Senior moment?

Hang on to your hats guys as I'm going to fess up a bit here. Recently I put wood in the barn that we will be burning this coming winter. But I did not tell the whole story!

Many have known how I put up wood, stack it, split it, etc and also know that we tend to dry our wood for many years before burning it. Still, many times after reading different posts I get to thinking (only occasionally on that point) and then have to try some experimenting from time to time. Sometimes things go well and sometimes not.

One of the first experiments started a few years ago when I decided that it had been many, many moons since I had stacked wood and left it uncovered. I'm not talking leaving it uncovered that first spring, summer and fall either. I simply never covered it from the time it was split and stacked until this fall. I had not intended on burning only a little bit of it this winter and that amounted to a pin oak that had died a few years back. It was cut in the spring and split right away. Lots of it was already punky. We wanted to burn the rest of it before it went bad.

So when loading that wood to bring to the barn I naturally looked at the wood piles next to it that also had not been covered. Hum.... Guess we'd best burn that this winter or some of it won't be worth burning. So, that experiment failed in my eye as it would not keep long enough. Now what about the next experiment.

This pile, as many know was cut the winter of 2008-2009 and split then stacked in early April 2009. We had burned a good amount of this but still had that far stack plus part of the other stack, which amounted to about 3 cord. That would have been enough for this winter without the other stuff so needless to say, we still have part of this for next year.

However, I did not put quite 2 1/2 cord in the barn. I didn't want to open up one more stack and have that partial so I just stopped. Then, once again I started thinking. This time not so clearly.....

The wood we cut last winter and split last spring is mostly in a pile yet rather than being stacked. Physical problems left me with lots of work undone this year. Well, we needed wood on the porch and it takes a trailer load to fill the rack on the porch. Ah ha! Wood not yet stacked.... White ash that has been dead for many years. Now how many times have we all heard that ash is one of those woods you can cut and burn right away? In addition, any standing dead is good to burn that year. Right? Put 2 and 2 together and we usually come up with 22. Or in this case putting the 2 together, dead and ash it sounds like a no brainer to many. Dead and ash. Fantastic! Really?

So I really was not trying to be lazy (well, maybe a little...) but we needed wood on the porch so I simply went back and took ash from the top of the pile. Not the stuff that was not on the top but the top got the sun and wind all summer long. Loaded the rack on the porch and started burning. What could go wrong?

First thing that happened was it did not burn well at all. Second thing, the glass looked as though someone took a paint brush and painted it black! We burned 6 splits total. Awful stuff it was. Last night forecast to 26 so I went to the barn to get good wood. It cleared the glass really quick and also warmed the house really quick. Wife complained all night about it being too hot in the house. Okay, lesson learned.....again.

Today I removed said wood from the porch and threw it back into the pile. Then, with wife's help, we loaded the trailer with some of that wood that was stacked in April 2009. We'll do fine now.

So, the old man still is not afraid to experiment from time to time but so far I have not yet found a better way of handling our firewood in the manner we are accustomed to doing. It also gave me even more appreciation for those new wood burners who are trying to burn wood that was cut and split this year. I really feel sorry for them. I'll think of them again this coming January when that first really cold air of the winter comes howling with the strong NW wind and our house will stay at 80 degrees or more. We will be comfortable.

 

Good points on the ash and being dead.

I thought you said you were only 39..... Can't be having senior moments just yet.

 

Almost correct Sean. I said I was 39. I just did not say how long ago that was.

 

Easy now.... Some things are just out of the question.

 

Or maybe not using a milk crate !

 

The crate stays too!

 

If you stopped using that crate I think my world be thrown into total confusion. I just can't picture you without it.

 

I read somewhere ( can't remember where anymore ) that if you covered the tops with bark and put bark side up it would stay dry. That is also pure BS I experimented with that one.