Got 4 of the 7 I need all stacked and drying.

[Whitespider]

Oak is good stuff, but does require a lot of sun and wind to season. I stack mine in single rows, open sun, uncovered and have never had a problem seasoning it in one summer. I often hear it takes at least two years... hmmmmm. Well, yeah, if you stack it in a shed, or in rows butted up to each-other, against a wall, or in a protected and/or shady spot... two years may not be enough. I run my stacks north-south, about six feet apart, 30-35 feet long, so the sun works on the east face for half the day, west face the other half... the prevailing winds funnel between the stacks, even a tiny breeze makes a good flow.

I live just far enough south that we get good drying weather as late as Thanksgiving... maybe even a bit later some years. I try to watch the weather, timing when I move the Oak into the basement to just before the first big snow (don't always work-out as planned), which some years can be as late as Christmas... the idea being to take advantage of every seasoning day I can.

I don't know if I'd call it "special treatment" because it all has to be felled, bucked, split, hauled, stacked, and finally moved into the basement... it ain't any more work to stack it in full sun, single rows vs. any other method.

Makes a big difference when Oak is felled, at least up here in the north part of the country. I've been splitting and stacking Oak for the last few weekends, four big Bur Oak. Three of them were felled in mid-March, but the fourth felled the first week of April. The difference is easily noticeable, the April felled is much heavier/wetter.

 

[woodbooga]

Not bashing oak in the least. Just noting that it seems to require special treatment to get the most out of it.

That said, God gives me the best firewood. Oakfalls that lay undisturbed and slightly off from the ground for years. Bark falls off, sap wood rots, but the precious heartwood;s there solid for years and years until I come along. yup

 

[zogger]

neat stuff!

every boy *needs* a skidder and..whatever the heck that four tracked machine is. Does that thing cross mud good? We get snow here, some...our big obstacle for cross country travel is winter and spring MUD, deep ole stick to everything red clay MUD. Then when it dries in the summer and gets hard, it turns into ROCK. I was spraying yesterday across some fields and had to stand almost the whole time the ground was so hard. Going slow, too, just tractors got no suspension and the seat on this tractor is rather hard, so I just stand up. Feels almost like snow skiiing, what little of that I have done and remember.

Most interesting stuff this clay ground. Makes good bricks. Dig any random hole, one year later it is a pond and you can stock it.

Wood seasons one summer here in Georgia. Just now lunch time and we are over 90 degrees. I call it the dead dog season, all the dogs lay around and look dead during the day....

Anyway, real pretty where you are and quite a decent firewood arrangement you have, for both of you.

 

[Oldtimer]

every boy *needs* a skidder and..whatever the heck that four tracked machine is. Does that thing cross mud good?
Anyway, real pretty where you are and quite a decent firewood arrangement you have, for both of you.

It's a Tucker Terra sno cat 1000HD, cummins powered.
It will cross mud with ease, but it will wear the tracks and drive sprokets very quickly. Lots of fun to drive.

Yes, NH and Maine are both absolutely wonderful places to call home.