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["Frank Fries" <frank.fries AT imagewireless.ca>]

> If you can cut allow the wood to season for a longer time, is splitting 
> necissary at all?
> In that case you might cut wood and stack for a couple of years before 
> burning?
> Van Dell

In my experience, a lot depends on what you use to burn it.

I no longer split any of my firewood - but I am burning it in an outdoor 
boiler.  I just cut it to 3 - 4 foot lengths and leave it out in the sun. 
We live in an area of very low humidity - I know there are areas that do not 
dry nearly as fast.  Also some species of wood take longer to dry then 
others.  In this area, in the best part of the summer the end grain will 
start to "check" in as little as a 2 weeks and start to "crack"  in about a 
month(deeper, wider cracks than when it is checked) .

In my area we get a lot of winter.  I basically never stop cutting wood 
until later in the winter when the snow gets too deep to get to the bush and 
back (that would be now - varies depending on the year).  Given that I work 
full-time, I only get a little cut now and a liitle cut then - it is a year 
round "hobby".

I cut green wood in the spring and summer, then switch to deadfall and 
"standing deadfall" in the fall.  Some of the deadfall has been on the 
ground for a while and is punky so it has less heat but it still provides 
some.

Once we are into the deadfall, I haul it in on a trailer and park it near 
the boiler.   I cut it off the trailer and stack some of the good stuff and 
throw the rest straight into the boiler.  I usually go out in the morning 
and cut some off the trailer for perhaps 1/2 an hour before leaving for work 
and then do the same thing in the evenings after work.   During the 
fall/early winter, I provide all the needed heat out of the smaller branches 
and punky wood, while building a pretty good pile of the better wood beside 
the boiler.

At the same time, I start hauling in loads of the wood that was cut green 
(sometimes including some from the prior year) and stacking it nearby also.

Like Bev and James I pick what to burn based on the time of year and amount 
of heat needed. The greener, wetter (but still reasonably dry) wood lasts 
longer and is mixed with the deadfall for the longer overnight burns.

In particular, I keep the bigger diameter stuff for the coldest days, 
because they take a long time to burn up - in my area, most of the trees are 
relatively small diameter (4 - 6 inches), only a few trees here and there 
are in the 12-18 inch range.  On the days that get in the range of -40 F, it 
takes quite a bit of heat to keep the house and the garage warm.

With a little practice, you get to be a pretty good judge of what to mix 
into each load.

Most years, I provide all the heat with wood (Oct - Apr) but if I run out 
towards spring, we can switch over to an electric boiler in the house.  Due 
to the fact that I burn some of it as I cut it, and never stack it all in 
one place, it is difficult to tell how much I actually burn - I would guess 
that most years it would be approx. 20-25 cords.

Frank
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "VAN DELL JORDAN" <vdjor AT yahoo.com>
To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 11:39 AM
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Firewood

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