Since we'll be burning for a while yet, and I'm running out of wood I had planned to burn, I went to the stacks yesterday afternoon to pull some firewood. Decided on Maple that I stacked last spring (I think...I'd have to review some pics to know when), so loaded it up and brought it to the porch. Some pretty large spits on the bottom, then smaller stuff with one small Pine split (very dry) also on the bottom to help it get going. I sat up for somewhere close to 2 hours waiting for it to finally get going well enough that I could go to bed. This is about an hour and 40 minutes longer than it usually takes on the night load. I won't use any more of that. Guess I'll need to use some Oak. What a frustrating experience, which took me back about 8 years.......before I had dry firewood. Now I remember why I stack the Maple for a least a good year. I pretty much knew it wouldn't be ready, which is why I only grabbed about 40 splits, but I was being optimistic.This wasn't scheduled for use until this fall and next spring. Just thought I'd share my fun little experience for anyone doubting the need for dry firewood.
It's amazing when you put a load of not-so-dry wood in the stove after burning nice dry wood for a long time - completely different and the wait to get a good fire rolling is reason enough to hoard! Cheers!
Having burnt less than idea wood and dry wood was all I needed to know I won't burn any wood that isn't dry. I'll turn on the gas furnace first it's not worth messing with.
I thought maple was a fast drying wood. I read a post not long ago that said maple cut and stacked in the spring would be ready by wintertime. Now I'm not sure what to think.
Moisture meter... keep track (dates) of your firewood, in your stacking area... then check moisture late in the fall. If I had to guess... most times I'd go 2 years with maple, 3 with red oak. The maple I burned this last winter was OK but not completely dry. It came off the stump in the fall of 2012, stayed as logs until fall 2013 when it was CSS in our shed with south sun open exposure... so it had a full year.
Had a few of those this year too Dave. Some of my wood was only helped this year, I think, because they sat in the boxes next to the stove for a couple weeks before I used them. Some of the oak was not gooder. Next year should be better.
My husband used "left to right". Stacks on left were new and green, stacks on right were oldest and seasoned. Oblong driveway worked like a clock face for the stacks. 3 o'clock to the right good, 9 o'clock green. As we burned stacks, rotate to 2 oclock good, 8 oclock green. Worked well for us.
Frank and Beans, I think it depends on your location(zone), your microhabitat, your exposure and amount of prevailing wind, as well as your trees themselves. I consistently have sugar maple at about 20% (15 -23 or so) after one season of drying, even when left in rounds with ends exposed. Even in rainy seasons. But, I have trees that are growing on minimal topsoil on a limestone rock base, my trees are very slow-growing and dense, and when they are cut and left in rounds on the ground they are basically sitting on rock: may have an inch or two of topsoil, or none. I have only cut sugar maples that needed to be cut because they were threatening either my power lines or my home, so they have all been in a situation where they are exposed to southern light and northwesterly wind while sitting on the ground in rounds. I always leave the rounds on their sides so the bark protects them from rain, and I roll them apart so their ends are exposed. I would expect, based on my experience, that if one split sugar maple in the Spring and stacked it immediately, top covered, it would be dry enough to burn in the Autumn. Depending on where one lived, one might split it larger or smaller. I'm dealing with trees that are 26 -32 inch DBH.
Kinda surprises me that red maple didn't dry over a summer. I would sure expect slow drying from hard maple though.
Soft Maple is gonna dry faster than Sugar. It sounds like Dave's Red was split bigger, so it may well take 2 yrs. in that case. With a cat stove, I can split smaller; I don't need big splits to get a longer burn. I've also found that soft Maple and Cherry seem to soak in a little moisture if they are out there in a t0p-covered stack where some rain can get on the sides. It's not enough to get the slow starts he is talking about, though.
Yep, these were fairly large splits. They were also out in the stacks, uncovered, but no rain and sunny for several days. They just didn't get quite enough time out there. I think they'll be in great shape come this fall.
Folks laugh when they see the labels on the 3 sections of the woodshed for what years it's to be burned. no me,I don't remember putting the labels , but am glad they're there.
If its standing dead, yes it's ready quickly. Green cut, It needs longer. Silver or other soft maple seasons quicker than hard maples like sugar maple.
