Just a comment about drying or ‘seasoning’ timeframe. With most any firewood, if split & piled by May 1st or so, it’s fine to burn it in October. Of course this varies some by type of wood & where & how it’s piled. Ideally single rows, good circulation, not in the shade all the time. Some firewood doesn’t last forever, say white birch, box elder, aspen & such. Yes, I realize not the best of wood. Sugar maple is one that takes time to season, splitting a bit smaller helps. I have a fair number of trees still ‘on the hoof’. No hurry to cut since my piled firewood goes through the 26/27 season already. Another Bennie with cutting very late winter, even early summer, competition is less. If one is scrounging, fewer others looking in April-May.
Hmm...that's only been my experience with species like poplar, soft maple, boxelder...hard maple, oak, even beech, ain't happenin in 1 summer, and oak still isn't great after 2!
Agreed! I've had 2yr old oak thinking it was good to go, nope!! Close, very close but still a bit wet .........I wanna say that was mostly White oak that did that to me, Red seems to do a bit better I think.
Ive burned oak that was out on the racks for 5 years and it still hissed lol. A lot better burning than 2 year seasoned oak but im convinced oak never gives up the ghost!
On the contrary, Getting ready for winter with wood put up in May... It will burn but you also can get it to burn right after you cut it! Very few species of wood will dry in that timeframe unless you live in an area with little rain and very low humidity. It is fine for you but not for most.
Yes, that's a nice score. Check to see if there are any woodworkers in your area. That is some nice flame boxelder...
I have a friend who does wood turning and he was supposed to stop by last weekend to pick up some pieces I put aside for him. It's still sitting there lol.
Great progress Box elder is the only maple I would not plant in my yard, others have good vs bad qualities
I find that honey locust works better than almost anything else available in my area for shoulder season. Just a couple of big splits will coal and hold low heat in the stove for hours. Actually I burn quite the opposite of most people. I mostly use high BTU, slow burning wood during the shoulder season and lower BTU fast burning wood when it is really cold. I have found that the high BTU woods release their heat much more slowly and just fill the stove with coals and not enough heat output. I do however use high BTU wood for overnight burns during the arctic blasts.
