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.