Leaving firewood in the bush until later

[dysmal]

Hey Guys,

First time poster here. I've been browsing/searching this forum for over year and reading alot of good information, thanks again.

I'm free this coming weekend and wanted to go spend 2 days on the family farm gathering firewood. However, the conditions will be in the no man's land where it's too warm to use a ski doo, and the snow will be too deep and and slushy to use a jeep/atv/tractor.

I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to go fell some trees, buck them, (maybe even split the logs) and stack them and retrieve them later. It's family land so no one would take the wood, but I'm just wondering if it would greatly impact the quality/dryness of the wood due to remaining in the melting snow for a few weeks.

Due to the amount of snow and the upcoming hunting seasons in May (bear, turkey), I likely would not be able to retrieve the wood until July.

 

[Dale]

My typical year consists of me felling/bucking in January-February (after flinter Deer season), then running around with a quad and trialer gathering the rounds. I get them all down to the woodshed and start the splitting/stacking process early March. Hopefully, everything is stacked and drying by early April, before the snakes invade the piles. Me no likey der snakes.

 

[Cheesecutter]

I agree. Get it cut and split now so it starts to dry right away. I cut all winter and now when the mud clears I haul like a madman until May 1. Then the saws hibernate and the bike comes out. Hopefully.

 

[blades]

Take some of the bigger branches and use them as footings/rails to stack the rounds on, That will help to avoid rot and water absorption from the ground( if and when the snow melts)

 

[Dirtboy]

Shouldn't be a problem. I have about 3 1/2 cord of rounds that sit on pallets waiting to be split. Snow finally melted a bit and I'm just starting to see the tops of the piles now.

 

[zogger]

Take some of the bigger branches and use them as footings/rails to stack the rounds on, That will help to avoid rot and water absorption from the ground( if and when the snow melts)

What he said. Get the good stuff up off the ground, use either the branches or whack something else that is not so good, use that to stack the rounds on until you can get to them later.

 

[BillNole]

If my wife is right about these things, the longer you keep your wood in the bush, the better... opcorn:

 

[cantoo]

It ain't fine furniture. Cut it down and do as much work as you can with it while you can. I do this with tops all the time and some even sits for a few years. What I do sometimes is drop the tree, remove all the branches except for a couple decent ones that will hold the tree up off the ground, move on to next tree. When you have time to pull them out then cut the last few branches and git r done. Last year we stacked a bunch of hardwood logs on pine logs to keep it off the ground, we hauled it home when it was dry enough to cross the farmers fields.

 

[philoshop]

Drop the stuff and keep it off the ground. It'll be fine.
If you can buck and split in the woods and still keep it stacked off the ground, you'll be that much farther ahead when you gather it up. The key is keeping it off the ground.

 

[mainewoods]

Welcome to the site! If you can get into the woods by all means do so, now. Cut-buck and split right where it falls and pick it up when conditions are better. Like others have said, you will be way ahead of the game instead of waiting for perfect conditions later.

 

[Swamp Yankee]

When do you want to burn?

If it's the 2014 / 2015 season the sooner you split it, the faster it will season. Since the wood isn't going anywhere I'd make piles of splits or if you're ambitious you could stack it off the ground using some branches as runners. Air circulation is key, and splitting increases the exposed surface area of the wood to the air. Sun helps too, but being in the woods that source may be limited.

A lot will also depend on the type of wood. Ash and maple season much faster than red oak or hickory.

Take Care

 

[mainewoods]

If you can't haul your wood out until July then you should cut,split and stack it off the ground where it is. Preferably in a sunny open spot at least. To get a full 6 months of drying time, once it's out of the woods and stacked, will put you into January. If it's oak then you aren't going to burn it this winter anyway. The sooner everything else is split and stacked, the better chance you have of reasonably seasoned wood to burn in the short time you have.

 

[dysmal]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate your insight. It is for next year (due to our winter I burned double what I usually burn and ended up burning next year's supply), so I will split it, and stack it off the ground, either on runners or on pallets.

 

[alleyyooper]

I cut all winter long on days I feel like doing so. I drop the dead standing Ash and block it up, then split it small enough to lift in the trailer.Once it dries enough to get the tractor in the woods I haul it out to split and stack for the furnace.. Not going to spend extra time stacking the stuff that will be out of the woods and off the ground by the end of May. I don't think wood is going to go to H 377 in a hand cart in 60 some days or even 6 months for that matter.
But if you want to waste the time woods stacking next winters fire wood by stacking be my guest. I would rather spend the time cutting or working on a project like shooting coyotes.

Al

 

[mainewoods]

If by "next winter" you mean Nov,- Dec. of 2014, and Jan. - March of 2015, then you need to get it split and stacked, or piled, as soon as possible. Especially if you don't anticipate moving it until July.

 

[Dale]

... and not to overly confuse things, but the type of wood, and degree of "alive" it is when you fell it comes into play also. As said, a living Red Oak or Shag Hickory, you won't be burning this year anyhow. An Elm or Ash, with bark alredy falling off, or completely off, requires much less time to season if any at all. Again, everything is relative.

 

[Dale]

By the way. Bear Season in May ??? You gots ta be in Canada.

 

[Woody912]

I stack mine on sassafras or locust until I can get back to them, neither rots quickly and sassafras is trash wood anyway. Just don't let leaves pile up on them and overwinter

 

[dysmal]

By the way. Bear Season in May ??? You gots ta be in Canada.

That I am.

The wood will mostly be maple, with some aspen (I like aspen in fall or early spring for small fires to "cut the humidity", and also to start up fires).

The maple that I cut/split/stack in early spring is great by the time November rolls around, but I've never left it in the woods before....I think I'll also split the smaller rounds, to help with drying (I usually don't split anything I can pick up with one hand)

 

[Jon E]

I've been dropping a few dead pines and ash around my woods the past few weekends. Buck 'em up and let 'em lay there. When things warm up and I can get the tractor around without making mud, I'll go retrieve the rounds and put them through the splitter and stack in the wood shed. I have a "primary" woodshed for dry seasoned wood and a "secondary" woodshed for fresh cut split wood. Anything being cut now goes in the "secondary" shed or even stacked out in the open if I don't have room.