It all depends on the right appearance

The inside of the old wooden house was completely burnt out. The metal of the agricultural equipment had melted due to the intense heat. But to everyone's amazement, the building withstood the heat. Only the heavy wooden beams were charred on the outside. When the wood was broken off with the help of a tractor, it didn't give an inch. Only the outer layer of the logs was charred, the inside was undamaged by the fire. In the end, the house had to be meticulously sawn apart. Some of the wood was reused for the new building. It had obviously been felled hundreds of years ago at the right time.

Ancient knowledge of the ancients

It is common knowledge that the moon influences our lives. No one can escape its influence. The tides, the cycle of women and also the forest and wood are causally subject to the moon. This ancient knowledge has been largely lost in the industrialized age, when woodcutters are unable to observe the time of year or the position of the moon due to time constraints. However, clever, nature-loving mountain farmers, carpenters and woodcutters are not deterred and still follow the seasons, zodiac signs and position of the moon very closely when cutting and processing wood.

You know that winter is the best time to harvest wood. The sap has gone down and the wood is barely working after felling, whereas in summer it is in full sap. But there are still a whole series of important dates that lumberjacks mark in red in their calendars, or have long since preserved the knowledge of their ancestors.

Old farmhouses can't be wrong

One person who strictly follows the "right time" is Feldkirch master carpenter Johann Süssenbacher. With his small carpentry business, he can afford to fulfill customer requests for houses with properly felled timber. "It is obvious that wood that has been felled in the winter months, at the end of December, January or in March, retains its strength, does not rot and repels vermin. A house built from such wood will last for several hundred years," Süssenbacher is convinced. He has already built 30 to 40 houses with "moon wood". "I'm happy to do it if my customers want it," says Süssenbacher, adding that the house doesn't cost any more because of it. "That's the only way people used to work," he says, surprised at the disregard for old farming wisdom. There is no need for scientific studies, old farmhouses that have been standing for over 500 years are clear proof of this. "And when such houses are demolished, the old wood can be reused and will last for another few hundred years. That's sustainability at its best," says Süssenbacher with conviction.

Never in summer

Sepp Hinteregger would never cut wood in May or June. The water content is at its highest during these months, making the wood almost worthless. The farmer and innkeeper, who has just built a house in Sankt Oswald near Bad Kleinkirchheim and is currently renovating an old farm, follows the records and recommendations, which are 150 years old, to the letter. "It's actually true that the quality of the wood is better if you cut it at the right time, and this applies to all types of wood," says Hinteregger. However, it is not always possible to get the timing right when other work makes logging impossible. Hinteregger gives another example: "If you clear the black alders, they don't actually grow back, we've definitely noticed that. This saves the farmer a lot of work.

As the son of a sustainable farmer and forester, Günter Zeilinger, farmer landlord at Naturgut Lassen, also adheres to the old guidelines as best he can. His premises: The wood should be felled between Christmas and New Year when it is frozen, the tree should be pointing downwards and the branches should remain on the tree for a few days. Above all, the wood should dry well. "It's no good if it's felled at the right time and then doesn't dry out properly. This is the only way to guarantee durable wood that is so hard that even drills will capitulate," he explains. A house that he built together with a musician friend was able to meet these criteria. "He always says how wonderful it is to live in this house," says Zeilinger.

According to the forest cycle principle

Thoma Holzbau in Goldegg near Salzburg proves that things can also be done in a very contemporary way. It sees wood as the high-tech building material of the future. The basic prerequisite for the energy self-sufficient houses is the correct handling of the valuable raw material. Thoma builds solid wood houses that heat and cool themselves without additional insulating materials. This is achieved primarily by using moon wood, mechanically dowelled without gluing or wood preservatives. Thoma Holz GmbH has already built over 2500 houses according to the forest cycle principle. An example that sustainable timber construction can also be realized industrially and on a large scale.

Comprehensive set of rules

As early as 1912, Ludwig Weinhold wrote a set of rules that is still valid today. It gives precise instructions on the wood properties to be achieved. A few examples:
Wood that is to remain firm and "gleim" (as if glued) is felled on the first eight days after the new moon in December.
To prevent wood from rotting, the last two days of March are ideal during the waning fish.
The woodcutters have to go out on just one day, March 1, after sunset, so that the wood is not flammable.
Firewood, on the other hand, should be cut in October, in the first quarter of the waxing moon
To ensure that bridges remain firm and above all non-slip, wood should be felled in the waning Pisces or Cancer
To prevent the wood from cracking, it should be felled on June 24 between 11 a.m. and 12 noon.