Wind and Wood

[oldspark]

I respectfully disagree with Bigg_Redd. It will make a big difference on how you stack your wood relative to the wind.

I'll bite. What would a "big difference" be in drying time? 1 extra month? 6 months? 1 year?

I think it makes much more of a impact if the rows are single rows vs double or even more and you see that all the time in pictures posted here.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I respectfully disagree with Bigg_Redd. It will make a big difference on how you stack your wood relative to the wind.

I'll bite. What would a "big difference" be in drying time? 1 extra month? 6 months? 1 year?

3 months, 11 hours, 7 minutes and 3 seconds.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I respectfully disagree with Bigg_Redd. It will make a big difference on how you stack your wood relative to the wind.

I'll bite. What would a "big difference" be in drying time? 1 extra month? 6 months? 1 year?

I think it makes much more of a impact if the rows are single rows vs double or even more and you see that all the time in pictures posted here.

Definitely it matters whether you stack in single, double or even more rows. It also matters how much space you have between the rows. I usually stack 3 rows together but then we have plenty of seasoning time so it does not matter. Shoot, I've stacked as many as 20 rows or more together when we had many years before burning the wood. It all dried before we burned it. Naturally that on the outside of the stacks dried more and dried sooner than the interior.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

I respectfully disagree with Bigg_Redd. It will make a big difference on how you stack your wood relative to the wind.

I'll bite. What would a "big difference" be in drying time? 1 extra month? 6 months? 1 year?

3 months, 11 hours, 7 minutes and 3 seconds.

You just made that up

 

[Intheswamp]

I respectfully disagree with Bigg_Redd. It will make a big difference on how you stack your wood relative to the wind.

I'll bite. What would a "big difference" be in drying time? 1 extra month? 6 months? 1 year?

3 months, 11 hours, 7 minutes and 3 seconds.

You just made that up

I've seen those same figures on the Discovery Channel website, also on Myth Busters. %-P

ETA: I'm sorry if I mislead anyone with the sources that I sited above...that time frame actually comes from a speech that Al Gore gave on global warming and the internet to a group of Hare Krishna's at Disney World during spring break of '02. Sorry for the confusion...

 

[Intheswamp]

I respectfully disagree with Bigg_Redd. It will make a big difference on how you stack your wood relative to the wind.

I'll bite. What would a "big difference" be in drying time? 1 extra month? 6 months? 1 year?

I think it makes much more of a impact if the rows are single rows vs double or even more and you see that all the time in pictures posted here.

Definitely it matters whether you stack in single, double or even more rows. It also matters how much space you have between the rows. I usually stack 3 rows together but then we have plenty of seasoning time so it does not matter. Shoot, I've stacked as many as 20 rows or more together when we had many years before burning the wood. It all dried before we burned it. Naturally that on the outside of the stacks dried more and dried sooner than the interior.

I'm shooting for the "single stack speeds up drying" mentality...hoping for usable wood from Janunary 2011 for January 2012. Dennis, I'm curious about something...a while back there was a conversation about ants and you mentioned finding nests of ants in your woodpiles. Do you think the single or maybe only double stacking might avoid this problem?...seems there wouldn't be as much "protected" territory for the bugs. Ed

 

[firefighterjake]

Never bothered figuring out wind direction and positioning the stacks to catch the winds just right . . . I just split and stack and give 'em time . . . works for me.

 

[oldspark]

Never bothered figuring out wind direction and positioning the stacks to catch the winds just right . . . I just split and stack and give 'em time . . . works for me.

+1 Not sure what it is about drying wood that brings out weird ideas, the one about spraying water on wood to quicken the drying time just about tops them all.

 

[Intheswamp]

Never bothered figuring out wind direction and positioning the stacks to catch the winds just right . . . I just split and stack and give 'em time . . . works for me.

+1 Not sure what it is about drying wood that brings out weird ideas, the one about spraying water on wood to quicken the drying time just about tops them all.

I think it comes mostly from being a newbie (like me) and grabbing at ideas to get that first season's wood dried. Even more urgency may be seen in people who have burned their first season's worth of wood and experienced how poorly the unseasoned wood performed. Time is something that no one can manipulate but stack density (how many rows side-by-side in a stack), tightness of stacking, position of stack to prevailing wind, raising stack up off of ground, covering top of stack, etc., can all be manipulated. Then steps in the crazy ideas where someone tries something new (or old). Folks thought Orville and Wilbur were kinda strange.

Myself, I've toyed with the idea of building a small post structure to experiment with solar kilns...nothing like Virginia Tech's kiln but something on a smaller/simpler scale to tinker with.

Time, though, is the one major factor...but it's the one thing we can't change.

Ed

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I respectfully disagree with Bigg_Redd. It will make a big difference on how you stack your wood relative to the wind.

I'll bite. What would a "big difference" be in drying time? 1 extra month? 6 months? 1 year?

I think it makes much more of a impact if the rows are single rows vs double or even more and you see that all the time in pictures posted here.

Definitely it matters whether you stack in single, double or even more rows. It also matters how much space you have between the rows. I usually stack 3 rows together but then we have plenty of seasoning time so it does not matter. Shoot, I've stacked as many as 20 rows or more together when we had many years before burning the wood. It all dried before we burned it. Naturally that on the outside of the stacks dried more and dried sooner than the interior.

I'm shooting for the "single stack speeds up drying" mentality...hoping for usable wood from Janunary 2011 for January 2012. Dennis, I'm curious about something...a while back there was a conversation about ants and you mentioned finding nests of ants in your woodpiles. Do you think the single or maybe only double stacking might avoid this problem?...seems there wouldn't be as much "protected" territory for the bugs. Ed

Ed, you are correct. When we found ants were when we had several rows stacked together. It takes only one little leak and lots of water can pour in there and you know what moisture can do.

 

[-PB-]

Never bothered figuring out wind direction and positioning the stacks to catch the winds just right . . . I just split and stack and give 'em time . . . works for me.

+1 Not sure what it is about drying wood that brings out weird ideas, the one about spraying water on wood to quicken the drying time just about tops them all.

I think it comes mostly from being a newbie (like me) and grabbing at ideas to get that first season's wood dried. Even more urgency may be seen in people who have burned their first season's worth of wood and experienced how poorly the unseasoned wood performed. Time is something that no one can manipulate but stack density (how many rows side-by-side in a stack), tightness of stacking, position of stack to prevailing wind, raising stack up off of ground, covering top of stack, etc., can all be manipulated. Then steps in the crazy ideas where someone tries something new (or old). Folks thought Orville and Wilbur were kinda strange.

Myself, I've toyed with the idea of building a small post structure to experiment with solar kilns...nothing like Virginia Tech's kiln but something on a smaller/simpler scale to tinker with.

Time, though, is the one major factor...but it's the one thing we can't change.

Ed

Agreed, Im just trying to get one over on Father Time... every little bit helps.

 

[oldspark]

Several things you can do to get the dryest wood in the shortest time but some things just do not amount to a hill of beans.