Neighbor freaking out over pine.

Hope he doesn't have a woodstove.

owingsia said:

Everything I have read here says so. I will be using a moisture meter to be safe. Again everything on this site says depending (conditions) 8-16 months for pine.

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I'm pretty sure I've read 6-9 months for Douglas fir. I don't know if the same applies to pine in general.

This reminds me of my one neighbor that burns wood he cut a week ago.

Then my other neighbor has a century wood stove and he runs no thermometers on the flue and stove!

I am a newbie to wood is this my first year and I am already halfway done gathering my 2nd year of wood and want to have a 3 year wood supply.

All of my neighbors keep looking at me and think I am nuts!

owingsia said:

Everything I have read here says so. I will be using a moisture meter to be safe. Again everything on this site says depending (conditions) 8-16 months for pine.

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Here in Virginia pine can definitely be ready in a year.

jatoxico said:

I like this one, "Never try to teach a pig to sing, it wastes your time and annoys the pig".

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Pigs fly just fine, with enough thrust...... ;-)

What is it with people being such "know it all's" these days.

Poking their nose in other peoples business and thinking they know whats best for them.

Hogwildz said:

Pigs fly just fine, with enough thrust...... ;-)

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True, just need the right incentive .

Thinking that if you invited him over and he saw the pine burning with the secondaries firing off he would be in full panic mode and be convinced the pine is going to melt the stove.

CSS'd my first pine rounds last year, and it was juicy alright. Was amazed how nicely it dried out in a year.

Your neighbor is off key. 6-8 months is pretty darn quick to use oak. Pine that's seasoned can be just fine, as you told him. I'm not a big fan of pine, but the seasoning counts way more than type of wood. Cherry does seem to dry real quick, so yours should be more than ready next year. If the fire is hot enough, I can see relatively new cherry burning okay, but I give it at least 8 months stacked.

Jon1270 said:

I recently managed to convince him he was wrong.

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Why would you do this! There goes your free pine.

My neighbor insisted that cherry could be burned fresh cut if you split it before tossing in the fire.

I can think of a lewd comment for this quote . . . but I'll leave it to your imaginations! All I WILL say is that this thread makes me happy that I'm having my fir and oak trees felled, c/s/s and THEN getting the house built. I'm recycling those trees for firewood 2016 (fir) and 2017 (oak).

red oak said:

Here in Virginia pine can definitely be ready in a year.

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I don't know how long it was down before I picked it up but the eastern white pine I scrounged was split and stacked for about 10 months before I started burning it and was around 15% (fresh split right before I measured). In my experience the pine gets REALLY light as it dries, you can almost just pick it up and gauge whether its dry or not.

All this talk of stupid neighbors makes me happy that I'm not the only one. My neighbor had a big dump truck full of wood delivered this past summer, maybe 2 or 3 cords of wood total. He left it sit in a mound and covered it with a plastic tarp and he's been going out to the pile and bringing a little in at a time to his garage. I guess he figures if its in the garage a few days it'll be good and dry?

We're right down to the last of the stack for the house stove. And it contains red pine that was felled along with a very large, multi-trunked red maple 3+ yrs. ago. At the time the good man grumbled about the red pine being "junk". It was sticky to handle and it was sort of squirrel-y when it was split. I stuck to my guns and insisted it be split since we'd paid a lot of money to have those trees taken down (power lines) and leaving it on the ground was not an option I was willing to entertain. It burns just fine, thank you very much. Personally, I rather like having it in the stacks as I find it lights quickly and easily. And it is very light when it's fully seasoned. (there was no more grousing when CMP asked if they could take down a couple more on our property... making progress!)

Bobbin said:

Personally, I rather like having it in the stacks as I find it lights quickly and easily. And it is very light when it's fully seasoned. (there was no more grousing when CMP asked if they could take down a couple more on our property... making progress!)

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Totally agree on the easy lighting of softwoods. Douglas fir is very common where I live (probably the best soft wood around). It lights easy and will convince stubborn fruit wood or madrona to burn. It's great to have a soft wood in the mix for those situations.

I've got 2 cords of douglas fir and 2 cords of plum for next year. Douglas fir is already split and stacked. Working on splitting the plum still (it's much harder to split than douglas fir rounds).

I burn predominately White Spruce, I live in Prince Edward Island. I have four acres and that is all I have. I only take deadfall. I have some white birch for the cold nights. I get the same lecture about creosote. I clean my flue every 2nd year, might get a cup out of a twenty foot pipe. I have a Regency mid size stove, straight pipe. My wood is bone dry, covered with a lean to facing south, both wind and sun get at it. I cut in spring and it's ready by mid October, everything split, and as I said it's mostly dead to begin with. I couldn't afford the good stuff. We only have Maple up here, no Oak. All red oak was cut by the British to make ship masts . I burn anything, pin cherry, aspen. I'd burn alder if it got big enough. I've burned pine, no problem, but I burn so damm hot the tar ignites