"Arch" wrote in message
...
What's the differerence between a tree that's standing dead in the woods
and a tree lying dead off the ground in your back yard? I dunno, but
maybe my friend, it's "blowing in the wind".

Not the same thing as standing dead trees, but I found that N.I.Pine
blown down in a hurricane has defects that a properly felled tree
doesn't. What's your experience with blow downs? Probably varies with
the timber.


If it's down and in contact with the ground, the moisture will go down by
gravity and be maintained by proximity to the ground. Can make a difference
in how you want to prepare your blanks, as you can get one that's loaded to
one side, with all that can mean in out-of-balance conditions. I've been
caught a few times, and even knowing this, sometimes cut the piece for
size/figure advantage and turn slowly through the problem. I've even used
it to my advantage by laying pieces on the ground and rotating periodically
to gain more even spalting by putting the bottom up, where drying will halt
the spalt and gravity and the ground start the opposite side going.

Standing dead gets its main influence from capillary draw, secondary from
southern exposure which tends to loosen the bark on that side and promote
radial checks.