By Independence Day I'm pretty well done with summer. It wasn't bad earlier when it was dry & low humidity, but the last three weeks have been wet & humid. The skeeters are thick & so is the air. I'm looking forward to the first crisp morning & getting back in the woods without bugs & humidity. Got plenty of SS wood & almost there with the good stuff. Grandson & I are looking forward to skidding logs again.
Not even on my radar and I try not to do much wood work during summer. Maybe grab a few scrounges but minimal CSS. My first fire probably wont be until November. Got plenty of uglies for shoulder season though.
We have some ss wood on hand, hemlock, and difficult to split even on the machine. Been sitting uncovered over a year. Might use some of it this fall. I brought home a loda white pine with ss in mind....but turned it into tooth picks/kindling instead. So on the lookout for a good load of pine, to c/s/s for a year out. I am not in a hurry for cooler weather, but I finished my wood shed (for shorts and uglies) today. Only need to build a 10' shelf in back to stash our kindling in to dry all summer. I've wire brushed and reinstalled 3 of 8 gaskets on the Jotul 500, and repainted the rusty top. And we've c/s/s maybe 3 cord so far, and easy 6 to go. I'm not rushing winter mentally, but everything we're doing now is prep for those blissfully chilly days!!! They'll be here soon enough!! Sca
I 100% agree with you. Heat and humidity just sap the life out of me, and I've always shifted gears after Independence Day and gone into planning for autumn and winter. For me, it actually starts on June 21 (summer solstice) because starting on June 22, the days begin to get shorter and that has me thinking about hunting season. Bear season here begins on September 1st, so in July and August, I'm out scouting (which invariable leads to finding decent dead and down scrounges for firewood). I've never really looked or planned ahead to have dedicated SS wood. As a full-time scrounger for the last 12 years, I used to just get whatever I could and would make it work. Now that I am on the three+ year system (with many thanks to others in this forum for knowledge, cajoling, and motivation), I am much more selective with what I scrounge so I end up with having little low quality/punky wood. Everything gets mixed in my stacks except for oak and the rare softwoods (i.e., hemlock, pine). I have a lot of ash, silver maple, and white birch mixed in the stacks so I just burn what is next in line from the stacks during SS. It just works for me. With that being said, this is the first year I am making the effort to scrounge some hemlock (plus I have several on my property that are dead or dying). I will CSS and stack all of that separately so next fall will be the first time I actually have dedicated SS wood. I'll see then if it was worth the effort. I hate processing firewood during the hot months as much as the next person, however for me, scrounging and processing firewood is a year-round task so I just do what I can, when I can, and hopefully that means 15-20 cords CSS by the end of the year.
High temps have been between 87 and 105 for the last 3 weeks. This is a miserable summer for sure. The last 2 weeks of October is usually when the Woodstock goes into use. Shoulder wood? Ya I've cut lots of ponderosa and Lodgepole pine so I got shoulder wood. Usually don't get below 15F here so shoulder wood will do ya fine if you have enough.
For me shoulder season is late October and I’m only burning in the basement stove at night to knock chill out. I don’t have dedicated ss wood. Most of this winter will be wood from a 42” Willow Oak.
I have a ton of basswood and a cord of spruce. Should be good for SS. Not looking forward at all. If I can make it to end of September with only a few nights of woodstove use then I'm happy.
Its hotter than the hubs of Hades here…I’m lucky if I get to open her up by the first of November-Our rifle opener is always the Monday of Thanksgiving week and I see more 60-70* openers than I care to recall, we’re hardly a 4 season locale anymore and I for one love and appreciate all the seasons and their unique beauty…We go from summer to winter and back again
I’ll burn 3 or more cord Cash Larue but its from November through March-this year it extended into April, and then it was 80*. Generally, once my fire is lit, it never goes out. As long as nights dip below 50, I need a fire upon rising and use ceiling fans and open windows to disperse. Ash is my go to shoulder season wood and after its all gone, which is getting closer by the day, I guess it will be walnut which I hate but I live in an area of abundant hardwoods and am a wood snob! I won’t burn poplar and as my sig says, I dont even bother with elm…Hope you and all are well!
I HATE the 'dog days of summer'. Bring on fall with no bugs, no swamp n#ts, the cidiots are long gone, the lawn quits growing and hunting seasons start. Poplar is pretty much all I use for shoulder season wood.
My favorite shoulder season wood is Lodgepole pine. Makes a quick hot fire, and usually easy splitting stuff too.
It was almost 90 degrees the other day on the CT shoreline. You'd think burning wood would be the last thing on my mind. Nope, not this firewood geek. I walk downstairs, grab a cup of coffee, stare at my lonely wood stove and declare to my wife, "I miss burning wood. I can't wait for fall." Luckily, she agrees. As far as shoulder season wood, we have an abundance of sassafras in our area. Dries out in about 6 months and goes up like tinder. I like to mix that with a little bit of birch if I can get my hands on it.
We've gotten more rain this last month than I can ever recall getting in late June-July. Hard to do anything between the mud and skeeters that love little stagnant puddles.
The weather has definitely made firewood processing somewhat difficult this summer. We had an abnormally low snowpack last winter coupled with an abnormally dry spring so we've been hovering around moderate drought for the last few months (obviously nothing compared to what is going on out west). We haven't been getting as much rain as southern NH or you guys in MA, however there has been an abnormal amount of rainfall for this time of year. Still, as I look out the window and watch the pouring rain today, I hope it continues. We need the rain. The mosquitoes haven't really been an issue yet up here however I expect when they do show up, it will be bad (considering I have wetlands on my property).
