Unfortunately I'm about to be 3 years ahead

A few days I put together a rotating composter and debated what side of the yard to put it on. Changed my mind a few times until I finally settled on a location.

That night my huge oak decided to break off a huge section and crush the thing. The house was mostly spared except for a little damage to a gutter and the siding. I'm glad I didn't move the composter even closer to the house or there would be more damage.

Going to have the tree guys out and take the rest along with a few other oak and pine trees that are laughing at me and getting ideas. Planning on keeping all the wood, but it will be a lot of work to process. Except for small stuff falling in the yard and respliting stuff I bought this will be my first adventure into this side of the wood burning life. I'm hoping to come out of it with all fingers and most of my toes intact.

Any idea what type of oak this is?

Dix said:

White oak. You're gonna love it, once it seasoned.

Don't be afraid of the pine, it'll save your butt once it's seasoned. And it will season fast once CSS.

Processing it's difficult, but it is labor intensive. Think safe, and you'll be fine.

Congrats on the score, BTW

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I'm in a part of the country where burning pine isn't allowed... Looking forward to grinning and ignoring lots of people when they see all the pine stacked up. I've burned a little from trimming branches. I have some legitimate pine cordwood css from Spring 2015 from the last visit by the tree guy. Looking forward to testing that out. The new pine will be great to use in 2017 to 2018 as the oak is drying. Options are nice.

I'm a little torn on the trunk of the oak. It's pretty big - maybe out of my league. I could have the tree guys take it, try to cut it myself, put it on CL or just let it rot back to nature. Letting it rot seems like a shame.

billb3 said:

The trunk rounds are worth getting a sledge and wedge for for manageable sizes at min.
White oak doesn't pop quite as easily as red oak usually, but when it finally dries out it's nice for the deep dark days and nights of Winter.

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A wedge will be on my shopping list along with a Fiskars and protective gear. I'm not too scared of the rounds it's getting the logs into rounds. The tree service is good and professional but they don't mess around with cutting firewood length rounds. I'll be getting basically grapple loads left. It's the chainsaws that I respect / fear most.

STIHLY DAN said:

Where in mass are you? I am not smart enough to fear a chainsaw and I like using the big one.

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Might take you up on that once the trees are down and I see what I'm dealing with. Have a few friends with saws but we're a bunch of suburbanites (Middlesex County). No one "goes out in the woods" to get some firewood like most people on this forum seem to.

I've ordered some chaps and have a buddy coming out this week to clean up some of it with his saw. So far I've just been using my pole trimmer to clean up the little stuff and things up high. The wishbone you see below is what's left. We'll probably trim what we can from the long ends but leave it to the tree service to separate the main sections. I figure at a certain point it's going to roll one way or the other and I don't think we'd be great at predicting which way it will roll vs where we are standing.








Here's the little stuff I've trimmed off so far. Only good thing is it landed right next to one of my green wood piles. I was planning on moving these to a sunnier location, but maybe with the trees coming down I can leave them where they are.

That time when you bought some chaps and a starter saw and counted down the days till the tree service came, only to feel an overwhelming sense that you just got yourself in over your head...

Mostly white oak with a few pine logs mixed in (strictly for camp fire burning [emoji6]).

sportbikerider78 said:

Nothing there looks to crazy to me. Go get yourself a home owner 18" bar chainsaw.

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I got a 16 inch - first time using a saw and I wanted something I'm comfortable with. I cut a good amount from the downed part before the tree service came. I've got some friends with bigger saws and a father in law that has cut and burned his whole life, so I've got some backup.

My biggest worry is actually just navigating the pile. It would have been nice to have them all on the ground to start, but I wasn't the one operating the crane. Definitely looking forward to the challenge but just planning to be slow and remember safety first.