When do you begin gathering wood for the next burn season?

[Charlene Kravec]

We have been able, so far, to refill the empty log racks with better wood than last season: oak and black locust vs. elm and tulip poplar. Gathering wood on dry days has been a challenge this year since we've had a lot of rain. We've learned that this year we started gathering a bit late also.

We are still new at this (second burn season) and learning what our needs really are. Better/smarter wood species utilization is part of this year's lesson.
At this point we have a number of covered metal racks scattered around our property in addition to a wood tent so we have to figure out how large of a structure will suit. None of our close neighbors are wood burners so the information we get from all of you is most appreciated. It's helpful to learn other methods and practices. It may help us avoid some expensive mistakes also.

Thanks.

 

[BobUrban]

CK - you are on the right track - if space is limited quality over quantity is a best practice. If space is plentiful then it all burns so take what is easy to get - no matter the species so you have differing qualities of wood for differing needs.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

Are you getting the wood put by in the Fall or whenever you can?

I also saw that some mark the year the wood was split and stacked. Do you have any other way of identifying when wood was split and stacked? I'm trying to ascertain a way of determining the age of the stack's contents. Color coding? I may be overthinking this. We're going to have a larger wood shed this year.

Thanks.

I never stop

 

[tsquini]

My stacks are arranged by years but I just use the wood that is ready to burn. A Moisture meter tells me if the wood is ready. The only other thing I do is organize stacks by wood hardness. Oak and locust is one area with maple, poplar, ash in another. This way I can use up the softer wood sooner and let the harder wood season longer.

 

[bassJAM]

I bought my place in the spring of 2012 and immediately spent the summer gathering almost 3 seasons worth of wood. I haven't gathered any since then, so I figure I have enough to last another season and a half. The ash borer has killed about 5 very large trees in my woods last year, so I'll just start taking them down for the next couple years.

 

[billb3]

Ha!
Up until this last Summer I was still working on burning wood I cut, split and stacked in 1998 - 2004.

With an extra 2 cu ft and 3.5 cu ft stoves I'm working on finding dead standing oak anywhere anyhow I can.

I used to be able to remember which stack of wood came from which tree/project on the property but now I take a pic of the stack which has a date on the pic and in the exif file ..........and that gets me close to how old a stack is or which one we should start burning next.
Course I don't necessarily have stacks in just one convenient well planned space. For a while I was cutting and stacking maple in a hollow I had no access to beyond carrying splits out by hand up a steep hill. Kind of tough on the legs ....I finally built a narrow trail down the hill a tractor can navigate and have been burning some of that maple now.

 

[muncybob]

I gather our wood when it's available, so I'm always looking. Craigs List has been good to us but you have to be prepared to get it fast or it will be gone. We have many types of hardwood in the stacks and after some of the stacks have weathered I have a hard time telling what they are.....and my memory ain't what it use to be. So, I save the lids off of cat food cans and using a Sharpie I write the date stacked and type of wood. Nail them to the north side of the stack to help with sun fade of the writing.

 

[bluedogz]

I develop a spreadsheet to detail the wood type, date it was cut, and date split.

Are you &*%#$ing serious?

 

[blazincajun]

I develop a spreadsheet to detail the wood type, date it was cut, and date split. I make a chart that is laid out in the same pattern as my pallets and I can also map out how much wood I burn each year to make better guestimates for future years. If the computer dies I would use the sharpie.

Hope you are recording your MC as well? You could write a paper and publish it.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

The radar for scrounging free wood is ALWAYS ON, 24/7, 365......there is no start or stop, maybe just at times "pause" lol

 

[Woody Stover]

Are you getting the wood put by in the Fall or whenever you can? I also saw that some mark the year the wood was split and stacked. Do you have any other way of identifying when wood was split and stacked? I'm trying to ascertain a way of determining the age of the stack's contents. Color coding? I may be overthinking this. We're going to have a larger wood shed this year.

If you're cutting now for next season, you're under the gun. You need to get the driest wood you can, or wood that dries fast. Stack it in single rows in the wind; It won't get as much air movement if you put it in the shed now.
I have years' worth for us, it's some of the in-laws I supply that I'm not far ahead on. I'm going to ask a neighbor if I can stack a few cords on a lot he owns, where I know the wind is really good. I'll stack some dead-standing White Ash in a single row, not splitting 'em too big. I'm pretty sure that will work. Some dead Ash I stacked on my property last spring didn't quite make it, but it was split pretty big....

