I need to get to work :)
Don't know how many face cords I have. ?
 
Why would I need to burn wood for 2 years from now, if I already have wood ready for this year?
10.5 cord, and about 1.5 is ready to burn right now. This season is done though.
Next years wood will be ready next year, and the following years wood will be ready that year.
All of it is c/s/s.
I plan to get another few cord before the end of the year, but it won't be ready to burn until 2015.
How long has your stuff for 15/16 been c/s/s?
Not trying to be contrary, but Dennis and a couple others are the only ones who have 3-4 years worth ready to burn right now.;)
 
What is the point of having seasoned wood for 2-3 years from now? I have enough seasoned on hand for a full winter plus extra and in total enough wood for 3 years.. Can't burn it all in one year so what you have ready for the upcoming heating season is what matters..

Ray
 
By your criteria, I'm good till about March 1, 2014, with somewhat more than two cords. By what is stacked today but not finished seasoning I'm good into 2015. And with what is not stacked yet I'm into 2016 with about 8 cords. But that has been m/o. With somewhat limited storage space and free log loads I burn it down to a year, then call my favorite tree guy and say 'load please!'. Then I sort it out as I stack so the standing dead and quick dry can be reached first, getting me over the hump of not having much in stock. But I now seem to have trained my other source to deliver perfect 16" rounds to order, so the log length game might be over. However I'm not so sure I'm willing to give up the 'fun' of processing it.
 
What is the point of having seasoned wood for 2-3 years from now? I have enough seasoned on hand for a full winter plus extra and in total enough wood for 3 years.. Can't burn it all in one year so what you have ready for the upcoming heating season is what matters..

Ray

Ray, one of my points is that I am in my 70's. How much longer can I continue to cut, split and stack? I prefer to do this on my own if at all possible. Sure, I've had numerous offers for others to come in and cut all the wood we need, split it and stack it. Shoot, they'd probably fill our wood rack if we needed it. But, some things one just needs to do on their own.

Next winter we will be burning wood that was cut during the winter of 2008-2009 so that should give you a bit of an idea that we are a ways ahead on our wood. Today I finally finished splitting the wood we cut over the winter. Don't know how much there is there but maybe 4-5 cord. It won't be needed for a while. But taking a wild guess I'd say we have enough wood on hand to run us through 2020-2021, give or take. But there remains to be seen what will happen next winter. Already I have promised one family that I will supply all of their wood for next winter so that means the wood stacks will take a big hit. Might sell some too. No matter. When next December rolls around I plan on being out there cutting more dead ash and some oaks to get us through the colder nights.
 
What is the point of having seasoned wood for 2-3 years from now? I have enough seasoned on hand for a full winter plus extra and in total enough wood for 3 years.. Can't burn it all in one year so what you have ready for the upcoming heating season is what matters..

Ray

Agreed. I have enough seasoned wood to get through a few months at this point. By fall I will have enough (6 cords) for 2 years. Too far ahead here and wood just rots and turns to pith in this climate. And its a fire hazard (we get large wildfires here). 2 years is my goal, 10 cords is about all I would ever want. More than that and its hoarding and living in a giant wood pile with carpenter ants and termites. Munch munch munch...
 
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Agreed. I have enough seasoned wood to get through a few months at this point. By fall I will have enough (6 cords) for 2 years. Too far ahead here and wood just rots and turns to pith in this climate. And its a fire hazard (we get large wildfires here). 2 years is my goal, 10 cords is about all I would ever want. More than that and its hoarding and living in a giant wood pile with carpenter ants and termites. Munch munch munch...

Not necessarily. They won't live in a dry wood pile. As for the fire hazard, we've never been concerned about it and in all my years I know of only one family who had their wood pile catch on fire. Of course, the wood pile was by the garage and the garage caught fire first....
 
Ray, one of my points is that I am in my 70's. How much longer can I continue to cut, split and stack? I prefer to do this on my own if at all possible. Sure, I've had numerous offers for others to come in and cut all the wood we need, split it and stack it. Shoot, they'd probably fill our wood rack if we needed it. But, some things one just needs to do on their own.

Next winter we will be burning wood that was cut during the winter of 2008-2009 so that should give you a bit of an idea that we are a ways ahead on our wood. Today I finally finished splitting the wood we cut over the winter. Don't know how much there is there but maybe 4-5 cord. It won't be needed for a while. But taking a wild guess I'd say we have enough wood on hand to run us through 2020-2021, give or take. But there remains to be seen what will happen next winter. Already I have promised one family that I will supply all of their wood for next winter so that means the wood stacks will take a big hit. Might sell some too. No matter. When next December rolls around I plan on being out there cutting more dead ash and some oaks to get us through the colder nights.
Dennis what I am saying is all the wood doesn't need to be seasoned now but it will be when the time comes to burn it.. I am all for having lots of firewood stacked and drying off the ground I just don't think it's important that it is all seasoned right now at this moment.. I have 5-6 cords that will be dry for next season which is more than enough for 24/7 burning..

