This time of the years is always busy. Between fighting the weather & unexpected issues, the "to do list" takes a while to shrink. Like you, it seems to get done slower & later every year As long as it's still getting done, that's the important part
Adam, Pete, HD and others, I really appreciate the offer. If I can't get it done, I will be asking. Naturally wishlist would want to be in on it too. I'll keep in touch. Many thanks to all. Maybe a birthday party?
Dennis, take it easy on yourself. Like so many, I wish we lived closer to you. Hang in there, my friend. Rest and recuperate.
Thanks Al. I did get 3 loads in today. Little by little it gets done. This is how it looked before I got started this afternoon.
Dennis, that some seasoned looking wood you have in the upper half. You did a lot of work to get there, and three more loads today is a good days work. Hope you are feeling alright tonight.
Thanks Gas. Al, there is a story about that wood in the upper half. It was a silly experiment I chose to do. It had been many, many moons since I'd not covered any wood. So, I simply decided one year that I would not cover the wood just to bring back to my memory what happens. Fortunately we did not cut much wood that winter so it was a good time to experiment. Now the experiment has ended and I will say that although the wood is still okay, I will not be repeating that experiment in the future. I fear one more year and the wood would be punky and all that dark stuff you see is oak. Today I moved some ash and cherry in there. It really surprised me to see how far gone the ash was but, of course, the stuff was dead when I cut it. So, I figured to burn it this year to get rid of it while it is still good.
How old is the dark colored oak Dennis? With the ends getting wet top covered I didnt think it would make a difference on the color. Mine looks like that in two years without covering. Ive got plans for a woodport that will hold 4 a yr supply on the back burner, I dont want anything getting punky. A lot of my supply is standing dead oak.
Dennis, that's an important experiment which leads us to believe top covering is the wisest choice for seasoning. So much has to do with sun, wind, relative humidity and annual rain that each testing gives us more resources to draw upon for finding the best way for our locale. NY is notoriously humid in spring and summer, that leads me to believe that having wood less than 10" above the ground surface is going to lead to rot. Either putting plastic down or pallets on blacktop is a good way to go. I had wood on landscape PT lumber that did get punky on the bottom layer after just the spring and summer. It was in a place that did not get much sun. I have one other place that gets a lot of shade that I should get to by the winter. Will see what happened there. Almost 3 cord are sitting on my driveway on pallets ro that now. I am curious to see how they get after a year or two.
That is 3 year old oak. Perhaps you missed it, but that was not covered at all. Some of the ends will turn dark when it is top covered but not like that!
Right on. This is just something I had not done for a long, long time and sort of a spur of the moment thing. Didn't figure it could do any harm and it didn't. It just will get burned a bit sooner than planned. We too have extremely humid air as you can imagine with us being surrounded by the Great Lakes. However, I've never stacked 10" above ground and many times it is only 2" off the ground. We have no problem with that but also do not have any standing water at any time either, thanks to the yellow sand. I have mixed feelings about laying down plastic under the stacks. After all, rain does not fall under the wood but like I stated, we never have any standing water where we stack wood.
I can attest to the validity of your experiment as all of my property is wooded and barely gets any sun once the leaves are on the trees. If I leave wood for a year without a top cover it is already starting to go down hill at the end of the year. I can stack on pallets and top cover and I have no issues at all for years. I honestly think it has a lot to do with where you live and what the weather is.
Dennis, having sandy soil is great for drainage. We have a lot of clay in our soil. The drainage is poor, and that is why the ground is always moist here. When the sun heats the ground, moisture moves up into the wood. It's one of the reasons that cars parked on dirt driveways here rust out fairly quick. I'm not liking the plastic under the wood and prefer to try raising the pallets up on cement blocks next time I stack them over soil. The blacktop on the driveway seems to be the best with pallets, so far.