 

[ironspider]

i just started scrounging this summer, i used to just buy cords for the season. i split about 2 cords this past fall that Will goo in the shed this fall for this winter. I'm trying to find more wood to ready now for 2015, my problem is space. i have no more room.

how do you guys feel about stacking under trees? i have room for another cord but it's on the edge of the woods under trees and doesn't get a lot of Sun.

 

[TradEddie]

how do you guys feel about stacking under trees? i have room for another cord but it's on the edge of the woods under trees and doesn't get a lot of Sun.

That describes most of my storage space past next season, and even the racks that aren't under trees don't get a lot of sun. I haven't had a problem with single rows, covered on top, open on the sides and end. I think the cover is important under trees because rain doesn't dry off so fast.
If you used to buy for the season, you're in for a nice surprise when you finally burn properly seasoned wood (2+ years split)!

TE

 

[Seanm]

First post from someone out west!! Since almost all the wood I burn is Lodgepole Pine and Larch I cut and split dead trees (mostly blow downs) as soon as the snow melts off the lower elevation back roads which is sometime in April. I will split and stack it asap to take advantage of the summer sun and winds and it will be below 20% by October. I also try to have half a year left in my stacks at the end of the burn season so im not starting from scratch in the spring. I dont have the space nor have to gather three years in advance because of my location and the kind of trees available. The down side to this is I dont get to burn some of the great hardwoods so many of you speak of

 

[_CY_]

if you live in town .. have the wood brought to your house for free. tree companies that take down large trees will have chippers, front end loaders, etc. but still have to haul larger pieces to the dump. that takes fuel but more importantly ... time ... their crew's valuable time is spent driving say 30+ miles to dump a load of large wood.

if you talk to the job foreman/owner and inform him that he can dump large wood into a specific spot in your front yard. be picky .. only make that offer when a large company is taking down say a 5ft DBH Oak ... that could net out 2-3+ cords in one load.

some negatives about doing this .. not all the wood will be small .. some of the pieces could be 1,000+ lbs if taken down by a crane. most times they will be just small enough to be moved by two burly tree guys or about 500lbs.

you must have pro-gear to handle this .. peavy to roll the wood .. some pieces will be too large to move until you cut it up. a 5ft diameter log takes a pro-saw like Stihl MS660 or Stihl 084 with a four ft bar, etc. don't be a hero bust pieces down to manageable size. logs too big can hurt you ..

a hydraulic splitter is mandatory to handle that much wood at once. having that much wood on your front yard means .. you gotta work fast ..

 

[paul bunion]

if you live in town .. have the wood brought to your house for free. tree companies that take down large trees will have chippers, front end loaders, etc. but still have to haul larger pi eces to the dump. that takes fuel but more importantly ... time ... their crew's valuable time is spent driving say 30+ miles to dump a load of large wood.

if you talk to the job foreman/owner and inform him that he can dump large wood into a specific spot in your front yard. be picky .. only make that offer when a large company is taking down say a 5ft DBH Oak ... that could net out 2-3+ cords in one load.

some negatives about doing this .. not all the wood will be small .. some of the pieces could be 1,000+ lbs if taken down by a crane. most times they will be just small enough to be moved by two burly tree guys or about 500lbs.

you must have pro-gear to handle this .. peavy to roll the wood .. some pieces will be too large to move until you cut it up. a 5ft diameter log takes a pro-saw like Stihl MS660 or Stihl 084 with a four ft bar, etc. don't be a hero bust pieces down to manageable size. logs too big can hurt you ..

a hydraulic splitter is mandatory to handle that much wood at once. having that much wood on your front yard means .. you gotta work fast ..

If you have a tree service at your disposal why not have them give you the 14-24" wood. Save yourself a little work on the impossibly heavy wood and get by with a medium sized saw. It makes no difference to the tree service what diameter he gives you as a pound is a pound (or a yard is a yard) at the dump. Let them dump the monsters. Even better find a guy with a grapple truck. Log length is a bit neater than a pile of random length pieces. It doesn't destroy wherever it gets dumped if all you have is lawn to work on. And you wind up with minimal short pieces, one per log.

 

[Charlene Kravec]

We have been trying to fill the empty racks as soon as they become available. This winter has been very wet so we're doing what we can when we can.

