I get your question, but I figure that wood is gonna dry after it's cut and split, more so during hot weather. I know a lot of folks that put a lot of stock in what the almanac says, but I think you can take a lot of it with a grain of salt. I plant stuff when it will grow, pick it when it's ready, and I cut wood whenever I can.
Point taken. I thought for a long time that the gardening charts gave people what they didn't already had: discipline. For instance, if the almanac said it was the best time to pull weeds, and one guy went out and did it but the guy next door didn't who would overcome weeds in their garden? I worked for a contractor who put everything on a schedule. I would help him bid jobs then we would put it on the schedule. It would say Monday: Put down plates and joists. Tuesday: Sheet floor and lay out walls and backfill..and so forth. He'd say, does that look reasonable?" I'd say, "Hell Yeah." And we were perpetually ahead of the game. Even with rainouts, there was more than enough cushion to deplete our stock holdings in the G. Heileman Brewing Company.
The best time to cut live (green) trees is when the moisture content is the lowest. I don't need no star gazin' to tell me when that is... in this part of the country it's from New Years Day to mid-February, some years a bit later. The second best time is whenever you can... and I still don't need no star gazin' to tell me when that is. I don't put much stock in an almanack... any guess will be correct 50% of the time, an educated guess will be correct 75% of the time. I'm guessin' I can guess as well as any almanack.
What interests me about the almanac is why any one would decide in the first place there is a best reason to cut wood or set posts aside from what's immediately obvious. You are doing what works for you, and I don't argue with success. Less time in argument is more time in the woodshed honing my chops. I want to nail down something specific. Try Googling, "Firewood cutting timing almanac" or something similar today and you won't get much. Try it in a week, and you'll probably come back here.
The Farmers Almanack is predicting drought conditions for parts of the Midwest this year. Oh my, what a revelation... the drought started in the south west a couple years ago and has been steadily moving northeast ever since. Now that took some real serious star gazin' to come up with that one. Heck, I was predicting that before the almanack. Now if my neighbor predicts no drought, you can bet your azz that one of us will be correct.
I do know they base their regional weather predictions on 250 years of known patterns and use an average. We live one day at a time and filter that through our own forty-one or fifty-four years' experience.
When your chain is sharp!.....................
*Ding* nailed it! Another Torpedo of Truth with the Fish.
There is a small party store near me that has limited cooler space. The owner knocks 3 bucks off a case if you buy it warm. I figured I could put the savings towards gas and oil..
Or you could buy ice. We used to get Stag Longnecks (Yes that is capitalized. It's a proper name) for $8.15 per case then you got $2.35 back for returning your bottles.
If it's cold, I should be home burning it...
That's what I said.
IMHO it's all about the comfort of the scrounger. .
See MN Guns' entry above.
The best time for me this year was during the month of January. I pulled in 18 truckloads of big rounds ready to be split, starting in April. I've never seen such fabulous weather in January for cutting firewood. Most of what I brought in was ash, locust, hard maple, and mulberry. Helped a logger clear a tree line.
Ditto. Roger that.
As a firewood scrounger the best time to me for cutting is when its: free, good access, and the closer to home the better!
Ripper Rep sent from the Scrounger Council.
the cooler the better, as long as the bar oil will flow. I take it as it comes.
Was you talkin' about the Beer or the Weather?
BWAHAHAHAHA She got me once at her house. She was good at that stuff. Never saw it coming. As it was, I conceded.
Yeah, me too. Like I said--Married. Have you heard of a lesson you'll never forget? She taught me a lesson I'll never remember.
No, here I get to talk to the best minds from sea to shining sea in the greatest country in the history of the world.
