Feeling a little wood snobbery kicking in

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JA600L

JA600L

Minister of Fire
Nov 30, 2013
1,288
Lancaster Pennsylvania
I have been very blessed within the last year with an abundant supply of oak, locust, mulberry, cherry, and ash.

The other week I trimmed some soft Maple trees in my back yard. Today I was out splitting some of the larger branch rounds with my Fiskars. Then snobbery kicked in. .

I thought man this stuff is hardly worth messing with as quick as it burns. Then I remembered other years when wood was harder to find and I was happy to get anything.

I enjoy burning my hardwoods but sometimes you just have to be content with what's in front of you :cool:
 
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It's good for when you don't need a lot of heat, but the IS can be run low on anything so that shouldn't be an issue. You can always split the soft Maple small and use it for starter wood. I would grab it for fuel wood if you're not several years ahead already.
 
Yeah, it's hard to be humble when you have a stack of wood that dwarfs your sons pitiful little stack and it feels good to strut around for a little while. But when the grasshoppers are your family and it gets cold, it'll be you, the ant, "have so much and we have so little", then your gonna give it up. :)
 
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Same here. I was looking at the spruce splits I have stacked and cursed them for taking up prime drying space from my newly acquired red oak. I too remembered before a big snow storm how happy I was to have 10 dry bins of spruce to get us through.
 
chrispr1 said:
There's no such thing as too much wood or wood that's not worth the effort when space isn't an issue. I'd rather give some away or let it go bad than to hope for mild temperatures.
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for me "popple" aka quaking aspen comes damned close...
 
The farmer behind my house has a Weeping willow that a major branch came down. I usually scrounge and clean up the trees that fall over for him, but I just can't bring myself to deal with that willow....
 
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Yep last winter a lot of guys would have liked a few cords of soft maple. Anything but willow.!!!
 
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JA600L I hear ya, I find myself being more "selective" now that I'm all but 3 yrs ahead
 
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JA600L said:
The farmer behind my house has a Weeping willow that a major branch came down. I usually scrounge and clean up the trees that fall over for him, but I just can't bring myself to deal with that willow....
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If I were you I would do it for him anyway, even if you dispose of the wood. It would be a "goodwill" gesture, and he'll keep you in mind for future wood....sometimes we have to do bad things to get the good things ;lol
 
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It's not really good for campfires either because it stinks when it burns
 
Yep... I still can't pass up some red maple, even if we've already got enough red oak to burn all winter.

Am guessing many of us here remember our first year of burning and how the wood we paid good money for wasn't as "seasoned" as we'd been led to believe. I sure remember that.

The first tree I dropped back then was a red maple. Had heard it cured rather quickly so I got busy on it. After just a few months over summer it burned better than the crap wood we fought with all the previous winter.
 
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Around here maple is just maple. 99% of it is big leaf maple and it's about the best hardwood we have. Probably shoulder season wood by other regional standards.
 
JA600L said:
The farmer behind my house has a Weeping willow that a major branch came down. I usually scrounge and clean up the trees that fall over for him, but I just can't bring myself to deal with that willow....
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Gotcha. The willow is a large green weed with bark. Good only for the little whips you can make with the stuff hanging off the branches.
 
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Your feelings on soft maple are going to change drastically once that big steel stove with a cat gets installed. I wasn't a big fan of it until I installed the BK.
 
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rdust said:
Your feelings on soft maple are going to change drastically once that big steel stove with a cat gets installed. I wasn't a big fan of it until I installed the BK.
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Please feel free to explain what you mean by that.. I assume you mean longer burn times?
 
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JA600L said:
Please feel free to explain what you mean by that.. I assume you mean longer burn times?
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Longer burn times is part of it, the ability to control the burn rate is the other part. Maybe your non cat experience is different but very seldom did I ever have control of my non cat, it pretty much did what it wanted. The ability to control the burn now allows me to decide when I want to release those BTU's into my house.
 
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I've had similar experiences with my Quadra Fire
 
As stated here before, the newer stoves are slowly changing how we feel about some wood types. I still see CL ads for free pine/ spruce wood saying "outdoor use only" and "camp fire only". But I'll tell you, a full load in the Morso on low air will burn hot for 4+ hours.
 
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Not a wood snob . . . and I've got plenty of wood on hand . . . I figure for every species there is a season or reason . . . whether it be burning in the shoulder season, burning in the camp fire, giving away to your mortal enemy, etc.
 
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