I'm late getting my wood cut this year.. Will start splitting today. Any chance it will dry by mid Nov. It's all fir and I'm in far Norcal?
green standing? Or were you able to find a dead standing tree that might be dry already? Are you coastal wet or dry inland? Really, the moisture meter will tell you what you've got now and in November. Also, some stove designs are more forgiving with wood moisture.
Yep, what part of NorCal are you in? Eureka on the Coast isn’t going to season as fast as Alturas further inland. Top covered?, how much wind do you get?, is the stack going to be well exposed to the wind and sun? The smaller the splits, the faster it will season. If you’re using a hydraulic splitter, knocking the bark off will definitely speed up the seasoning process It definitely slows down the processing, but I bet there isn’t 2 pounds of bark in this 1 1/8 cord of Douglas and White Fir, when accelerating seasoning matters, knocking the bark off does make a difference. The heartwood will typically be lower moisture content than the sapwood and will season faster Doug
We also will use the “Poor Man’s Kiln” A few days around the stove, can do wonders for how well wood burns. In front of the wood stove was one of the GrandDogter’s Favorite Places. After Emmy moved out, they didn’t have a wood stove, she tried but Willow wasn’t fooled someone isn’t Smiling, it ain’t the same Mom, we need to go back to Grammy, and GrandPaw’s Ahhh, Now That’s more like it The Smile says it all Another view of the “kiln” and guess who? Did I mention that was One of her Favorite Places?, which was kind of Funny as she was afraid of the wood stove when she was a puppy. She was doing puppy zoomies, running around, when she went near the wood stove, she stopped in her tracks, stared at it, backed away from it, and for a long time, wouldn’t go near it when it was burning, after awhile it eventually became one of her Favorite Places We sure miss her Doug
As previously stated, small splits, barkless and in full sun/wind will expedite the drying process. Worst case scenario is semi dry wood will burn better than fresh cut/split wood. I burn Douglas fir lumber scraps in the firepit. I had several mesh bags of scraps saved from a job two Springs ago and was amazed at how much nicer it burned vs fresh from the job pieces.
