A neighbor down the street cut down some pine trees about 2 years ago and stacked the logs. He was going to mill it but changed his mind, now it's mine for the taking. I have a Catalytic stove (Blazeking) that does ok on softwoods, so I want to grab as much of this as I can. I went over there Saturday and did some cutting to see if it had gone punky. Some of the logs the bark was off and the outside looked good. Some pieces had fungus / mushrooms. The sawcut looked good, wood was solid not mealy. I split a few rounds and the wood seems ok inside. Sunday I took one of the pieces I split the day before, stuck a moisture meter on the split side of the grain, it read 12 - 14%. When I stuck the meter in farther, a solid 1/4 inch, it jumped up to over 30%.
So the real question is: do you think the pine is seasoned yet? If the surface moisture content dropped down to 14% in less than 24 hours of drying, I'm thinking the higher reading deeper in the wood is just residual moisture the wood has soaked up because of recent rain (we've had a lot of rain the past couple weeks), and this moisture will quickly dissipate under cover.
Here's why it matters:
I have a large covered wood rack away from the house. I just filled it 1/3 of the way with my hardwoods that have been seasoned in open drying racks for 1.5 years. In the fall, I will move these hardwoods down to a covered area next to the house to burn. At that point I will also rotate my softwoods off the drying racks into the large covered rack because there isn't enough room by the house for a winter's worth of hardwoods + my softwoods too. Then I make trips to the large covered rack for my softwoods as necessary during the winter months.
Concerning the pine, I have two choices. I can stack it in open drying racks to let it season more, but then I'll have to move it again into the covered rack in the fall. Or I can just stack in the covered rack now and be done with it. The covered rack still gets some sun and air (its 8 feet high, no sides). We're talking 2 full cords at least. I want to burn it this Fall.
Thanks for the input.
So the real question is: do you think the pine is seasoned yet? If the surface moisture content dropped down to 14% in less than 24 hours of drying, I'm thinking the higher reading deeper in the wood is just residual moisture the wood has soaked up because of recent rain (we've had a lot of rain the past couple weeks), and this moisture will quickly dissipate under cover.
Here's why it matters:
I have a large covered wood rack away from the house. I just filled it 1/3 of the way with my hardwoods that have been seasoned in open drying racks for 1.5 years. In the fall, I will move these hardwoods down to a covered area next to the house to burn. At that point I will also rotate my softwoods off the drying racks into the large covered rack because there isn't enough room by the house for a winter's worth of hardwoods + my softwoods too. Then I make trips to the large covered rack for my softwoods as necessary during the winter months.
Concerning the pine, I have two choices. I can stack it in open drying racks to let it season more, but then I'll have to move it again into the covered rack in the fall. Or I can just stack in the covered rack now and be done with it. The covered rack still gets some sun and air (its 8 feet high, no sides). We're talking 2 full cords at least. I want to burn it this Fall.
Thanks for the input.