Norway Maple Firewood - Moisture Content - December 2022

A few days ago, I posted some photos and an update on my annual firewood consumption and speculated that I was moving faster than I needed to (in terms of burning) and that without some intervention, I would likely consume my entire stockpile of firewood before the end of the burning season - March 1st, 2023.  In that post, I talked about how I might extend my supply by cutting in some of the recently-split Norway Maple firewood from the large tree in our front yard that we took down.  

It was just a couple of weeks ago that one of my fresh, just recently-split pieces of Norway Maple was registering 50% on my moisture meter.  Norway Maple has a reputation of being VERY fast drying and gets down to sub-20% moisture very quickly.  But, how quickly?  

Here's what the moisture meter is showing on a few different pieces of this same Norway Maple firewood after just 2+ weeks:

What the what?  13 and 14 percent?  Anything under 20 is ready to be burned.  So, does that mean I can start to use this stuff?  Holy moly.  Almost seems impossible, doesn't it?

Feels too fast to be dry.  Let alone seasoned.  

My current thinking is to continue to split the balance of the Maple wood in the coming weeks/months and start to think about bringing some of the seasoned wood from the rear yard racks up to closer to the house to start blending in/cutting-in some of that wood in an attempt to slow down the burning of the 'good' wood (as it were).  Maybe...come late January, I can start to burn some of the Norway Maple.