How many years are you ahead in storing firewood?

[qwee]

I'm not really sure. Up front there are 5 piles of split wood (25 cords?). There is also a big pile of unsplit rounds - that today I have just started splitting (15 cords?). This is going to sound funny, I have a trailer full of Willow rounds (2 cords) stuck on someone's property because I couldn't pull it out due to wet ground. There is at least another 2 cords cut into rounds (so 4 cords). We are waiting for the ground to dry in order to try again to pull the trailer out.

Another funny one, I have 2 more cords up in the mountains cut into rounds waiting to be rolled a little further down a hill to be loaded (I got tired). And there are 5 medium sized dead standing pine, too (so 4 cords of Pine unless someone discovers it). And there is wood in the back of my property - 3 piles (10 cords?). Lastly, there are 3 more piles of wet elm waiting to be split (6 cords?). The total = 25 + 15 + 4 + 4 + 10 + 6 = ~64 cords. That puts me 30 years ahead. Hey, I'll be dead by then! Oh ya I forgot, I sell wood as a hobby. I haven't been doing much selling this year, though.

 

[brenndatomu]

The recent addition of 3 1/2 cords of red oak exposed the fact that i way over estimated how much i have for this and next year. This year should be ok but next year looks very light. Like very very light. The year after next season should be fine as the new oak should be ready to go. (It was dead standing and most of the bark has fallen off when i split it.)

So i think i'm gonna have to do a few things for this year and next.
1. Not heat the wood stove room to 80-85 everyday.
2. Conserve wood this year to save some for next year.
3. Find some maple and other faster drying wood for next season. I do have a deadish standing maple (top broke off about 18'-20' up the trunk this summer). But it's not a huge amount. Maybe 1/2 - 3/4 cord max.
4. Get some more fast seasoning wood to mix in with not totally dry year 3 oak if needed at end of year 2.
5. Think about solar kiln, but i don't have much sun on my property and no good place for one.
6. Keep a sharper eye out for people getting rid of seasoned wood they don't want in their yards anymore. (Rare but does happen)

I have another dead standing oak, but since space is limited here, I think i'll let it stay as is to keep room for next season faster drying wood.

If you can find some beech, it dries quick, and has same firepower as oak.

 

[bigealta]

If you can find some beech, it dries quick, and has same firepower as oak.

Hey thanks for this, I was cutting red oak yesterday in the same place as before and saw a beech tree. Never noticed it before. Then realized there were about 5 or 6 beech trees right in the immediate area.

They are healthy and not gonna get cut down but now i know they are around and will keep my eye out for any downed or fallen branches.

Never knowingly burned beech before, but now am eager to try it if i can find any. They look to be more healthy than any of the other trees around my area.

 

[John Kuhn]

I'm set up to have three years seasoning under cover outside, plus the upcoming season's wood inside my shed. So four year's total at the start of a burn year. It's more work, since I have to stack it twice, but I figure its good exercise, and the wood seasons best outside with the air movement.

 

[Mustard Tiger]

This is my first year with a wood stove. my house isn't that big. Main floor is 920 sq ft with a 500 sq ft loft, and an un-heated 920 sq ft basement. So the stove is really only heating the main floor and loft, but did install a new thermostat so I can just program the fan to kick on now and them without any forced air heat being used so I can circulate the warm air from upstairs and hopefully make the basement usable for laundry, working out, and my workshop is now down there. Got to run the new stove a few times (Sirocco 30.2) in the spring when the temp were below freezing at night and in the 30's during the day for a few days and was blown away at how warm that thing got the house and I'd come back 12+ hours later (was only there working on the house and doing renovations at the time) and there were still coals.

I currently have 5 cords of seasoned juniper with a moisture content of 5% or less, so that stuff is ready to go. Just had a 100+ foot pine tree cut down that will easily yield a couple cords at least, and that should take a year or so to season.Shop that installed the stove said I should easily be able to get 2+ years out of those 5 cords of juniper, and if you add in that pine probably another year or more. Have a few more, but much smaller tress that need to come down, that I'll probably cut down sometime this winter or next spring. So all in all, I'm probably in pretty good shape for a while!

 

[Wisco Shepherd]

I currently have 5 cords of seasoned juniper with a moisture content of 5% or less, so that stuff is ready to go.

How did you get wood to 5% in the PNW? Must be witchcraft

 

[bigealta]

How did you get wood to 5% in the PNW? Must be witchcraft

Broken meter used on end grain.

 

[Mustard Tiger]

How did you get wood to 5% in the PNW? Must be witchcraft

I'm in southern Oregon. Climate is very similar to Denver here. About 5,000ft elevation, high desert with very low humidity and hot summers 90F-100F. All my wood has ben seasoning outside under an old carport I'm using for wood storage,

I split several pieces of juniper that were delivered back in April and all were between 5-6%. Cut down some small pine trees myself around that time and they're dry and ready to go as well. You can also tell these are very dry because they sound so hollow. I have some very recently cut rounds from a massive pine tree I had taken down recently and some pine splits from some smaller pine that ai cut down 5 months ago. The new splits sound very dense and almost saturated when banged together while the olde pine and juniper splits sounds hollow.

