I checked the mc on all my wood stacks today. Most averaged 25-30%. I'm hoping that these will be good to go around December or so. For awhile I'm only going to focus on scrounging small dead standing trees like locust and maple. I cut about a trailer load of these today and they should be good to go right now. I should be ok for the winter with this plan, fingers crossed. Once I get some breathing room, I'm gonna drop some bigger dead standing oaks and hickories. When I split it though, I mainly will focus on splitting the sapwood and splitting it thin with the hopes it may be ready later in the winter. Has anyone tried this?
Do you have any beetle kill White Ash around? Ash has a low moisture content when green compared to other trees, and dries really fast. Dead pines are also excellent choices, dries fast and burns hot. It is okay to burn dry pine, don't listen to the people that say you can't burn pine. I am sure plenty on here can vouch for the pine being safe.
make splits smaller , cross stack single rows where lots of breeze no shade top cover only- lot has to do with your location, and types of wood. If you are luck might get down to 20%. Get some compressed wood blocks to mix with your so-so wood and that will get you bye for the up coming season. Medium density wood are going dry more quickly than the dense such as Oak Hickory Locust. Big leaf maples, ash varieties, fruit woods, box elder , Siberian Elm and similar are in the medium range and under the right conditions can be good to go in a year or less. Black locust can dry kinda quick but Honey locust not. ( They really are not related other than in name)
On the dead standing oaks and hickories, at least the top third of the tree should be good or very close. As for splitting thin, that is good but I still would not count on that being okay for this coming winter. Still, perhaps if you can mix some in, say, starting in February, it might help you get through. But the dead wood will still be a better bet. On the maple, if you can get some soft maple, there is a chance you could burn that in late winter. Split that stuff quickly and get it into both wind and sun and it can dry really quick.
I always shudder when someone comments about the white ash being low moisture. 99% of the time it is taken out of context. Green white ash can still be 35% or higher when fresh cut. That is not low moisture. Yes, lower than oak but still high moisture. So please always keep this in mind.
Yup yup you are so right. We don't have many green ones around here coming down. A lot of them the bark is peeling off.
Thin works, waste off my sawmill is done in a few months regardless of species. But, making splits an inch thick would be silly. Dead standing oak, all depends on its MC when cut and split. At least for normal Woodstove chunks. The tops will be good to go, smaller chunks will take a year to a year and a half in my experience. It's not like greenwood if it's been dead standing for a few years. Airflow sunlight and a good cover, should get you real close by next year (depending on current MC ) I stack 5-6 feet high 10 inches of spaces between rows and lean them together at the top then cover. I actually have 1.5 year old red oak ready for this winter using my above statements. It will be 2 when burned from split time but it's ready now. It's all 17-20% right now. I burned some this spring, it did decent not like the milled waste thoug(10%).
Also the higher the reading on your moisture meter the less you should count on it being accurate. Lots of good advice above. You may also find that the split in your stack that was at the top is drier than the ones closer to the bottom. Most if not all of us have been in your shoes but with good planning you will have great firewood in the years ahead. You really should find some dry pine... any standing dead in your region that you know of?
