Wood won't season

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Thanks for the suggestions. Can you post a pic of your tarp set up? I can probably tuck the sides up and under the top but would be interested in seeing your setup.

To make the flair on the sides, I put long sticks or boards leaning against the stack on both sides, under the overhang, at intervals along the stack. For the pitch, long sticks or boards, laid perpendicular, on the top row . Boards like 2x4s are my preference, but I'll use whatever I can find.

 

[bholler]

Keep the tarps off green wood for at least 2 summers. (Period...even ash...pine....poplar) Tarp what you think you're going to burn that winter at the end of summer.

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Stuff tends to dry better when you keep water off of it. Yes wood will dry eventually if left uncovered. But dries much faster when top covered. And whole lot faster when completely wrapped in the sun with vents top and bottom. There really is nothing to be gained by leaving it uncovered

 

[bholler]

A few things....i do not search out 20-30" oak if im looking for standing dead....im looking for basically barkless, limbless telephone pole trees....maple, ash, beech and hickory (maple being fastest....ash the slowest)...so if i whack that 8" trunk round in half....its good to go in 2 months. 30% moisture or 50%....doesnt matter.....water evaporates much more quickly from standing dead or even from a 4 year weathered stack of oak.....think of standing dead (8-10" dia. trees) as a sponge at 30% moisture and freshly split green cordwood as a potato at 30%.....guess which one drys faster out in the summer sun....obviously the sponge......my clean glass, clean liner i clean once every 2 years and 35 years of processing cordwood is my "go... no go..." for picking out my weathered wood for the winter......i do have a meter and only use it on the rare red oak i come across....but even now I know not to touch it for 3 summers.....4 being better.

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So not anything cut dead like you originally stated. Just the small barkless trees you pick to cut.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Thanks for the suggestions. Can you post a pic of your tarp set up? I can probably tuck the sides up and under the top but would be interested in seeing your setup.

Here's your picture. Not my best example, but I think you'll get the idea of flairing out the sides using sticks/boards under the tarp, and it's the most convenient for me this morning!

 

[SpaceBus]

Here's your picture. Not my best example, but I think you'll get the idea of flairing out the sides using sticks/boards under the tarp, and it's the most convenient for me this morning!

View attachment 254686

How long does the fencing material last when used in this manner? I really like your improvised IBC tote.

 

[Woody Stover]

How long does the fencing material last when used in this manner?

Years and years. It's made to hold up.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

How long does the fencing material last when used in this manner? I really like your improvised IBC tote.

Zero deterioration in 6 years. I suspect they will last much longer than I will. I keep the top covers on year round.

 

[SpaceBus]

Zero deterioration in 6 years. I suspect they will last much longer than I will. I keep the top covers on year round.

Nice. How are you holding the fence ends together and to the pallet?

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Nice. How are you holding the fence ends together and to the pallet?

Check out the end of this parallel thread:

Stacking short splits

Hello fellow firewood addicts. I recently got a huge dumptrailer load of white oak. Problem is,it was a huge tree maybe 30 inches or bigger so most of the trunk rounds were cut around 10-12 inches. I'm splitting these wider than I normally would because of the shortness. My question is...

www.hearth.com

I drove four nails into the skid, placement was determined with the empty cage, four corners.

 

[Woody Stover]

Moisture meter reading 25% still. Wood hisses and spits in the stove. What gives?

I had a Red Oak stack crash that I didn't pick up for a couple months, so it got rained on quite a bit. Even before it crashed, the stack was leaning; The ends got rained on and water could run in between the two stack rows. It's been out there three years though, so the interior wood definitely got dry.
Yes, some splits will sizzle a bit at first when loaded on hot coals and lit. I'm thinking that's mostly water that has soaked in the ends a little bit, because it seems to be driven off relatively quickly. And there are no coals left at the end of the load like you see when the wood isn't dry in the center, even when I run my cat stove very low.

I would also try to not have any tarp hanging down the sides at all.

You are trapping moisture by covering part of the sides like that right away. Water condenses under that tarp everyday and drips onto the wood. I never cover until it has had a full summer in the sun...

The tarps are only held by the end grommets, so there is wind flow under them as I have to occasionally pull the middle part back over the stacks when they get blown off.

Here's your picture. Not my best example, but I think you'll get the idea of flairing out the sides using sticks/boards under the tarp,

I was thinking maybe you can find a bunch of crooked sticks that you could slip into the sides of the stacks, a couple of layers down from the top, sticking out to the sides to hold the tarp out away from the wood. It would allow air underneath the top, and also make a better roof for the bottom part of the stacks. Or run a rope through the grommets on the sides, the full length of the stacks. Then sink a tee post at each end to tie the rope to, and make a "roof" that way..

No, I don't think they are too big and the hissing is not confined to large pieces. Some of the small ones hiss too.

Again, depending on how quickly the moisture burns off, they could be dry inside. 25% on a tested piece isn't good, though.

If it's stacked under canopy in the woods IDK either.....hopefully you have some space in your rows......i do single rows with 5 foot of space....i stack E/W this way theres never a shadow on my stacks late Spring thru Fall.

I don't have space between rows; This Ash stack at my SIL's is three rows together on pallets, with Sassafras sleepers, and bricks/blocks supporting the center of the pallets. It's under trees, but it's close to the edge of her yard where the prevailing wind can hit the stack pretty good. Stack is running pretty much perpendicular to the prevailing wind. I'll cover with the metal roofing I scored recently. This is the dead-stander that was clocking 30%+ in the trunk..

 

[Woody Stover]

Or run a rope through the grommets on the sides, the full length of the stacks. Then sink a tee post at each end to tie the rope to, and make a "roof" that way.

Or baling wire.

 

[Sawset]

Or baling wire.

I was just about ready to start in about "baling wire" - darned if they don't still make it, and lots of it.

 

[Woody Stover]

I was just about ready to start in about "baling wire" - darned if they don't still make it, and lots of it.

That's what I call it, but I just go to the builders box store and get a spool of "annealed wire." It's a go-to in Jerry-rigging utility, right up there with duct tape and hanger strap.