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[Robert Walton <waltonrp AT gmail.com>]

Gene,

Thanks for this post, informative. I was reading it on my work
Blackberry in the ER today.

> 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.

Also, most wood splits best before it gets too dried out. I just split
some seasoned cherry this morning. I think that being frozen helped. I
neglected to split some of the bigger logs last summer and by fall, it
was about impossible to split. I like to split as I go.

> 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.

That just makes more sense to me than the thing I'd heard about
felling when the leaves first come out because the sap would all be in
the leaves. It would be in the trunk also.

At any rate, the weather is good now for cutting trees, the ground is
firm or frozen and the ticks are down. James has a good point about
cutting firewood being a year round task. But, right now, I've got
more spare time than other seasons. Good time to do a lot of the
firewood cutting.

Most of what I cut for the wood stove needs to be split. I like to
split anything that is over 8 inches or so thick. I leave a few 8 inch
and bigger logs, cause the Franklin stove takes them.

One tip I took last year is to cut up further in the tree. I cut up a
lot of 2" sapwood. It dries up fast and makes good kindling. I have
not split kindling this year and I like skipping that. i just have a
big pile of little stuff I cut up last year.

Rob - Va