All That Rain - Firewood Mushrooms - Summer 2021

Back in the end of June and early July, we had what felt like three-straight-weeks of constant rain.  My yard never looked better.  But it also had some other impacts - beyond having to cut the grass 3x per week to keep it how I wanted it.  I was moving some firewood around recently and noticed that a couple of the logs on TOP of our firewood racks were showing some new, white fungal growth:

If you look at this post showing off the firewood rack that I built from parts I sourced dumpster diving next door, you can see that I put on a cedar shingle roof.  That *mostly* helps shed the water.  But, in one of those rain storms, our front yard Norway Maple lost a minor limb.  It came down and I cut it up into rounds.  But, I didn't process them fully as Summer tasks got away from me.  So, I just popped them up on TOP of the firewood rack.  They sat there thru all the rains.  And, you can see that they were already covered in moss from when they were up on the tree.  

When I was walking by recently, I saw this interesting mushroom growth on the cut ends and on the sides of a couple of these rounds. 

Turns out, fungal growth on some firewood - especially when it is very wet and stored in the shade - is quite common.  

The good news is that the firewood that I bought this past Winter that is stacked on the racks AND the other wood that I've sourced on my own is mold free.  Just the stuff on TOP of the rack that was getting pounded by rain, I guess.

I'm going to take these couple of pieces and move them to a sunny spot for a day or two to help them dry out, then I'll split them and put them back in the racks.  They'll need a bit more seasoning before I can burn them, so once I rotate through the firewood on one of the racks this Fall, I'll move these to the bottom row to wait their turn until they are seasoned and ready for burning.