drying firewood?

For all intents we really don't have soft woods in this area .Cotton wood and basewood are soft but they are considered hard woods .Lousey firewood too but it burns .
 
If you put hardwoods in a basement with a burning stove, you'll have wood as dry as a bone in no time. I've stacked two cords of fresh cut green sugar maple in my basement and after a month of being there with the stove burning and fan blowing, it was kiln dry.
 
Regular stacking. I only make sure I have a few seasoned cords. The rest of the cords I need get stacked green in the basement right before winter and get dried right out indoors. The wood burns with a crackle, and no steam blowing out the ends. Kiln dry. I swear.
 
Even oak, which dries very slowly as a rule?
 
I have found Hard Maple to be a pretty slow drier. I might be trying the basement drying method myself this winter. Big old farm house might get a wood burner in the basement.

Air movement and warm temps you can just about hear the wood dry. I love the clicking noise some wood makes after it has been split and has started shrinking.
 
Never did it with oak Cory. Can't give an honest answer. Birch, sugar maple, hickory, various soft maples, cherry, ash and walnut. Dry as a the driest wood you've ever burned after being in a basement with a woodstove and air moving.
 
If you have heated moving air, essentially what you have going on down there in the basement is a drying kiln. Seems like it would work on any type wood. It's probably too dry for wood beyond what you might want to use for other than firewood, if getting a lot of cracking. or that the wood you might want to build something with is too green to begin with when put down there. Kiln dried timber is generally air dried for a period before put into a kiln. In a basement, it would be interesting to see with a humidity meter if the air ambient moisture content changes with a lot of green wood stacked up and losing water.
 
I'm thinking about Burnams two cords as oppossed to my 4 or 5 on any given year .There must be something in the Pacific ocean we don't have in the great lakes .Heat evidently .
 
Overheated the house last night, again. Opened the window. About 2 cord does it for me. Maybe less, as I hoard the plum, cherry, and Madrone.

I am going to try to put up and sell a little more this year. Small loads, more access to more properties to sell tree work. I have lots of old windows. Might try a solar kiln.
 
Depends on the wood and how much air you give it . A roaring fire produces very little creosote build up .

Green cut ash,if you could find a live tree in the eastern portion of the US will burn green .Fresh cut oak you'd have a chore even getting it going .
 
Just fortified my temporary firewood coverage. I need to build some more covered storage. Barn is filing up with lumber. Half way there.

Rain came in tonight, here to stay for a few days. built a nice fire this morning, and the house is still quite comfy.
 
Camped out Friday to Sunday and got my fill of fire poking outdoors, went to the inlaws tonight for Thanksturkey and poked about a bit at the Fisher wood stove, fire does a man good.
 
Built the first fire of the season last night. Had to get a handful of dry (very dry) wood from the barn to start it....then all green wood. I have less dried wood this year than I ever have.
 
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