You reckon wood seasons in a rain forest.

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Marley5

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My wife who loves plants, flower gardens and keeps up with the weather said in the last 150 days it's rained 117 of those days.
Very untypical for the Western part of VA.

Got me wondering if all my wood piles up in the woods " uncovered " has even begun to season at all.....hope it " Oak " doesn't rot.

I do however have this winter's supply under roof.
Oh, couldn't cut today cause it's raining.
 
I've been having similar thoughts this summer & fall. The entire northeast has been a rainforest. I've never seen the humidity like this in all my life. Especially this far into fall. The dew point is set to finally get into the mid 40's this weekend, if the predictions are accurate and this will be the first time it's been there since springtime. It's been more tropical here in Northwest NJ than in Florida.
 
I've been having similar thoughts this summer & fall. The entire northeast has been a rainforest. I've never seen the humidity like this in all my life. Especially this far into fall. The dew point is set to finally get into the mid 40's this weekend, if the predictions are accurate and this will be the first time it's been there since springtime. It's been more tropical here in Northwest NJ than in Florida.

Yes indeed.....never seen anything quite like it this year and don't expect to ever see it again.....not possible.
 
Been so wet here my moisture meter reads in the low teens, without touching anything. It's actually been a few days since it rained so maybe it's just broken. (sarcasm)
 
I've never seen such a stretch of rain and humidity. Even on the days it doesn't rain, dewpoints are in the 70's and it's foggy/misty half the time. I'm in south Jersey and have had 15" since September 2nd. Thankfully there's a pattern shift and dewpoints are in the low 50's this morning.
 
I use to stack my wood along my fence line to save space. However my fence line is shaded 100% all day and the wood never dried properly and stayed wet for a long time after a rain. I ended up growing lots of mushrooms and had wet punky molded crap for firewood. Never under estimate the power of the sun. Ever notice after a rain the sunny places dry faster then the shady spots.
 
Rain, more than anything else, disrupts my deliveries. I seldom split many of my logs way in advance, so I like to split dry rounds. Splitting wood in the rain is a huge no-no because slippery wood is a mess to handle. All I need is one or two fry days in a row and lately, that's been too much to expect.

There are times when I don't think that I'm living in the same state as I did last year. This sloppy weather is unheard of around here. Less than half the grain has been harvested in Nebraska and Iowa. Ask a farmer how he is supposed to harvest flooded fields in the rain.
 
Same here in SEPA. I stack uncovered against my detached workshop and the pile that's been sitting for 2+ years had the first couple of top rows STILL WET !
 
I cannot, in clear conscience, deliver a truckload of wet wood to a customer. Simple as that. I like to deliver firewood during the day that a customer can then burn that night and warm the house. Does that seem reasonable?

Meh, in my opinion it's up to them. I sold a cord yesterday to a guy. It was nice oak stacked outside in a single row for a year or more. Mostly dead standing in the first place. But, it'd been rained on almost every day for the last two weeks. At least it seemed like it. The top third of the pile was pretty saturated. I told the guy when he called me that that's what was available. He agreed and was actually very very pleased with the wood quality when I dropped it off. Asked if I had more.
 
Depending on the type of wood, once it has cured all the way through, it takes a lot of rain to soak the wood all the way through. The outside may be wet but the core is most likely dry. Once you get the wood back into a dry environment it won't take long for the wet outer layer to dry. Try this experiment. Take a dry split that is fully seasoned and soak it in a bucket of water for a few hours. Then cut it in half and see how deep the moisture has penetrated. I'll bet you'll be surprised at how long it takes for water to soak all the way through.
 
Yuck

Worst year I can remember for drying / seasoning wood. According to rain guage 25 inches since July 1st. We've had rain in previous years, but never the twice a week downpours for 3 months that occurred this year. Stuff never really gets a chance to dry between storms.

One redeeming factor is every seller in the area is in the same boat, literally. I've explained the situation to customers prior to taking orders. Some back out, some buy anyway, other than being up front, there's not much else that can be done this year. I've been telling people to get it stacked no more than 2 rows deep and top cover only. Anyone that wraps up their woodpile like a Christmas present this year is definitely going to have issues.

Take Care
 
We had a year that was very wet a while back , though nothing like what you are describing. I cut split and sstack my wood up off the ground about4 inches or so but the main thing I do different is I cover the top. No water in ( from rainy weather) and continually water out ( from air movement and sun)...it cannot do anything but get drier.
 
Only my oak is showing signs of being tired. Sprouting up mushrooms from the bark side. Ended up moving some to get to another stack of Cherry and removed some of the bark. I think if I can keep it dry and covered for the remainder it should still be okay, but I'll have to handle most of it all over again. My ash and cherry stacks seem to be okay and still relatively dry. When I started moving them to dry storage it had rained lighly the night before and thry were ready in the 25-30% range on the surface of the outer areas. Other pieces were very dry, like below 20%, and even the ones that read relatively wet still sounded crisp and "hollow" when you clapped them together, so I just assumed it was dry and the high moisture read was from the recent rain.

In a perfect world I would have left then to dry open a few more days before moving, but there was another bout of rain in the forecast, plus the remnants of Michael to drench it on Thurs. This was all last weekend. Everything that was open was also covered by Wednesday afternoon.

This weekend I'm getting the rest of what I can fit under the deck (between 1.5-2 cord), then going to cover everything else up again. I'm already planning on getting an aluminum and steel carport for my wood area to use to cover my straight stacks like oak and hickory. All the rain this year has me seriously reconsidering how I will season my wood in the future.
 
Some customers understand that receiving wet wood in a rainy season is OK. Others will hold it against you,. Today I had no choice but to deliver a truckload of wet wood because it rained all day yesterday. I apologized and the customer told me he understood the circumstances. We have not had two days of sunshine in a row for weeks and tomorrow it's supposed to rain again almost all day.

Splitting and/or loading wet logs is a PITA. But it will dry -- eventually.:rolleyes:
 
Seems to dry fast once it's inside. Cherry I split a week ago was only wet about 3/4" on the ends. After a week in the shed it was burnable in a non epa stove. Can't see a catalytic liking it.

My elm soaked the water up like a sponge though. Oak was looking good to go and sitting in the January/Febuary line up.
 
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