Splitting the birch I cut last week. I was surprised that the rounds were spiderwebbing. When I split the rounds you can see how 3/8-1/2 of the edge dried. Found it interesting and thought I would share.
I work with a lot of paper birch too Tom. Birch cut in summer and fall does not seem to do crack so soon like that for me. It seems to dry on the ends quickly when cut in the cold dry winter months like you are doing. In my climate birch seems to burn best after a minimum of 18 months CCS. I am going through some now that is 36 months plus and it is perfect for maximum heating.
It will be interesting to see the progression, the low humidity and high aspect ratio of the sun may help. Not to mention 24 hours of sun for 62 days. I need to order a moister meter to know what science says.
It could be, makes sense to me that quite a few mall things that stacking enough small things contribute to the overall drying.
I love burning my white birch in my fire pit and fireplace. I c/s/s about a face cord around June 2017 and it’s nice and dry. Good stuff
I notice the same on red maple ive cut around here. The ends dry the same. The cold dry air does dry it out. Wreaks havoc on my hands too!
Here are a few rounds just days cut. I find wood here will dry in the cold, not as fast as a good sunny, windy summer day. The low humidity is the key. When I lived in northern Maine, wood would not dry well, the humidity was so high year around. Covered in a windy place for 3 years. For comparison I have cut both maple and birch in Maine in late spring, when fall rolled around it look similar in cracking to this.
Got more birch split plus all the spruce from Friday. Pile is slowly growing a few feet at a time. Was nice splitting right of the trailer and thrown to the pile. Reducing the handling of the rounds.
Your not kidding, I use the O’Keeifs green tin of healin/working hands. Keeps the cracks from forming at the end/edge of the quick-finger nail.
The green birch that Ive had the pleasure of harvesting took two full summers split and stacked on dunnage, single row, loosely stacked and top covered only before I could get it below 20% mc. This is in my area which is neither real high or low in humidity. Since youre on the 3 year plan I guess that wont matter much to you but the moisture meter is a fun and cheap tool that can give you some insight. It will be interesting to hear from you how you make out with it especially since some/much of it was already dead.
The moisture meter is a great tool. A real eye opener occasionally. Mine is a Fleabay special. $10 dollar range. Shipped. Actually I am quite surprised it still functions. I bought a I.R. temp gun there also for similar money. Another fun tool!
Lots of nice pictures. Looks like you’re getting a nice start for future burning. I believe I read somewhere else on this forum that you burn a tremendous amount of wood seasonally, correct me if I’m mistaken. I would be interested to hear in your cutting/ seasoning differences between Alaska & Maine. I’ve not traveled much in my life but can relate to your comment on seasoning wood in Maine. Here in Pennsylvania the humidity is much higher than it is where your at I imagine? I’ve often wondered what it would be like to live in a dryer lower humidity area of our country. Thanks for sharing.
I wish they'd had this back when I was milking cows. And that was before milking parlors as we had all the cows in stanchions. Naturally, every cows teats had to be washed before milking. Hands in and out of water many times per day meant cracked fingers. Man they could get sore too. Most guys used bag balm but it did not help me. Finally a druggist friend got me some pure lanolin and it worked! I would cover the crack with the lanolin then put a bandage on overnight and most times it was healed by morning but then after milking I'd have to cover it again. Did this for a few days then okay for maybe a week...
