I scored a bunch of Black Locust last month. Most of it is dead either fallen or maybe standing, I did not cut it. Some of it looks like it has been dead for years and will burn without steam or hissing right after splitting. The rest has little or no bark and feels very dry after splitting. About 1/2 of it still has it's bark. Here's my problem. I started loading what I thought would be my 12-13 rack with some other Black Locust that has fallen in Feb '10 that I cut and split in Feb, '11. I started stacking this on the far end of my 10-11 rack to fill in behind the 10-11 wood. Then I scored all this super dry stuff in late march and decided that what was gonna be my 11-12 wood would now be pushed to 12-13 so that all I could take advantage of the fast drying Black Locust and let the Oak dry for one more year.. I was way to busy at work to do anything with it, but pile the rounds and logs on the driveway and even left about 3/4 cord of rounds on the old truck for a month. I finally started splitting and stacking yesterday. I stacked the super dry wood on the other end of the rack out from about 1/2 cord of left over 10-11 wood. Now I have a rack that is about 30 feet long with pretty well seasoned wood at both ends and about 12' open in the middle. I have almost enough Black Locust on hand to fill in the middle, but it is the least seasoned of it all. Do you all think that Black Locust, that may or may not have been dead, but cut in late March and split / stacked in May can be ready to burn by January? It will get plenty of sun and wind and I usually split pretty small anyway to make loading my smaller Fireview easier. I now that Black Locust has a very low moisture content to begin with, but I think this might be too close. I could re-stack about 1 1/2 cords to get rid of the empty center and them load the less seasoned stuff on an end, or, somehow mark the middle wood and skip from one end of the rack to the other and burn the middle last, probably in March instead of January. I am not sure if I am making sense here anyway. My wife was of little help when I asked her last night. I figure I might bet some help here.
The attached picture is back in February, but gives an idea of the rack. The 9-10 wood is on the left and the 10-11 is on the right. There is less 9-10 wood and the superdry BL is added on the left and the very dry is added on the right. The least dry will be in the middle. Unless I do some major moving and re-stacking. In a perfect world I could start at one end and go straight through to the other, and then fill in behind as I scrounge more. skipping from end to end will be a major PIA.
The attached picture is back in February, but gives an idea of the rack. The 9-10 wood is on the left and the 10-11 is on the right. There is less 9-10 wood and the superdry BL is added on the left and the very dry is added on the right. The least dry will be in the middle. Unless I do some major moving and re-stacking. In a perfect world I could start at one end and go straight through to the other, and then fill in behind as I scrounge more. skipping from end to end will be a major PIA.
