Dipping into next season's supply!

[jrider]

I don't have stacks separated by year. I put my wood on pallets in a double length carport with closed sides. I put it in the middle and can access it from either end. Always way more in there than I need. One year I pull from one end then refill in summer and pull from the other end the following season. Wood is always plenty dry. Some wood near the middle may be a few years old by the time I get to it but I certainly don't feel the need to tag any part of it for any particular year. Put a good dent in it this year.

 

[Whitespider]

I was curious just how cold our February was this year... how it stacked-up historically.
I looked at data from 1958 (my year of birth) to 2015 and used the Mean Average for the entire month.
For some reason there wasn't any data for '94 and '95 in my source (wunderground.com)... but that was the Clinton era (shrug)

Anyway, the February "average" from 1958 to 2015 came in at 21°.

• 8° - 2014 (no surprise there)
• 10° - 1979
• 11° - 2015, 2007
• 12° - 1978
• 13° - 1989, 1988
• 14° - 2001
• 15° - 2008, 1972, 1965, 1963
• 16° - 1967, 1959, 1958
• 18° - 2010, 1993, 1986, 1985, 1982, 1980, 1971, 1962
• 19° - 2003, 1996, 1975, 1970
• 20° - 1968, 1966
• 21° - 2011, 1969
• 22° - 2013, 2004, 1997, 1974
• 23° - 1960
• 24° - 2009
• 25° - 2006, 2000, 1991, 1990, 1973
• 26° - 1981, 1977
• 27° - 1983, 1964, 1961
• 28° - 2005
• 29° - 2012, 2002, 1992
• 30° - 1984
• 31° - 1976
• 32° - 1999, 1987
• 33° - 1998

So then I got to wonderin' how other areas of the country stacked-up against our 11° February here...

• Gilbert Plains, Canada - -2° (yes, that's minus-two-degrees... do people actually live there??)
• Grand Rapids, Minnesota - 4°
• Montpelier, Vermont - 5°
• Wausau, Wisconsin - 7°
• Flint, Michigan - 12°
• Worcester, Massachusetts - 15°
• Kingston, New York - 16°
• Marion, Ohio - 16°
• Suffield, Connecticut - 17°
• Williamsport, Pennsylvania - 19°
• Mountain Falls, Virginia - 27°
• St. Louis, Missouri - 27°
• Park City, Kentucky - 28°
• Greensboro, North Carolina - 34°
• Eatonville, Washington - 47° (it's summer out there‼)

Just some fun numbers and stuff...
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[sam-tip]

I heard on the news that for central Iowa it is the second coldest February on record. But not even close to the #1 record. Guess it was really bad. edit 1936 -0,5 F. But that was also one of the hottest summers too.

 

[Whitespider]

I heard on the news that for central Iowa it is the second coldest February on record. But not even close to the #1 record. Guess it was really bad.

Yeah, it was friggin' cold in February 1936... the state-wide average temperature for February that year was only 5½°. To put that in perspective, the state-wide average temperature for February last year (2014) was a balmy 12½°. The coldest ever month was January 1912... with a state-wide average temperature of 4°.

I haven't seen the final numbers for February 2015 yet; the cold wave during the last few days of the month sort'a messed up the expected. As of the 26th the state-wide average temperature was 15½°... 15th coldest on record. I believe "they're" sayin' the cold weather at the end should put it in the 9th place area. Of course, "state-wide" don't tell the story real well, I've seen a 40°, even a 50° difference between north and south Iowa before.
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[fiasco]

Just brought the last of my 14-15 wood in the house, and I did scrounge a little from standing dead in December/January. Unfortunately, I only have a cord and some change for 15-16 at this point, and it's all less than three months from being a standing tree. Fortunately, my parents have about 5 cord of recently split, but pretty dry stuff (sitting elevated log length long enough that the bark pops off when you split it), so I guess I buy a cord from them to finish the year. With so much snow, I don't have anyplace to PUT a grapple load right now, but I should try to figure out something before the roads are posted for Mud Season.

 

[laynes69]

We've seen windchills aproaching 40 below this year, and actual temperatures at -20°. There was a town here in Ohio with an actual temp overnight of almost 40 below. We've hit 4 cord now and pretty much out of seasoned wood, the stuff I'm getting ready to get into is about 7 months old, but it's ash and was standing dead. This has been a good test to see how tight the home is. We have around 8 cord out back, so we're good.

 

[tla100]

Burned one wagon that I would guess holds just over 1 1/2 cord, got me to January. Then about 1/2 - 3/4 cord of dead blow down, not a great hardwood. Just hauled in garage another wagon I figured to be right at 1 1/2 cord of silver maple. That should get me thru with some to spare.

Scrounged up about 3/4 cord of ash yesterday. 1st wagon is filled back up with splits and stacked in.

Temps are going to awesome this weekend. 45 degrees Friday then temps climbing to about 60 Wednesday

 

[lefturnfreek]

Even colder today.... suppose to be the end of the cold snap, I hope.....

 

[Whitespider]

Yeah, it's a might chilly this morning, -11° and lookin' to see a balmy 8° by this evening.
"They" say it's all gonna' end after today... I'm ready 'n' willin', 'nough's-'nough.

I reckon it will be Labor Day before you boys out east get all your snow melted... huh??
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[SteveSS]

I haven't lived in this house long enough to have "next years wood", but I'll fix that this spring and later in the fall. That said I put up close to 9 cord before the cold hit this season, and I still have close to 2 of it left. I have room to store 30 cord covered, at a distance of about 75 yards from my boiler and I can stack another 12 or so right beside it. I hope to get all of that space filled over the course of the next couple seasons so I can have a safety buffer. I'll be just fine for the remainder of this burn season though.

 

[lefturnfreek]

Ya we get back into the mountains on May long and still find snow banks but this year has been great as we have had very little snow as compared to last, the frozen hell on earth, year...

 

[rmihalek]

What are you trying to heat? I'm way farther north of you and heat bout 3200sqft with a older OWB and haven't burn that much.

I'm heating 2200 sq ft semi-modern construction (1954) Cape Cod style house. Typical yearly burn is about 4-5 cords of primarily red oak, with maple, ash, cherry, locust and hickory mixed in on the grapple load.

Typically when spring starts to roll around, I'll scrounge up shipping pallets by the dozen, slice them up with my circular saw and burn that stuff stacked really tight to slow it down. I'll also throw in some silver, red or norway maple in the spring and save the sugar maple for the cold months like now. I don't count the pallets for my yearly cord estimates, but it probably never amounts to more than 1/2 cord or so.

I'd love to score another grapple load or two soon, but I don't see that happening until the ground dries out probably sometime in July or August.

 

[lefturnfreek]

Best thing I can tell ya is you can never have too much dry wood....