I got another row in the shed this afternoon. The pile is looking smaller. Between the big Maple I cut up and the Alder I just took down there is well over a cord. The Maple looks dark on the ends after sitting in the rain for a month, but the middle looks good. I normally don’t stack over 5 feet high, but since I marked this with the Mingo marker, I’m not getting much variation on length and the stack is more stable. Figure to go a foot or two higher. I did some moisture checks on some of the splits. The Maple, which has been down for three years is between 18 and 20 percent. It has been sitting on top of the log deck in an area that is shaded for most of the day. The freshly cut Alder is showing 22-24% moisture. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Take it from a fellow 'tall stacker' watch it! That wood is going to shrink as it drys and can create instability. I've had to re-stack some big sections of 6 & 7' tall stacks because of the ever famous problem of 'shrinkage.' The other side of that coin is I also have several 7' x 40' stacks that remained so strong you could hide behind them and defend the castle from the attacking barbarians.
If I leave maple in my stacks for more than 2 seasons, it starts getting very light. Mostly silver is what I have experience with. Appears you've stored it in rounds to this point?
The Maple was a big log until I cut it last month. I was surprised how well it looked on the inside after being out in the weather that long. It still had the roots on the log but I don’t know if that makes any difference in how it holds up. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
