The Best Time To Cut Firewood?

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Arbonaut

Go Climb It
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The Old Farmer's Almanac.

Though it's based on astrology Almanacs have been refined through human experience. You have seen the charts in there where it gives the best time to bale hay or plant potatoes and there is a best time for cutting firewood. Cut firewood whenever you get a chance, by all means, but is there a time it drys better than others like it says on the chart? If so how can it be explained?

I know concrete cures better at some times than others. I'm saying outside the known 28-day curing cycle it goes in smoother and cracks less. I did it long enough to find a relationship with the chart. The Moon and other bodies affect the tides. Why would this effect not be with every other object that contains water? Have you noticed how kids and animals act during a full moon? Almost a proverb. There is also a time when you can get a fire started easier than others.
 
No you make your own fun in the country. I didn't invent the Farmer's Almanac. There are some good minds here~rainy day is a good time to find out how they work.
 
There's only two good times to gather firewood - when it's raining, and when it's not. :clap:

IMHO it's all about the comfort of the scrounger. I don't do firewood when it's rainy, muddy, too hot, too humid, too cold (that's a relative term, you know.), or windy if there's a tree to be dropped or climbed. There's plenty of beautiful days throughout the year for all kinds of work, so I can pick and choose what to do on what kind of day.
 
I cut after the sun rises and before it sets. Well I have a couple times donned a headlamp or shown the headlights to get something cut but its not a habit. Beer is purchased cold so what am I to do, make it colder?
 
There's only two good times to gather firewood - when it's raining, and when it's not. :clap:

IMHO it's all about the comfort of the scrounger. I don't do firewood when it's rainy, muddy, too hot, too humid, too cold (that's a relative term, you know.), or windy if there's a tree to be dropped or climbed. There's plenty of beautiful days throughout the year for all kinds of work, so I can pick and choose what to do on what kind of day.

Sunny day firewood guy here. If it's wet, it can wait. If it's cold, I should be home burning it...;)
 
The Old Farmer's Almanac.

Though it's based on astrology Almanacs have been refined through human experience. You have seen the charts in there where it gives the best time to bale hay or plant potatoes and there is a best time for cutting firewood. Cut firewood whenever you get a chance, by all means, but is there a time it drys better than others like it says on the chart? If so how can it be explained?

I know concrete cures better at some times than others. I'm saying outside the known 28-day curing cycle it goes in smoother and cracks less. I did it long enough to find a relationship with the chart. The Moon and other bodies affect the tides. Why would this effect not be with every other object that contains water? Have you noticed how kids and animals act during a full moon? Almost a proverb. There is also a time when you can get a fire started easier than others.

I get firewood whenever the tractor can have the tote box mounted. If I have to be doing something else and have another attachment mounted, nope.

And that's about it, year round, when I can. Has a lot to do with mud/no mud, go/no go. And if I have free time, nothing else to do, etc. I can get more than enough cut then, I don't have to make much of a special project out of it, having so much easy access.

Now I have no idea on moon phases and when to cut etc, I will say there's something to it as regards working with critters. There's definite daily moods and energy levels you see working around animals of different kinds all the time.

My only connection with the farmer's almanac is I used to ..err..."discuss philosophy" with a young lady who worked there.

That's immediately what came to my mind when you mentioned farmer's almanac.

You gots to make hay when de sun do shine..so I did! ;)

Actually I used to spar with her sometimes as well, she was quite good. She was good at traditional type sparring and this close to being a master with improvised weapons and tactics, i.e., practical and realistic fighting.
 
Actually I used to spar with her sometimes as well, she was quite good. She was good at traditional type sparring and this close to being a master with improvised weapons and tactics, i.e., practical and realistic fighting.

That's how I met my wife, Zogger. Females are made with disproportionate lower body strength and quite flexible. She knocked me cold with a crescent kick and I woke up married.
 
I know concrete cures better at some times than others. I'm saying outside the known 28-day curing cycle it goes in smoother and cracks less. I did it long enough to find a relationship with the chart.

Oh boy I can't wait for you to elaborate on this....
 
January, 2012?

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.
 
That's how I met my wife, Zogger. Females are made with disproportionate lower body strength and quite flexible. She knocked me cold with a crescent kick and I woke up married.


BWAHAHAHAHA

She got me once at her house. buncha folks there, I was razzing her, she throws a spinning back kick, OK, I see this coming easy enough, I get around it and start to come in, she had scooped up a lit butt from an ashtray on the spin, I didn't see that, and nailed my face with it on the rebound. *Instant improvisation* on her part there. The back kick was the feint! It was great! She was good at that stuff. Never saw it coming. If it had been a shiv, I would have been skewered. As it was, I conceded.
 
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.
 
I prefer it when it is between 45 and 60 degrees, little to no cost for the wood. So that means between October and JUNEuary her in the PNW.



Duane
 
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.

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.
 
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