What seasons faster, dead standing oak with no to little bark or live standing trees? Reason I'm asking is i have only cut down dead standing oak and the lower portion of the dead trees appeared to be extremely wet while the tops were bone dry. I've never cut a living oak and would like some advice as I pursue the elusive 3 year plan. Thanks!
On a living oak the whole thing will be soaked like you're seeing in the bottom halves of the standing dead.
All I cut is standing dead Red Oak and as you said on most from 6' up it can be ready to go in a few months some the same day. The lower trunk if split small and stacked will dry in one season. I had a few live Oaks taken down by the power company and now know why I only cut dead standing. They don't split as good they are FULL OF WATER and who needs to clean up all that bark. So sad to have all these dead oaks but glad I could never run out.
I'd like to see the difference if you cut one (living) now (if the sap hasn't come down yet) versus cutting (living) in the dead of winter to see if/how there's any appreciable variance in MC.....
I think I will continue to process the dead ones then. If I blaze a couple new 4 wheeler trails I probably have access to a few years worth of dead standing oak.
Good idea creek chub . Save the live trees until you've gotten well ahead, although it sounds like you don't even to mess with those. I cut a few, but only if they've got a lean. A lot of 'em I leave alone, just because there's so much dead standing and dead down to get, I don't need too many live ones.
In my experience with oak white oak dries well either way ( preferably split it ) but red takes forever to dry and needs to be split to dry well.
I do this all the time in my woods. The mm says the wood has less moisture in winter in live trees vs the same species living cut after the sap has " come up". I specifically cut a sugar maple down last winter/ spring before the sap started flowing. There was no moisture flowing from the trunk or stump after cutting. A week later, while going back to the woods to cut up the tree into rounds, the stump was saturated from all the sap flowing. But there was no flowing from the detached trunk, and every round cut from that trunk was noticibly drier than that stump.
Yeah, go after the dead ones first. Cut up any on the ground though before the standing dead as they'll go bad first. Once you get out to where you can't get now, you'll surely find more than you thought you had.
A buddy of mine claims the best time to drop a tree is just before they leaf out. He says if you leave it in one piece on the ground the tree will still leaf out after cut and will draw a lot of the moisture out of the tree.
Well I can tell you without using a MM, how much less they weigh in the dead of winter vs. when the sap is running as others have stated above. Just by handling the wood and loading it. If I can get out in the woods prior to sap running to cut I try to. It depends on how deep the snow is then.
We like, and need snow around these parts. Our State economy depends on it, snowmobiling is a billion dollar industry in NH. Skiing as well, we don't have a sales tax, we have rooms and meal taxes. Folks come up and stay in motels, go out to eat. Same thing in Maine and Vermont as well. Snowmobile trails are opening in Pittsburg (NH) this weekend. Let it snow!
I agree with everyone saying cut the dead ones up first, especially those laying on the ground. No point in wasting a good healthy tree when there's plenty of dead ones around, that are surely drier to start
By all means, get that dead stuff. On the part that is high moisture, I'd still give that 2 years worth of drying. On reading moisture, this is just one more point I've tried to make with MM in general. It just seems to me there are too many variables and theories on how to best use them. And 2 or 3 people reading the same thing might even get different results (but they should be close). We read that to get the proper moisture reading the wood should be at room temperature. So how can one take a reading in the winter months on wood that has just been cut and you are out in the cold? Again, there are too many variables and theories on MM for me to be comfortable with them. One guy says wood burns good at 25-30% and the next says it has to be below 15%. I don't trust them and that is one more good reason to be on the 3 year plan. Then you don't have to worry so long as you have handled the wood properly. fwiw, I am well into my 70's and have yet to use a MM. I've been around them but so far I've had not much of a problem knowing when wood is ready to burn and we get along just fine. Cut the wood, split it, stack it, top cover it and wait. Then enjoy the fruits of your labor. Okay, rant over. Sorry about that.
