Why my wood won't dry.

[skyline]

Glad most of you to the East are finally getting a taste of Spring. Feel free to send a little this way :ahhh:

This mornings weather - snow flakes with temperatures falling throughout the day and more expected tonight.



According to my local Underground weather station:

http://www.wunderground.com/weather...ILLS22&day=6&year=2011&month=4&graphspan=year

We've 5 days since Feb. 12th without rain. I sure don't remember any. Average Temp. since then 42.6 °F Ave. R. Humidity 86.4%

For that data, this site: http://www.dpcalc.org/ calculates an average EMC of 19.4 with 10 days for things to mold!
My wood doesn't seem to burn that well unless MC is <18% and these conditions are not getting it any closer :exclaim:

Between the weather and this forum, I'm convinced to start getting trees on the ground now! Promise to send more pics when they start falling!

 

[Archie]

Sure seems to have been an exceptionally wet winter for the Pacific NW. Do you have you wood in a shed or top covered? Every bit helps in that environment.

 

[skyline]

Archie,
We were gloating in the beginning of January especially to my friends in Herdon, VA, but those days are long over. I've got wood in an open sided barn as well as wood stacked outside with top covered. With our wind and rain, this is mostly pointless until summer comes. I see you're around N VA. I grew up in Vienna but I don't think you'll ever drag me back. Cheers!

 

[Wood Duck]

I am not sure about 'most of those in the east' but we sure aren't feeling spring here in central Pennsylvania. It continues to be cool and a mix of rain and snow fell several times today. My wood isn't drying either.

 

[smokinj]

I am not sure about 'most of those in the east' but we sure aren't feeling spring here in central Pennsylvania. It continues to be cool and a mix of rain and snow fell several times today. My wood isn't drying either.

Thursday afternoon! Its going to break for you!

 

[snowleopard]

Green grass? Flowers? ummmm, skyline . . . that looks pretty nifty from here, even if there is a little atmospheric irregularity going on.

Haven't seen the ground for seven months. I was sitting looking out my window the other day and realized I couldn't remember what trees look like when they're green. The whole notion just seemed funny to me.

Okay, back to the subject of your post: I would think that the time to start dropping trees to be worked up would be before the sap starts rising. That's generally how it's done around here.

Of course, our window of opportunity for doing that is a pretty large one. It's not like we have to rush outside and rev the saw up . . .

 

[Backwoods Savage]

We've had 2 days of spring so far but this weekend it sounds like spring definitely will arrive. However, I doubt it will stay long and that type of warm up usually says some bad storms will hit somewhere.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

Sure seems to have been an exceptionally wet winter for the Pacific NW. Do you have you wood in a shed or top covered? Every bit helps in that environment.

Nothing exceptional about it. Some are colder, some are warmer, all a wet.

 

[skyline]

Green grass? Flowers? ummmm, skyline . . . that looks pretty nifty from here, even if there is a little atmospheric irregularity going on.

Haven't seen the ground for seven months. I was sitting looking out my window the other day and realized I couldn't remember what trees look like when they're green. The whole notion just seemed funny to me.

Okay, back to the subject of your post: I would think that the time to start dropping trees to be worked up would be before the sap starts rising. That's generally how it's done around here.

Of course, our window of opportunity for doing that is a pretty large one. It's not like we have to rush outside and rev the saw up . . .

In the grand scheme of things our winters are mild, our grass doesn't even die, (that took getting used to coming from the east), but the wet monotony....! As far as the trees being green, I'm not sure evergreens really count, nothing else has leafed out yet. And yes the sap is probably rising but this site motivates me to cut earlier every year. One day I'll be more than one season ahead, of course then a neighbor will want the seasoned wood. Hope spring starts coming to everybody soon!

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

You lucky dog! It appears the only solution is to construct a woodshed with a wood burning stove in it. Keep that bugger burning all summer and by winter the wood in the shed should be dry.

The rest of us really have no excuse to keep burning year-round.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Yup skyline, it sounds like you need a good shed; just don't enclose it too tight. Make it breath.