 

[Mustard Tiger]

Broken meter used on end grain.

Split some test pieces and checked in the middle/inside of the split. Meter was also calibrated with the test holes. Why would you test the end grain if you want to be as accurate as possible and know what the moisture content is inside the wood?

 

[bigealta]

Split some test pieces and checked in the middle/inside of the split.

Are you in the High Desert out there?

 

[bigealta]

Split some test pieces and checked in the middle/inside of the split. Meter was also calibrated with the test holes. Why would you test the end grain if you want to be as accurate as possible and know what the moisture content is inside the wood?

The PNW tricked us east coast guys. We assume it's always raining and damp there. We forgot or didn't know there is a desert out there too.

 

[stoveliker]

Pine can dry in one season even on a humid coast where I am.
I can get pine (split, stacked in a shed) to 13-14% in one summer. That is about the equilibrium (final, lowest) value possible here.

If one is in a desert environment, it is possible to go lower. If that's done in one season, wind exposure has to be great.
Lucky folks that can do that (no need to have 10 cords stacked to get oak ready in three years...).

 

[Piney]

Ugh
When you go through 7-10 cord a year you don’t get too far ahead around here given that there is a stupid legal maximum of how much firewood you can have on your property at any one time.
At least if you cut out on stolen ‘govt land’ anyways.

 

[Piney]

We're five years ahead on our hardwood but we also burn pellets, 50 to 73 bags per year. This is the first year we didn't buy pellets so we'll see how much more wood we use.

We just stacked 7 ton of pellets in our pellet shed. We will burn it all this winter. And 7-10 cord of rounds.
Sigh.

 

[Wisco Shepherd]

We just stacked 7 ton of pellets in our pellet shed. We will burn it all this winter. And 7-10 cord of rounds.
Sigh.

I'm guessing the scales have tipped from "burning wood is fun" to "burning wood is fun, but a ton of work"

 

[stoveliker]

We just stacked 7 ton of pellets in our pellet shed. We will burn it all this winter. And 7-10 cord of rounds.
Sigh.

What's your square footage? And your insulation?
Of course it's cold there but dang that's a lot of BTUs...

 

[GG Woody]

We just stacked 7 ton of pellets in our pellet shed. We will burn it all this winter. And 7-10 cord of rounds.
Sigh.

That's impressive! Where is the Frozen North?
How much have you burned so far?
In the last 15 years the most I have burned is three cords before I let the heat pump take over in the spring.
Our first fire will likely be in the old insert, one afternoon this week. (after I check the chimney)

 

[brenndatomu]

I'm in southern Oregon. Climate is very similar to Denver here. About 5,000ft elevation, high desert with very low humidity and hot summers 90F-100F. All my wood has ben seasoning outside under an old carport I'm using for wood storage,

I split several pieces of juniper that were delivered back in April and all were between 5-6%. Cut down some small pine trees myself around that time and they're dry and ready to go as well. You can also tell these are very dry because they sound so hollow. I have some very recently cut rounds from a massive pine tree I had taken down recently and some pine splits from some smaller pine that ai cut down 5 months ago. The new splits sound very dense and almost saturated when banged together while the olde pine and juniper splits sounds hollow.

What is your closest area on this chart? Looks like the Burns are gets into the single digits EMC in the summer...12-14%(+) in the winter...
(broken link removed)

 

[bigealta]

Looks like EMC for NJ Shore (going by Atlantic City) ranges roughly 13-14%.

 

[stoveliker]

Looks like EMC for NJ Shore (going by Atlantic City) ranges roughly 13-14%.

exactly. Pine does reach that in my place.
Oak and maple not at all. Hence my three year cycle.

 

[bigealta]

exactly. Pine does reach that in my place.
Oak and maple not at all. Hence my three year cycle.

I think the best i've seen on anything here from my yard is 15%. The very best on oak might be 17 1/2 or so.
I have not tested the "emergency" locust that is C/S/S about 10 years or so though.

 

[stoveliker]

I've seen 15-16% on oak - but 1-2% difference is not significant imo given variability in how people measure.
Time of the year (RH) and outside temps also matter.
It's all good if you're 3 years ahead

 

[bigealta]

Yeah i'm easy 3 years out with all the new dead standing c/s/s red oak, but have a gap for next season.
Anyway i of course had to go measure the 10 year locust. This is fresh split pushed in as hard as i could without breaking pins.

 

[Piney]

I'm guessing the scales have tipped from "burning wood is fun" to "burning wood is fun, but a ton of work"

No kidding! It’s a year long issue.

 

[Mustard Tiger]

What is your closest area on this chart? Looks like the Burns are gets into the single digits EMC in the summer...12-14%(+) in the winter...
(broken link removed)

Medford would probably be the closest, but still an hour or two away.