We had to have a very large white oak taken down back in mid-October. The tree was 90 to 100 feet tall. We had to have it taken down due to the fact that it was leaning badly due to the hurricanes that came thru our area. I would say that that the tree was very healthy. Point being, the timing on this with respect to getting good seasoned wood for burning is not ideal. However, we did not have much choice here when to take it down due to the risk of damaging other things (well cap, other trees, power lines, etc) on our property.
Right now, I have been able to split 7 of the large large logs. They ranged from roughly 8 inches to 12 inches round and roughly 12 to 18 inches long. I split all of them with wedges and a sledge. It worked relatively well considering that I have never done it before and my frame is not all that beefy.
I have stacked all of that split wood in our garage on a 6 foot long / 5 foot high rack made with 2x4s. None of the wood is touching the garage floor and it is in the corner of the garage with as much space as I can give it.
Right now I have 15 very large logs that I cannot split with the wedge as they are simply not dry enough. They are all at least 14 inches round up to 25 inches round and are all about 12 to 18 inches long. Many of them have some serious knots in them as well. I have placed 6 of them on 3 4x4 foot racks made out of 2x4s outside and stacked some smaller odd logs on top of them. The placement of the racks is about as good as I can find on my property which is unfortunately next to a fence so the air flow is less than ideal. The racks run north to south so that the ends of the logs are east and west. They get a fair amount of sunlight considering it is mid-November. I have covered this with a 10x20 foot tarp.
The remainder of the logs are placed on a large 10x20 foot tarp so they are not touching the ground. I have covered them with another 10x20 foot tarp as well. These are on the other side of the fence.
This really the only level place I have on the property where I can keep all of these logs long term for drying. Also, this is also the best place in terms of not having tons of leaves falling all over the wood. We probably have at least another 3 weeks of the trees shedding leaves.
One other then that I am up against here is that we are looking at having several weeks of wetter than normal weather conditions, humidity levels being well over 80%, and little sunshine. Generally speaking, our winters are very humid. I would say our average humidity for late Fall and Winter is over 70%.
Right now, I am questioning my strategy here of keeping all of the large un-split logs covered to protect them from the rain. My concern is how much water is going to be gathering on the tarps if I leave them uncovered. I do plan to try and split some of them again in the coming weeks as I know that smaller pieces will dry out faster than large ones. In the meantime, I am wondering if I should keep them uncovered on the tarp or buy some wooden pallets to keep them off the ground and uncovered.
Any opinions or ideas would be appreciated.
Right now, I have been able to split 7 of the large large logs. They ranged from roughly 8 inches to 12 inches round and roughly 12 to 18 inches long. I split all of them with wedges and a sledge. It worked relatively well considering that I have never done it before and my frame is not all that beefy.
I have stacked all of that split wood in our garage on a 6 foot long / 5 foot high rack made with 2x4s. None of the wood is touching the garage floor and it is in the corner of the garage with as much space as I can give it. Right now I have 15 very large logs that I cannot split with the wedge as they are simply not dry enough. They are all at least 14 inches round up to 25 inches round and are all about 12 to 18 inches long. Many of them have some serious knots in them as well. I have placed 6 of them on 3 4x4 foot racks made out of 2x4s outside and stacked some smaller odd logs on top of them. The placement of the racks is about as good as I can find on my property which is unfortunately next to a fence so the air flow is less than ideal. The racks run north to south so that the ends of the logs are east and west. They get a fair amount of sunlight considering it is mid-November. I have covered this with a 10x20 foot tarp.
The remainder of the logs are placed on a large 10x20 foot tarp so they are not touching the ground. I have covered them with another 10x20 foot tarp as well. These are on the other side of the fence.
This really the only level place I have on the property where I can keep all of these logs long term for drying. Also, this is also the best place in terms of not having tons of leaves falling all over the wood. We probably have at least another 3 weeks of the trees shedding leaves.
One other then that I am up against here is that we are looking at having several weeks of wetter than normal weather conditions, humidity levels being well over 80%, and little sunshine. Generally speaking, our winters are very humid. I would say our average humidity for late Fall and Winter is over 70%.
Right now, I am questioning my strategy here of keeping all of the large un-split logs covered to protect them from the rain. My concern is how much water is going to be gathering on the tarps if I leave them uncovered. I do plan to try and split some of them again in the coming weeks as I know that smaller pieces will dry out faster than large ones. In the meantime, I am wondering if I should keep them uncovered on the tarp or buy some wooden pallets to keep them off the ground and uncovered.
Any opinions or ideas would be appreciated.
