Trying to make a long story short... Injured dominant arm in March. Had some wood left from 2015, got it top covered, just like all the other wood. Maryland has gotten (so far) 57 inches of rain, most of it this summer. I had some wood under the car porch, but the rest is out in stacks, covered with plastic tarp on the top. This rain has been relentless; the wind drove it sideways more times than I can remember, and I didn't even think to try to cover the stacks on the sides, and probably couldn't do it well early on. It is now to late, as the splits and SOAKED and heavy. I tried to bring as much in under cover as possible, but even after two weeks, they still burn wet. I do not want to bring anything inside the house, because of insects and pets that think wood crumbs are a great snack item, then puke it up. Does anyone have any advice, or is this going to be the year without burning for me?? P.S. This is the second day of more downpours.
What I do is bring into my garage and keep a big box fan blowing on the wood. Not great but it's better than nothing.
No garage, but have some under the carport. Not sure I want to run an extension around from unprotected side, and also don't want to risk box fan getting wet from blowing rain. BUT--I might try it on weekends, under supervision. Thanks!
I'd get as much under the carport as I could. We haven't had much terribly dry weather lately either.
I wonder how long it will take to dry out? If we can get some dry weather, as in low humidity, maybe a few more weeks? I wonder if anyone else has had this happen? I guess we should be lucky the wood was at least above water...
All I can think of is, buy a pallet of wood bricks, burn them in the woodstove, and keep a rack of your soaked wood at a close but safe distance from the stove. As it dries, mix it with the wood bricks, and keep refilling the rack with wet wood.
Yes, that is what I am doing now, but with the dry stuff that is in the hoop and the little Rubbermaid shed. I just hope it’s enough! One piece that I thought was dry enough left brown soot on the glass
Take the driest pieces and burn them, will put moisture in your air/home, but put wet wood beside stove (at a safe distance) and dry more than you consume. Just have to keep this up until you have a stack dried.
I’m in a similar situation. Some of my oldest wood(3 or 4 year) was stacked in a bad location for drying and wasn’t top covered. It’s a mix of red/silver maple and American elm. I just brought a bunch up to my back deck and stacked it loosely and threw a top cover on it. Going to bring some dry ash up also and burn a mix of both. I’d do like others suggested, try and bang off as much crud as you can and put a bit near the stove, replace as necessary. Keep a eye on your chimney and sweep it out more than normal if necessary. This summer sure was a wet one for some.
I know this won't help right now, but can you stack differently to avoid this happening next year? Wet wood sucks.......from experience.
You are not alone. Many of us will have this problem this season in the Mid-Atlantic and North East. Us included. Not insurmountable, but you'll have to work harder and use some ingenuity. Do you have any good stacking spots in the sun? If so, get a few face cord sized racks, and get them leveled. Move wood off the top of your current stacks and onto your three new racks. Cover them with clear plastic (not just the top, but on 5 sides of the stack- the bottom can remain open), and you'll have a cord worth of solar kiln working for you drying the wood quickly when the sun is shining. Hopefully once you get a few layers down, there will be some drier pieces to sort through. Sort them out and keep those dry ones dry. We fill our two garden trailers with wood, and cover them with clear plastic, facing the sun. More solar kiln action. Also, on windy days, we remove our tarps to let the evaporation happen. We watch the forecast and don't re-cover until rain is called-for. Make sure your tarps aren't full of holes. Dry your "on-deck" wood in front of the fire, and use a small fan in conjunction with the radiant heat from the stove. Here, you need to remain super vigilant, wood can catch fire just being in front of the stove. Trust me, I've watched it happen. And don't ever leave this unattended, fall asleep, etc. You might burn your house down. Also figure out how to hang a tarp on your carport to keep rain from blowing on to your stacks in there. Don't worry about what the neighbors think, they won't be paying your heating bills, plus, they already think you're the crazy firewood lady. Finally, put a tarp over the back seat of your car, and stack some in there. Mobile wood kiln. I'm only kidding about the car part. And not entirely.
Count me in too. Relentless rain all summer. My wood has been in the shed all year and when I brought some in as it cooled off, I had a hard time getting it to go. So I ended up making a stack about 5' from the stove so that when it's running it's drying out the wood. Some of it is 3 year old oak but it still sucked up the moisture this year. This is the first time I've ever pulled damp wood out of the shed.
That's terrible. Also discouraging. If this keeps up for another year, I'm gonna buy a shipping can and turn it into a wood fired firewood kiln.
As much rain as we got ...so far....not too bad. I load up my 2 wood carts after i load my wood box n keep the carts inside my garage. If anything is slighty wet...its on the end stacks.
Sorry to hear about your arm injury. Sounds like you had such a wet summer that the garden must have really suffered. I guess not much canning and freezing either. I hope all is well now.
No garden this year. Had to have others stack 2021 wood. Better luck next year. Getting better, but cannot do some of the suggestions above. Lots of other good ideas, though!
I pile my wood in basement and have large dehumidifier running right next to it, it sucks the moisture out fast, a month inside dries out the wood pretty good. That is of course after it sat outside cut split and stacked with top cover for a couple seasons.
Here's the bright side:. I did have a garden, did a ton of work on it, and the weather ruined it! So, think of it as a fallow year. Which we all need to recharge from time to time. Do what you can and consider it physical therapy for your arm. If you have friends, ask them to help, particularly if they have age appropriate kids. When you are all mended up, you can repay the favor.
Ouch. Tough spot to be in. I would stack a weeks worth near your stove and risk the critter exposure. The weather is going to turn cold and dry soon. I would tarp everything low, and if you can open it on sunny days do so. Will it be perfect, no, but it will help.
