Does this strategy work well.. dropping trees in spring and then bucking/spitting 4 months later?

Girdling works. Gramps did it for years; now it is basically standing dead and still needs to be cut bucked split and stacked to season

 

Still on the right side of the grass, doing good here, i hope you and yours are fine also.
That cold spell made me question my sanity about burning wood but made it through Ok.

 

Something similar but not quite. Years ago I was into rustic furniture. Always looking for an easy way to dry large chunks of wood with out them checking. Some people suggest chucking them into a body of water for a year before starting the drying process.
Never tried it. Not much water on top of the hill.

 

I’ve been weighing sample splits from a lot of trees over the years to get a handle on how fast they dry and to figure out any seasonal variations in moisture content based on when the wood was cut.

With any given species of tree I have never found the ratio between the weight of fresh cut to dry to vary by season. I’ve said this before. I think saps up vs. saps down is a wives tale. I’ve tried to measure it and haven’t been able to.

I have also observed that 50% of the weight loss (drying) will occur in a 2 weeks to 2 months when wood is given warm sun and protected from rain. So if you are thinking that winter cut and spring split and stack dries quicker because the sap was down what I think what you are really observing is wood getting more drying time. This time includes the long slow 2nd half having a chance to kick in during the hot summer. Split in July or August your wood might not even finish the easy half before it cools down in the fall when drying rates slow down.

 

Been on firewood forums for quite awhile now and a lot of information keeps bubbling to the surface.