Ray
 
I have one season (13-14) C/S/S & rtb, one season (14-15) c/s/s & 1-2 yr seasoned, one season c/s/s & < 1yr seasoned. Most years I burn between 3 & 4 full (128cf) cords. I have a total of about 15 full cords c/s/s.

I also have a bunch of rounds ready to split and a lot of Sandy wood in neighbors' yards that I have bucked & stacked the rounds but have permission to leave there until I have room.

KaptJaq
 
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Slacker. You give woodburners a bad name!

Well if it ever quits snowing & I get a chance to stop burning for a week or two this year,
I might be abel to get ahead.
If I had higher BTU wood, that might help too.
I have many excuses. LOL :) ;lol
 
Well if it ever quits snowing & I get a chance to stop burning for a week or two this year,
I might be abel to get ahead.
If I had higher BTU wood, that might help too.
I have many excuses. LOL :) ;lol
LOL Dave! Temp in upper 60's here today you can have the snow ;)

Ray
 
I have around 20ish cords at the house, burn around 3-3.5 a year. Good to around 2018 or so. Have another couple hundred at the wood lot. :p Plan to do 2500-3000 cords this year... about 5 months of work if I only work 12hr days ( I wish!)
 
I'll be happy and consider myself ahead when I have three cords set aside that can sit for 3 years, and then every year, split and stack three more cords to replace the three I just burned, with exactly 27 face cords on the racks at all times, and a face cord "on deck" in the garage.

This is my first year doing this. I have just finished splitting & stacking my first 3 cords for 2016/17. I just had another 3 or so delivered that need to be split and stacked for 2017/18. I anticipate it will take me the rest of the year to get this done at my slow pace, which suits me just fine. Then I will order another truck load and start on the 3 cords for 2018/19.

I have a perfectly seasoned cord and one ton of Envi-Blocks for 2013/14, and I will get through 2014/15 by sucking it up and buying another ton of Envi-Blocks and a partially seasoned cord from a reliable guy this summer to finish seasoning over the next year.

So as long as I execute the plan, I will consider myself "ahead".
 
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If my new stove holds me at 3 full cords per year like I believe it will. I have 3 years worth css rtb. Another 3 years worth css not rtb and more than another year that needs split. That is all assuming 3 cord per year, BUT I will likely end up blessing someone less fortunate along the way with some good firewood.
 
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I'm glad I'm not the only one that was thrown by the idea of how many cords are ready to burn right now. My wood only needs to be ready to burn for the year I need it for. Who is determining what ready to burn is, for me that is 3 year seasoned wood for others that may be a year. My numbers are completely different depending what I'm considering ready to burn.
 
If I stop cutting wood now, I will run out on March 12, 2017 at noon. Give or take a month!

But....but....how much is read to burn on May 19th 2013? :)
 
Not necessarily. They won't live in a dry wood pile. As for the fire hazard, we've never been concerned about it and in all my years I know of only one family who had their wood pile catch on fire. Of course, the wood pile was by the garage and the garage caught fire first....

Wildfires here in the west are a different story. They ravage this area every few years, and many houses are usually lost. I also live in the edge of a very large national forest in the Cascades where burns are common in summer. I keep the majority of the firewood well away from my house for that reason. I also have a metal roof and Hardie plank siding, though a good fire and my 40-50 foot Japanese black pines would go up like Roman Candles and likely destroy this house.

Termites also do quite well in dry wood here in the west. Dry wood termites do not need access to water, and all subterranean termites need is access to water, usually though the ground. My house in California was a perfect example of a termite infested 'dry' home. The house wood was dry, and they were dining 24/7. I had a stack of dry 20 foot cedar 6x8s at my ex's place in southern Oregon, and within 2 years it was infested with termites. They tunneled up from the ground and had these mud tubes and worked their way up the pier blocks that I had on the ground. That was red cedar, which they are not supposed to like. I had them in my redwood deck in California as well. They are not supposed to like that either.
 
Good to about 2020, plus more to be css.
 
I don't see need to have three - four years worth of wood ready to burn today. I want one years worth ready to burn in September, and two more years worth on-deck seasoning.

Less than two years in this house, I'm not even there yet, but I get closer each year.
 
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