Desperate plea for seasoned wood... Southern NJ, DE, Southeastern PA

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Rehingd said:
Dill said:
If you have 16 acres of woods, why buy cordwood. The average rule of thumb is a 1 cord per acre per year. But if no one has cleaned the woods in a while you can do well just pulling out dead stuff. When my parents moved to their current place we burned beaver wood the first year. Really good size trees that they had either dropped and couldn't move or chewed enough bark off to kill standing.

The only reason I bought cordwood is because we bought this house just this year and I don't yet have anything seasoned. In future years I'll definitely not be buying any. Unfortunately it turned out the "seasoned" wood that I bought was just as green as the stuff I already have cut.

Maybe you (or anyone else) can help me with the dead tree thing. I have several dead trees, mostly standing trees that have obviously been dead a long time (lots of bark and limbs missing), and also some fallen, but not yet rotten, dead trees. But, when I cut them they are wet inside. Enough to clearly see and feel the moisture and they're off the chart on my moisture meter. Do I just need to give them some time to dry out? Are they wet in a different way than green wood?

I'd say those are too far gone. Its kind of a crap shoot until you know what to look for. This weekend I was able to find some standing dead oak, and some very large limbs that had fall off. There was very little bark left on the tree, but it hadn't gone punky yet. Which is where the ones your talking about are probably punky but not quite rotted. I'm burning some of that stuff right now. Oak and maple I've found to be the best for dead wood, popular isn't worth the hassle. And beech is a crap shoot, but if its been on the ground a year probably not. Do you have any white ash? I've always found you can cut and burn it the same day. I don't use a meter so I'm not scientific about it. But I figure if it hadn't been working for hundreds of years, people wouldn't bother with it.
 
You might also consider BioBricks or Envilogs or another brand of compressed wood.
 
One other place to check.
Do you have any apple orchards around you? Most around here sell wood. Or will have a row of dead trees they need removed.
Apple wood is amazing, dense, hard to cut, impossible to split, terrible to stack. But it burns like coal. Long and hot.
 
Dill said:
One other place to check.
Do you have any apple orchards around you? Most around here sell wood. Or will have a row of dead trees they need removed.
Apple wood is amazing, dense, hard to cut, impossible to split, terrible to stack. But it burns like coal. Long and hot.

Any advice on seasoning apple? I just had to have one of my two cut down. It's an old one that snapped off a few feet from the ground in a horrendous wind storm about a year-and-a-half ago, so it's essentially been standing dead for about a year now. It doesn't amount to a whole lot of wood, so I'd like to treat it right and save it for when I can get the most out of it.

It is incredibly hard and dense. Should it have more than the usual year to dry after splitting?
 
Its still wood. When you cut it up take a look to see how dry it is maybe its ready now. If not stack it and let mother nature do her work.
 
I think you will be OK . Stack the wood in louse stacks and cover the top only . When it gets cold the wood will dry fast .I never get my wood cut ,split ,stacked until after Thanks giving. By January you could burn the oak.
 
wellbuilt,
I'm going to really ask you how well that stuff burns. I've cut and burned plenty of oak and no way it was ready in a few months. A year later, some will still hiss a bit. From what almost all here have said, oak needs a good year plus to be ready to burn.
 
I had a cord of apple a bunch of years back. Pain in the ass to stack as it was all different shapes and bends. But it burned amazing. Smaller stuff and it dried quick.
 
d.n.f. said:
I had a cord of apple a bunch of years back. Pain in the ass to stack as it was all different shapes and bends. But it burned amazing. Smaller stuff and it dried quick.

Hah! I know what you mean. I would not want to try to stack more than the small amount I've got, that's for sure. It looks sort of like random body parts, actually.
 
My stove is cooking quite nicely, even as I type, on standing dead stuff cut under two months ago.
Here's what I did when I realized this fall I was way short on really dry wood:
- Scoured the back lot for standing/laying dead of all size (not a lot of wood in your 4-inchers, but wood is wood)
- Cut and sorted the smaller, drier looking stuff, mostly limb wood (the wetter trunks for 2009, but get it off the ground now)
- Put it up on pallets for a bit of sun/wind drying (a little late now unless you get lucky, but drying is a lot quicker than seasoning)
- Annoyed my wife by putting it in the sunniest spots of the yard and then in the middle of the barn where it could still get some air flow.

