Amen. "How much rain did we get, Pa?" "I don't know, Ma... let the dog in and see how wet he is!" Scientifical enough fo' us po' folks.
The MM thing seems to strike a nerve with some people and I have no idea why, they work fine for our use and they (at least my cheapie) gives good constant readings and you dont have to stick the probes in any special way, just make sure its a fresh cut or split. Battenkiller compared a cheap one with a expensive one used for furniture building and he said the cheap one was more then good enough for firewood. This subject has been beat to death and yet some still want to pee on the parade.
True that! Don't need 'em. Do I have one and use it? You bet! Thermometers...don't need 'em. Do I have 4 and use them? Right again! How in the world did we ever survive all these years (decades) of burning without them?? I bought a harley back in the early 90's. That's all I wanted. Even got a 2nd job just to fund the purchase of it. And you know, after I got it, I was amazed how much more I "needed"! Kinda the same, no?
Not using, and saying you don't need MM's, is really guessing that your wood is dry. 3 years in the stacks should net wood that is under 20%. Should is the key word. Without testing it with a meter, you are guessing. It's an educated guess, but still a guess. I cut down a tree today, I know it was 30% because I tested it on the mm. That means I know it only needs to lose 10% to be good to burn. I'll resplit a piece this fall after its been split and drying for 9 months or so and see where its at. This particular tree, along with others that are standing that I'll cut this winter are not going to be burnt until at least 2 winters from now. Because I know where it's at now, I really don't need to retest it, but I will because I want to know what moisture content it is at, because I have the tool. Tools are good. Using tools makes our life easier and takes out guess work.
I don't need a meter to tell me if my wood is dry or wet. If the bottle of booze next to the bed is more than half full and the girl is still there, I'm pretty sure which it will be.
