Didn't do any cutting this week but stacked the three loads I had dumped there from early October. Then split a load of locust I took over there a few weeks ago. Got 7 cord stacked over there the past week. Stacking went a whole lot faster with the totes, just toss it in there.
With that sweet tote system, you can sock it away and still have time to enjoy your other pursuits/fan time! Awesome, Sean
Grimmy, if you have a smartphone, the ryobi phoneworx moisture meter works great. $30, at any home depot, you can take pictures and it will record time date and MC of the wood. It's very nice to keep track of all the wood you cut and you can sort the wood that's drier from the wetter stuff, giving that more time to season.
Ok, I just ordered one of these to try it out. I guess when I get it, I'll split some of the pieces that are still in the basement and see what it reads and report back.
Before I was ahead on wood I used a moisture meter a lot and it helped sort through what was dryer and raise to burn. One thing I learned from guys here then by experience is have dry wood changes the game big time and really helps with better, cleaner, longer burns.
Well I've been burning for over 10 years, and I've only cut stuff that's been dead and down. I've never had any issues, and when I clean my chimney, there's not much at the bottom when I'm done running the brush up and down it, so I must be doing something right.
Been cutting quite a bit of dead/down Oak the last couple years myself. It's still wetter than I expected. I let it dry outside for a year, and it's good. This is all barkless, so it's been dead for a while. If it sizzles, it's too wet. My $.02
Are you gonna leave the wood in the totes to dry like that or are you gonna move them somewhere to stack them. I have a good supply of those totes as well and if your gonna leave the wood in there and have good drying success, then i may "borrow" that idea. You know, work smarter not harder.
Any ideas roughly on how much these cages weigh when fully loaded with a green hardwood, say a maple or Hickory?
So I don't have the meter yet, but well I burn wood outside when I sit in the hot tub...just watch the fire burn. Most of the stuff I burn in there is scrap from the splitter, or pitchy stuff or stuff I don't want down in the basement for the house. At times I will cut the smaller stuff for hot tub wood. Yesterday I had a fire going and I grabbed one piece of this red oak I just split and put in the basement. I wanted to see if moisture would come out the ends while in the fire or not. I didn't see anything and I watched it burn for a good 2 hours. I'll still test some pieces when I get my meter Monday. Just wanted to share.
When I was first starting burning the wood stove I kept my MM with me right at the splitter. I checked a lot of pieces while I was splitting and put back anything that was 21% moisture content or more. Very handy tool...especially when your cutting standing dead to use for this year. Sometimes the bottom of a dead tree is not even close to being dry once you're 3 years ahead, doesn't matter too much. Let us know how it works out for you Gimm
I burn about 4 cords a year, and I don't have enough room where I live to store more than 5-6 cords and I like to keep what I have fairly organized and neatly stored, so the whole program of storing 3 years ahead doesn't work for me so I'm pretty dependent on cutting standing dead wood to burn the same year. Fortunately, I have access to a fairly easy to get standing dead (beetle kill) lodgepole pine which will season on the hoof,,, meaning the whole tree will dry < 20 % MC while still standing. Of course, it takes time for the tree to dry after the beetles have got to it, and it can take many years for the trees to dry out to <20% MC. The trick is to know which trees are already <20 MC. I can now tell which trees will be <20% before cutting them, but it was only by observing descriptive details in the state of the tree and using my moisture meter I was able to determine whish trees would be dry enough to burn right away. Before I was just guessing. One interesting tidbit of information I found out that I might not have come to fully realize without a meter was that a particular standing dead tree might be dry enough to burn (<20 MC), but if I was to drop it on the ground or the wind was to blow it down, and it lays on the ground for as little as one year, that tree will actually re-absorb moisture and could be as high as 30% depending on when you buck it up. In cases like that most of the moisture tends to concentrate on the lower half of the trunk, and if you split the rounds up half the splits would be dry and the other half still too wet to burn properly.
So I got my meter yesterday. I didn't have a whole lot of time to mess with it, as I had my monthly RC club meeting to attend that I missed the last 3 months of. I did quickly go in the basement and grab a few pieces and stick the meter in to see what it read. The first piece, on the end was 29% and the middle of the piece was around 20%. I checked some other pieces and most were around 20% (19 here 21 there, etc.) I went and checked some of the other stuff I had in the basement and got a lot of 10%, some 8%. So when what I just cut, while it might be on the higher side of where it's wanted, by the time I get around to burning it, it should come down some. I would liked to have stacked it outside for a month, but well I just didn't have that time to do that. But it'll be stacked in my nice warm basement for a month before being used. I'll keep messing with the meter and might use it to find a better burnable piece over another. Sorry, no pics. I just didn't have the time last night.
For a true MM reading, split a piece and check the center of the freshly split side. Good luck with your new toy/tool
I've had some ash and red pine come down in recent wind storms. That's what I've been burning this year so far with the mild weather, and this should more than replace what I've used. There were 5 or 6 smaller ash that I cut up, and 1 that I cut down. The red pine in the pics was a yard tree that was beetle kill and I cut that one down too. I haven't hauled in the wind fall one yet.