That doesn't solve the problem entirely, but it eases the pain. Now if the wood is really wet and punky, even on the inside after splitting, it's probably junk. But if you have some decent stuff, hard or softwood, standing or even fallen, you will know very quickly if has potential: it may be wet on the outside but solid and quite dry on the inside. It is seasoned, not rotten, but also not totally dry. That can be cured (pun intended).

Want to really annoy your wife? Find a place inside the house to dry your wood a week or two before burning!
 
I think that for the most part this season you are going to have to burn pallets, millends, and some kind of bio bricks, sawdust ones are best. In other words, this is going to be a scrounging season for you.

Welcome to the forum, at least by being here, next year you are going to get it right ;-)
 
Check the yellow pages for a pallet maker. I buy a pickup load, mostly oak, for $15. I can have them dump a bucket in the truck or hand pick/load my own. Only problem is most pallet makers are open weekdays.
 
sonnyinbc said:
I think that for the most part this season you are going to have to burn pallets, millends, and some kind of bio bricks, sawdust ones are best. In other words, this is going to be a scrounging season for you.

Welcome to the forum, at least by being here, next year you are going to get it right ;-)

Yes WELCOME to the hearth. Also very well put sonny.
 
Thanks everybody. I'm trying to see the problem within a larger picture... The only reason I'm in this jam is because I managed to buy my dream home this past year, not realizing I would even want firewood until it was too late to have any seasoned. If one winter of scrounging for wood is the price I pay for my sons to grow up with a few acres of woods, a nice sized pond, and a secluded location ... then so be it.
 
PM me, I have a neighbor with seasoned Ash rounds, a cord for around 200.00 I' will contact him and giv him your contact info if your interested. It's from a downed Ash tree we took down last year. I burned the rounds last season, so they are definetly ripe for this season. Dont hold me to the price.

Im located right across the river from Burlington NJ, right off 95 just north of philly.
 
I think EngineRep hit the nail on the head... BioBricks.

I had the same problem as you, my "seasoned" wood was not all that seasoned. 5 tons of BioBricks fit nicely stacked on pallets in the basement. My wood is all stacked and working on seasoning for next year...

As you are desperate for wood, paying a little more will get you out of the bind. I wouldn't wait; you don't want to run into a shortage there either.

That, and at least oil is no longer $5 a gallon (for now).
 
About the BioBricks ... I'm interested in that, but can't seem to locate any. I called the guy with the Biopellet.net web site yesterday. He said he had a supplier in South-eastern PA and to email for info. I emailed and haven't heard anything yet. It's been less than 24 hours so that could still be coming through.

I did find a place a few hours away that has a similar product for almost $300/ton. Wow. Expensive and there must be something closer.

What are some brands I should be looking for? Any tips of where to locate would be helpful.

Arlo, thanks. PMing now.
 
I can not look at the post because of the avatar
 
Yes, BioBricks are running $290 to $300 per "ton" right now in my area. They are a luxury for us wood burning folks, but with no wood to burn, it'll work for this year.

I have a couple CT resources that have stock... Nothing near NJ though.

You can PM the Bio folks, they are on this forum, at BioPellet .
 
Woohoo! Found a few white ash on my property after work today. I just got one cut down and one length cut off split just before sundown. We'll see how it burns tonight. This could be my answer.
 
Sure, see how it burns, but don't rush it for the rest of that wood - still wet, but maybe good for late winter/spring.

Decided to follow my own advice today (for a change) and went out back scrounging. Found a few of those 3-inch baby ash on the ground, still hard as nails, and a good size pine leaning dead - a bit damp, but should dry out if weather stays decent.

Only a few days worth of shoulder-season wood, but only a few hours work.
 
If its white ash I garuntee that it will burn nice. Or slap me upside the head and call me a gherkin.
 
Try going to your lumber yards for free pallets. Dunn Lumber here in Washington State has large piles of them you back up and load them. I use them for putting my wood on but one year when I was short for fire wood they worked well getting fire hot before using green wood. That was my last year buying wood. So many rip offs around here that come with wet wood leaving dry on top.

Now I take a tree down off my property and get it off craigslist.
 
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