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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

I have a lot of unsplit wood, but I don't intend to use it this year.  I 
did not split it for the very reason that I did not want it to dry out 
and have no heat in it in 2010.  Last two paragraphs are important, I 
think.  We will split next years wood around April or May.  We just had 
the opportunity to amass some wood, and we did.  Last year, we were 
grasshoppers, and then Ron got sick, so in December, we basically had no 
wood...not good.  Now, at least we have wood for several years, all I 
have to do is split it, and of course, I certainly realize it has to 
season after it is split.

B


Gene GeRue wrote:
> I am working my way through a huge pile of old magazines, to lessen  
> the load to Heartwood. I find it hard to discard them. This is from  
> Harrowsmith Country Life October 1995:
>
> Splitting Secrets
> Live or dead, ash or birch, all wood dries faster if split. Splitting  
> isn't just to get the big pieces into the little stove but to speed  
> the seasoning process.
> Few species are as retentive as birch, but none dry readily through  
> the bark. The bark is there, in part, to keep the sap in. When cut,  
> the log will dry through the cut ends, but slowly. There isn't much  
> surface area exposed to drying winds--splitting exposes a lot more  
> surface for evaporation.
> The first lesson is to split sooner rather than later. Although most  
> species of wood need 9 to 12 months to season fully once split, many  
> will dry to an acceptable 35 percent moisture content in as little as  
> 3 months. Those who pile wood in the round to split later, as they  
> need it, have missed the point. The sooner it's split, the faster it  
> seasons.
> The best time to fell trees and cut and split them is in the dormant  
> winter season, when the sap is largely in the ground and not in the  
> trunk. Less drying to do. Also, the alternate freezing and thawing of  
> early spring helps to open cracks in firewood, and the cracks expose  
> more of the innards to drying air. Finally, summer's heat speeds the  
> rate of evaporation from all those cracks and, ideally, from all those  
> split surfaces
> If you must cut a live tree in the summer, fell it and leave it for a  
> few weeks. It will continue to give off moisture through the leaves  
> until they dry up and fall.
> --Charles Long
>
>
> Gene GeRue
> www.RURALIZE.com
>
>
>
>
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--
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will 
not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius 
will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the 
world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone 
are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve 
the problems of the human race"

~ Calvin Coolidge