I have a large tree down in the woods. It has been laying there at least 15 years. I took some slabs off of it about 4 years or so ago and it burned like a hot piece of coal. Better than the white oak I have been burning. It would have laid there another 15 years if I wasn't so overly motivated with getting ahead and burning seasoned wood. This whole time I thought it was a big piece of beech,but after I got it home and split a piece, I have decided it is red oak. How this piece could lay there so long and not rot I don't know. In some places it was two inches in the ground. There is evidence of ants but they have not gotten very far. I bounced the maul off of two pieces before the third one split. It will be a hard job in front of me but it will get done. I would say I have a piece 20 feet long and 30 inches or so in diameter. I'll get a nice pile out of it.