 

[leaddog]

sounds like spring is going to hit here this weekend as they say it will be 78* Sunday. Of course with that comes storms so maybe the trees will come down this weekend. Then back to the low 50's. There is still a little snow in the woods but that should go this weekend. My forester is comming tomorrow to see about selective cutting. There will be lots of tops to cut this summer. Most of next years wood is dry and stacked and 2012 is split and 2013 and 14 is partly split.
leaddog

 

[snowleopard]

In the grand scheme of things our winters are mild, our grass doesn't even die, (that took getting used to coming from the east), but the wet monotony....! As far as the trees being green, I'm not sure evergreens really count, nothing else has leafed out yet. And yes the sap is probably rising but this site motivates me to cut earlier every year. One day I'll be more than one season ahead, of course then a neighbor will want the seasoned wood. Hope spring starts coming to everybody soon!

I took this picture as I arrived home this evening, just for you. This is how we know spring has arrived: if you carelessly step off the front porch at the wrong moment, you will die. Okay, I *guess* that beats monotony.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

There is still good sledding in Fairbanks! Where's Jake?

 

[skyline]

In the grand scheme of things our winters are mild, our grass doesn't even die, (that took getting used to coming from the east), but the wet monotony....! As far as the trees being green, I'm not sure evergreens really count, nothing else has leafed out yet. And yes the sap is probably rising but this site motivates me to cut earlier every year. One day I'll be more than one season ahead, of course then a neighbor will want the seasoned wood. Hope spring starts coming to everybody soon!

I took this picture as I arrived home this evening, just for you. This is how we know spring has arrived: if you carelessly step off the front porch at the wrong moment, you will die. Okay, I *guess* that beats monotony.

Snowleopard, that's a pretty picture. I don't know where you are but I'm guessing your days are about to get long enough to melt your "natural" gutters. I guess all my whining paid off. The weatherman repeated 3 times this morning "I repeat there is no rain in todays forcast" Let the wood drying season begin!

 

[snowleopard]

I'll keep you updated. Some years we get a full curl of three or four feet of ice hanging off there before it lets go. That's the north side, so it'll be awhile. I bet the south side will let go sometime this weekend. Exciting if it happens at night--the sound effects are impressive. Ka-BOOOM! Two more inches of snow this morning, but it's melting now. We'll be up to 14.5 hours of daylight tomorrow.

I'm in Fairbanks, AK, and we pretty much go from middlin' spring to full-tilt-boogie summer. After a long winter when we'd be grateful just to see 50 or 60, it's suddenly 75F, and we have a month or so of that, and then it's anyone's guess--sometimes non-stop rain for weeks, somtimes gorgeous weather. All I know for sure is that it flies. Making hay, cutting wood, growing a garden, going fishing--you've got to make every day count.

That's so funny that the weatherman repeated the forecast like that--for the grownups, who haven't figured out that it's stopped raining. Have you noticed that the kids pick up on that first? "No, mom, I don't need a raincoat . . . "

 

[firefighterjake]

There is still good sledding in Fairbanks! Where's Jake?

Jake has put the Star Tron in his sled and officially put the Skidoo to rest . . . until next Winter . . . time to start thinking about ATVing . . . although I may be working on a new access trail from my house to the official snowmobile trail after speaking with an Amish neighbor.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Well, it is good to be thinking ahead Jake. Make sure you are good friends with the Amish too. Most of them are great people to have for neighbors.

 

[firefighterjake]

Well, it is good to be thinking ahead Jake. Make sure you are good friends with the Amish too. Most of them are great people to have for neighbors.

Definitely . . . I really like them . . . very friendly . . . one family even hosted a pig roast two Falls ago . . . I just had to make sure I went to that -- the appeal of being able to say I went to an Amish pig roast AND try out some of their famous cooking (which was wicked good) was just too good to pass up.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I've never known an Amish or Mennonite lady who was not a great cook! Always accept an invitation.