Doing Battle with Elm??

[1project2many]

your covered stacks and especially your shed provide the perfect environment.

No. That's not correct. The sheds are dry inside. They are not damp inside. They are built to move air via convection and they do it well. They face southwest, too, and will warm nicely in the sun. They do a great job drying firewood. The covered stacks are also drier than exposed piles. If I leave wood stacked or piled on the ground without cover it rots. The mushrooms were growing in wood that was dumped in a pile randomly awaiting splitting. The wood had gotten soaked from weeks of rain and dark/gray days and didn't dry out. I actually try to plan processing so I do not have large piles of uncovered wood sitting on the ground as it rots very quickly.

Not trying to pick your methods apart... but mushrooms and the like growing on your firewood is a pretty good indication that an adjustment of some sort may be required.

Have faith that I am observant and smart and can find good solutions to problems. My experiences here may not mirror yours but that does not mean I can't figure out what's going on.

I know the argument has gone 'round-'n'-'round on this board. But there really is no benefit to putting a roof over firewood before it's fully seasoned... even one day of sunshine will do more than keeping 10 days rain off it. Heck, most of the rain just runs off the ends and drips on the ground. And free-flowing air will carry away more moisture, even if you have more cloudy days than sunny days.

You might need to spend time here to get a feel for just how wet it is. I think you'd need to see it and experience it to really get it. The old timers around here built their barns six to eight feet in the air to keep the floors from rotting. They'd put the houses up a foot to 18 inches. With the barns they'd pile stones on either side to form ramps or build it into the side of a hill, then use granite posts to support the floor joists. Untreated wood used against the soil just doesn't last long here. Lumber yards don't like to leave wood piled outside for long, either. I've got 8' Pine logs out back that were felled the summer before I bought my house. They were useless for lumber within three years. Moisture is worse here than any other place I've lived. I'm not saying the problems can't be solved. I am saying that it can take extra effort to make a working solution.

 

[Whitespider]

Untreated wood used against the soil just doesn't last long here.

Ummmmm.... I wasn't suggesting stacking or piling anything in contact with the ground.
Untreated wood contacting the ground wouldn't last here either, I don't know where it would... maybe Arizona?? Even the concrete foundations of our homes are typically 'round 3 feet above grade... there's four steps up from the ground to my front porch. Make those foundations any closer and and the sill plate will turn to mush.

By-the-way, on average, you have more sunny days per year than we do... 197 vs. 191 (although you do have a few more precipitation days).
Your comfort index is also higher, meaning a lower relative humidity in summer... 57 vs. 44.

But... whatever...
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[1project2many]

By-the-way, on average, you have more sunny days per year than we do... 197 vs. 191 (although you do have a few more precipitation days).
Your comfort index is also higher, meaning a lower relative humidity in summer... 57 vs. 44.

That's interesting. I'll be sure and tell the woodpile. lol

Most of the numbers for NH are obtained at Concord Airport, about 25 miles from my place. I get a little more precipitation than they do and the temp is usually a few degrees cooler at my place but what's published is generally valid for me. Weatherspark shows a 5% difference between the two states for cloudy or partly cloudy days, probably not enough to make a huge difference. If there's anything that I can see at a glance it's the wind. You guys get a bunch more wind than we do. More windy days and higher average wind speeds. That's got to make a diference when it's time for things to dry out. And I don't know about forest cover but that might make a difference. I've got trees everywhere around my place.

I wonder if there's anything like "average soil moisture content" to look at. That might be an interesting comparison.

 

[Whitespider]

Most of the numbers for NH are obtained at Concord Airport...
I wonder if there's anything like "average soil moisture content" to look at. That might be an interesting comparison.

