Anne,

It will take a long time for that wood to dry, but there are other options. You could build a skin canoe with some of the wood, the ribs are best if bent while green(wet). This would be a quick cheap way to build a canoe, and you would then see if you liked building then build a strip-built next year, after the wood has dried. If you follow the link at the bottom of the page there are plans for building a canoe. It is meant to be skinned with paper, muslin, and varnish, but the canvas you mentioned before would work great. It requires only a small amount of wood and produces a light serviceable boat. This was the boat that got me interested in buiding. I didn't build this one, but I will someday. If you want, you could build it to the shape of one of the canoes in Canoecraft.

Mike

: for my wood-strip canoe, I'm using poplar for a nice, pale colour.
: Unfortunately, the trees are still standing. After cutting them down and
: dragging them to a clearing (There's BIG ant hills in them thar woods),
: how do I go about splitting them into peices small enough to A) dry at a
: reasonable speed and B) go thru the saw-thing we're using to rip the wood?

: Any other advice on wood-strip will be appreciated. The book I'm using as
: reference is Canoecraft, the only one I can find on the subject. Please
: don't ask me to buy or order any books, because I can't afford it and by
: the time the ordered book comes in, It'l be too late in the season to
: build the thing.

: Thank you all for helping.

: Anne G