Yesterday I was able to haul out some black locust that had fallen on our property and was able to hand saw through a medium sized oak that had toppled. The spirit was willing....got to learn to use the chain saw. Couldn't cut it up by hand. It was a hard as a rock. Been down (but not touching ground) a while, I suspect.

We hope to get a good-sized wood shed soon to consolidate all of the wood in one area.

 

[jrcurto]

It never stops, its a ridiculous life-style. Always planning on the next split-stack day. Now I have a separate stack just for the summer fire pit burns. I also fall asleep thinking of what firewood needs attention...

 

[MrWhoopee]

I haven't started doing it yet, but I've been planning to color code using the rainbow system. No, not THAT kind of rainbow, I'm talking about the colors and sequence of the actual rainbow, ROY G BIV. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. OK, I'll drop indigo and use purple for violet. That gives enough colors for 6 years. Easy to remember and no problems with faded markings.

 

[Fred Wright]

I start cutting in fall when the leaves are gone. Have been maintaining three stacks, each winter I replenish the one we used the previous year. Keeps us two years ahead in wood.

We don't cut to sell so it's easy enough to remember which stack to pull from. If I was cutting to sell I'd stack rows in the woodlot in order to keep track of how long they've been setting.

 

[CenterTree]

I have been working through the winter when the woods are easy to get through and the heat is not to bad.

...and the *&%#@ BUGS are asleep.


I love cutting, splitting and stacking in the winter.

 

[_CY_]

If you have a tree service at your disposal why not have them give you the 14-24" wood. Save yourself a little work on the impossibly heavy wood and get by with a medium sized saw. It makes no difference to the tree service what diameter he gives you as a pound is a pound (or a yard is a yard) at the dump. Let them dump the monsters. Even better find a guy with a grapple truck. Log length is a bit neater than a pile of random length pieces. It doesn't destroy wherever it gets dumped if all you have is lawn to work on. And you wind up with minimal short pieces, one per log.

tree service is not at my disposal, it's an opportunity play. if you see a tree service taking down a large Oak in your neighborhood. odds are they will only be too happy for a closeby place to dump .. they will only bring wood to you if it saves them time which is $$$. they are not going to separate out only what you want. they are intend on taking down huge tree(s) they are getting paid for. which includes hauling off all the wood including huge logs ..

however if you are able to process huge logs .. then you've got a permanent source for free high quality wood. usually the same crew will do other take downs in same area. they will be happy to load you up with all the wood you can handle. besides room then problem becomes not wanting to take species that's not hardwood.

Stihl 064 w/ 24in bar .. Stihl 084 w/4ft bar sliced wood shown

35 ton speeco splitter

 

[stejus]

Three falls before i put it in my stove!

 

[paul bunion]

tree service is not at my disposal, it's an opportunity play. if you see a tree service taking down a large Oak in your neighborhood. odds are they will only be too happy for a closeby place to dump .. they will only bring wood to you if it saves them time which is $$$. they are not going to separate out only what you want. they are intend on taking down huge tree(s) they are getting paid for. which includes hauling off all the wood including huge logs ..

however if you are able to process huge logs .. then you've got a permanent source for free high quality wood. usually the same crew will do other take downs in same area. they will be happy to load you up with all the wood you can handle. besides room then problem becomes not wanting to take species that's not hardwood.

Stihl 064 w/ 24in bar .. Stihl 084 w/4ft bar sliced wood shown

35 ton speeco splitter

The game works out a little different here. You just about can order what you want, a la carte. My log length guy has been good to me for a long time. He has convinced me to take half loads at a time as it is a bit easier just to not be buried in it. No oversized monsters. Part of that probably goes into the fact that my 'dump' is open on Saturday and I'm only 4 miles from his yard. And I am much closer than the dumps that are not open on Saturday. I have another guy who unloads his pickup in my yard. He doesn't like giving me the crotches. 'You don't want to waste your time trying to split that, I'll give you another load of clear wood' he says.

 

[Charlene Kravec]

It never stops, its a ridiculous life-style. Always planning on the next split-stack day. Now I have a separate stack just for the summer fire pit burns. I also fall asleep thinking of what firewood needs attention...

Hey, jrcurto! Do they have pills for that??? Just kidding. Is there a 12 step program for this? I think I'm beginning to need one!