Save $$$ - Heat with Wood

   / Save $$$ - Heat with Wood #211  
How do you dry wood in the PNW???

It is skill I need to learn living in a rain forest with ferns near Olympia.
It seasons but I would not call it dry since the winter humidity stays around 80%. I do not bring my wood inside before burning it so when it goes in the stove it does carry some moisture. Not wet, not green but it is not bone dry.
 
   / Save $$$ - Heat with Wood #212  
Got it...

I have an area that is protected but gets Southern exposure and is my best spot for seasoning...

Never have that issue in California... no rain for 6 months and with weeks 90+
 
   / Save $$$ - Heat with Wood #213  
How do you dry wood in the PNW???

It is skill I need to learn living in a rain forest with ferns near Olympia.

Woodshed with good air circulation, keep the wood off of the ground, wood stacked in the spring will be dry by fall. Hard woods will sometimes get powder post beetle if more than a couple of years old.
 
   / Save $$$ - Heat with Wood #214  
Woodshed with good air circulation, keep the wood off of the ground, wood stacked in the spring will be dry by fall. Hard woods will sometimes get powder post beetle if more than a couple of years old.

We have powder post here in the Bay Area too... it is rather new to this extent.

Thanks for the tip...
 
   / Save $$$ - Heat with Wood #215  
I try to always go 2 years since cutting, 1 year if it was a dead standing or previous year blowdown.
 
   / Save $$$ - Heat with Wood #216  
Wood and Lean to.jpg

This is my wood lay down area and a lean to where split wood goes. Wood is stacked maybe 8' high and the room is maybe 12x20? approx. The concrete slab is used as a drying area and to keep it off the sod.

I have one pile on open concrete like the one seen and another pile to the left of the screen which are fresh cut oaks early last year. I try to burn from the other side of the lean-to this year then next year take wood from this side and just go back and forth. Next spring I will split from in front of the camera and stack on the other side and visa-versa every year.

The question is am I better to try to cover logs or just let them be in the elements with no cover? Am I better off cutting it up in chunk(Mostly white and chestnut oaks and then some oddball stuff) and restack until time to split or will that increase the rotting process, or will logs increase the rotting process? I try to get the wood out of the woods and onto open air concrete as soon as I can. I spray an insecticide to keep all the bugs out, carpenter bees and ants. That seems to works quite well. I tell my stacker (wife) they can be loosely stacked for air flow benefits but I don't waste my breathe on that anymore. So, stack them tight and high.

It may be a little off topic, but is still talking about wood and as you can tell I must enjoy it at least a little bit. Just trying to get a system going.
 
   / Save $$$ - Heat with Wood #217  
I don't waste time covering logs. They're not going to dry outside and it's hard to slow the rot in logs.
 
   / Save $$$ - Heat with Wood #218  
LD1 I understand the point you are making. The fallacy in the argument is the assumption that I would still cut and split 5-7 cords of wood a year regardless of whether I sell it or use it. I would not cut wood for any reason other than to burn it and neither would most others I would guess. So I have two options that I am willing to do.

Option #1. Forgo the wood heat and run my geo system 100% of the time and also not split wood. Result is X amount of $ per day in heat for our home.

Option #2. Cut and split wood and supplement my heat with our wood burning insert. Result is X amount of $ per day minus Y the amount of heat from our wood insert. X-Y=total savings by burning wood (regardless of how cheap or efficient my geo system is). And yes I understand there are some expenses such as chains, fuel, etc.

There is no Option #3 for me that involves selling wood.

You can also find someone to cut on shares. The typical deal around here is one cord in four goes to the land owner, the rest go to the guys doing the work.
 
   / Save $$$ - Heat with Wood #219  
You can also find someone to cut on shares. The typical deal around here is one cord in four goes to the land owner, the rest go to the guys doing the work.

Are here no such deal is going to work. There's an abundance of free wood. Do they split the 4th cord?
 
   / Save $$$ - Heat with Wood #220  
Calling someone a criminal and fraud.....or actually read what they write and comprehend.......

Yea, I guess name calling is the easy way out.

When someone confesses to tax evasion it's sort of hard to see it any other way.
 
 
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