Experiment: Storing logs or rounds for later splitting

I was pondering the different experiences folks have had storing polewood, and it dawned on me why it might work mostly okay for me but sometimes not as well for others. Most of the time when I'm putting up piles of poles and logs it is becaused they're downed by wind and ice storms, usually after the leaves have fallen. If the tree does come down when the leaves are still on, I'll cut out whatever's across the fence, road, or trail, but will purposely leave the rest laying whole with the leaves on (unless it's black cherry in a cattle field). I will not cut up summer blowdowns until a couple months later or at least until the leaves are well wilted and dead. That way much of the "live" sap is drawn out of the wood before I pile it.

So the poles go into the pile either in their drier winter dormancy, or drained of a lot of their food and water by the wilting leaves, so there's not as much moisture and sugar going into the pile to begin with. Then I top cover it only, with runners underneath and the ends open. I also use old tarps, old moving blankets, cardboard sheets, or anything else that makes sense on top of the pile but underneath the good tarps to protect them from being poked and abraded by the wood, so there's no holes developing in the cover tarp a few months down the road, and I secure them stretched tightly with bungee cords to allow for a little movement so the grommets don't rip out but the tarp stays taut, to help shed water and snow. I also make sure to mound the piles from one high point in the center so there's nowhere for water to pool and stand on the tarp.

It's miserably humid here much of the summer, so I'm not sure climate is the answer. Just some random thoughts that came to me while doing some Christmas driving. I'd be interested to hear y'all's feedback.

 

When dumping big rounds mixed with smaller wood from a tree removal I try to place the big rounds so the cut side isn't down. I'd much rather have a sliver of sapwood go punky than a whole cut end of a large round starting to rot face down on the ground.

 

Only have de-barked when it started to get loose. I've had some logs where the bark was knocked off while green. Those logs dried out and didn't get punky

 

I note that this fellow does something interesting... when bucking his pile of logs, he lines them up flush somehow and when he bucks, he just bucks multiple logs at one time with a long bar. Now, that certainly is a time saver! At about the 4 minute mark he does this. I admire his nice equipment and shop. Eastonmade splitter and heavy equipment nice for firewooders.

What kind of wood is that? I live in the deep south, unsure of what it is. Maple? Oak? Logs are straight... we don't have straight logs from red maple trees here!

 

This is an easy one boys.

It's not firewood till it is split and allowed to dry at least 8 months.

 

That's true. But the discussion at hand is, what to do with it until you can buck and split?

 

Well there isn't much reason to do anything.

 

If it's across a road or fence, or laying in a hayfield, doing nothing is not an option. And picking it up off the wet ground and splitting it does not make red or white oak into firewood in 8 months, either, unless it's split so fine as to be impractical for long burns.

 

Reading and absorbing the conversation. We have Helene downed trees..water oaks, red and white oaks and hickory all blown over with root ball attached. My plan is to get as many of these trunks cut and stacked on runners as possible this winter (a relative term here as T.Jeff Veal knows). Then will cut enough to rounds and SS as I go. Some of the logs may not last long enough to become “farwood” but those will probably just be dumped in the gulley. Sounds like from what I’m reading here it’s the best plan?

 

That's what I've been doing. I've still got some stuff down that I haven't gotten cleaned up from Helene and from our Feb. '25 ice storm that left us with 1/2" of ice and a huge mess. All the critical stuff is cleaned up right now, but there's still a lot of leaning and downed stuff scattered throughout the woods that I'd like to get taken care of, for safety and tidyness sake. There's just not enough time in the day/month/week to process that into split/stacked firewood right now and still do all the other things that maintaining a farm requires.

 

I get some barkless oak that has been dead over 4 years & when the hookaroon sinks into the end grain moisture/ sap oozes out. The sapwood is spongy. In my experience any wood that isn't cut, split, & stored off the ground is getting bad after a year. We had about a face cord of dead ash rounds with the bark on that were stacked for 6-7 months before I got to them. Fungus was growing out the ends and many of the rounds were punky to the point they wouldn't really split, but broke into annoying chunks. Lesson learned with ash!

 

We have cut white oak that's been down for 10+years, yes the sap wood is gone, but the heart wood is still 100% solid and not dry yet. Not sure if it's been suggested, but could you run your saw down the length just to cut the bark so it can fall away?

 

I am splitting some elm that is doing that very thing. Pretty much no good but I'll burn most of it myself. Also full of termites and ants and grubs. This elm was a standing barkless but became a blowdown at a neighbor's house, was full of a bat colony. Hollow inside, so, not a healthy tree anyway. But I didn't get to all of it in time.