Since I didn't know your exact location I picked a town centrally located in the New Hampshire Lakes Region (according to Google Maps?).
Here's a link to the website I use for local climate research... you can enter near anywhere.

http://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/new_hampshire/meredith

NOAA and others provides soil moisture maps, but it's mostly a current thing.
I don't believe there's an "annual average"... it's to volatile for that, changes almost daily.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/Soilmst_Monitoring/US/Soilmst/Soilmst.shtml

Although, these links give you a month-by-month "calculated" soil moisture and soil wetness average based on 30 years (1971-2000)... for what that's worth.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/Soilmst_Monitoring/US/Soilmst/Soilmst_clim.shtml
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/Soilmst_Monitoring/US/Soilmst/Soilwet_clim.shtml

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[1project2many]

Although, these links give you a month-by-month "calculated" soil moisture and soil wetness average based on 30 years (1971-2000)... for what that's worth.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/Soilmst_Monitoring/US/Soilmst/Soilmst_clim.shtml
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/Soilmst_Monitoring/US/Soilmst/Soilwet_clim.shtm

Hey, thanks.

 

[ETpilot]

Well, I have about 25-30 feet of this Elm to cut n split. More fighting ahead. I cleaned up the area where the pallets and hog trap was located. Set it up for more stacking. A couple of pictures of the bark. Seems to be all one color. Except in second picture where a thin cream colored line appears. All about 5/16-3/8" thick. Anyway I have my splitting/stacking area cleaned up. Lots more wood to split.

 

[Whitespider]

I don't think that's American Elm...
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[jrider]

Your splits look just like sweet gum splits.

 

[Whitespider]

Your splits look just like sweet gum splits.

I wouldn't know a Sweet Gum if it fell on me... but after seein' that bark up close I am questioning if it's any sort of elm.
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[lindnova]

I agree. Not American. Not Siberian. Bark looks like red elm,but too thick and the wood doesn't quite look right.

 

[1project2many]

I dunno... Damage at green arrow looks like European Elm Beetle, the red arrow shows a creamy white ring that extends partway around the bark, and blue arrows point to what could be creamy white sections. I think a good picture of the bark face is in order.

 

[Greenthorn]

Splits look like box elder?

 

[Whitespider]

...red arrow shows a creamy white ring that extends partway around the bark...

The bark of American Elm has alternating layers of brown(ish) and white that's sort'a flecked in throughout the entire circumference. I've never seen it as one single long layer extending partially around the tree. I agree the it has the classic beetle tunnels and galleries under the bark... but there are dozens, maybe hundreds of pests that can create such in a variety of trees. There's something about the appearance of both the bark and wood (as represented in the pictures) that has me questioning it as any elm I'm familiar with.

However, there is one elm found where the OP lives (east Texas) that I'm not familiar with... the Cedar Elm (ulmus crassifolia). The bark does resemble what the OP has (from the images I've found) and it ain't immune to DED. Another possibility (unlikely, but still possible) is the September Elm (ulmus serotina) which ain't immune to DED either. So, I amend my previous post with the words in red...

"...after seein' that bark up close I am questioning if it's any sort of elm I'm familiar with."

Here's an image showing the native range of the Cedar Elm...

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[babybart]

I believe it to be a hickory species. I had one that looked identical to that when I split it green. The dark core and bark look similar as well as the stringy splits. I let it sit for a year before I went back to splitting it, not as stringy but still difficult.

 

[ETpilot]

Gosh, a mystery tree. I tried to do some research on Elm. Found a site that lists 28 different type. Just too involved for me. I do have Sweet Gum on the property. I wil do a comparison n see if it could be Sweet Gum. I'm having another rain event, last 2 days. Will get back to work when it all drys up again. Thanks for the help.

 

[taskswap]

Well, I guess I'm no arborist but that sure looks EXACTLY like a piece of elm (which an actual arborist sold me) I just chucked into the stove here. Whatever it is, it's no red oak but I really like burning it. It stacks badly, but if you have a hydraulic splitter it's no big deal to process that way, and it's really easy to light. All those stringy bits floating around are magic - I rarely use kindling, just a little pile of noodles and a stack of this stuff.