HUGE Score, wood ident help?

This is my first year burning but last year I did buy a tri-axle a year in advance and my wood is burning awesome this year (when it’s cold enough to burn…). That said, I was about to do the same shortly but this year funds have been tight because of the economy and I was considering waiting till tax season but knew I’d be a few months behind.

This past Friday I let the dog out at lunch time as I work from home and heard an odd but familiar sound for my neighborhood, chainsaws??? I followed the great sound and found out a neighbor one house over was taking down FOUR trees I believe these are red oak, but I’d appreciate the help. There was another group that was supposed to take wood the next day but I know them pretty well and they said I could take as much as I wanted also. The other group had taken one tree already, down to the 40” stump.

Being by my self I couldn’t do that, so I was smart about it. They are a military family and they said I could start as early as I wanted the next day once the tree guys had departed or as long as I was out of their way. So there I was at 7am sharp loading and by 8am I had the chainsaw running much to my other neighbors dismay I’m sure. I got most of the easy stuff and left the rest for the other guys, I probably would have taken the other stuff but really there was no way to lift it and I had plenty. There is still one more tree to go and I’m taking off early at 3pm to get the rest of the wood in the smaller form. I’m sure the other guys love me, but you know the saying, early bird gets the worm, or in this case the easier to process wood…

Am I correct, is this Red Oak? Secondly, I plan to split it smaller than usual and line it in one row with full sun exposure and in an area that gets a ton of wind. Do you think it will be ok to burn next year if I process in the next 2 months? My buck seams to still burn semi-seasoned wood pretty well. Currently when split it was in the 25-30% range. The one picture is of the last tree standing.

Closeup...

Last tree...

Jeb1heat said:

Nice stack.

Most people here say a full two years for the oak. Obviously the more the better, but I have had good success burning oak at one year that was stored in a location with wind and sun.

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Thanks, I'd like to get ahead and may have some left over depending on how my first year goes. Last years wood was a solid mix of hardwoods, seems to be burning really well though, right around 10-15% moisture. With a 7 month old and 3 year old though it's been tough to get time since we're also doing some remodeling!

Thanks everyone for the confirmation on the Red Oak.

I'd like to burn this in two years but I just got through explaining to my wife last year why our wood had to "season" for one year before burning and not be stacked in our shed but outside.... Now if I have 5 cords seasoning for 2 years and try to buy or scrounge for another year and have to put that somewhere on our property, I can see some fun conversations ahead. Luckily I learned from last year and stacked this much neater and she liked the appearance of it. I think I'll just make it a "fence" around 2 sides of our property, that might look cool.

Papadave: Noticed the "Husky 455 Rancher", I have the same one and I agree on the heft... Hopefully things will turn around for business and I can justify spending the money saved next spring on a MS260 or something similar (not to change subjects to saw talk...

fredarm said:

Was it standing dead or green when cut? If dead, it will season more quickly, the top of the tree sooner than the bottom.

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This was live, most of the stuff I took was from further up the tree, nothing was from the main trunks.

Backwoods Savage said:

BurnerMM said:

Thanks everyone for the confirmation on the Red Oak.

I'd like to burn this in two years but I just got through explaining to my wife last year why our wood had to "season" for one year before burning and not be stacked in our shed but outside.... Now if I have 5 cords seasoning for 2 years and try to buy or scrounge for another year and have to put that somewhere on our property, I can see some fun conversations ahead. Luckily I learned from last year and stacked this much neater and she liked the appearance of it. I think I'll just make it a "fence" around 2 sides of our property, that might look cool.

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Hey, tell her you know of a couple of folks here on hearth.com who have much more than that. I had about 24 cords before starting this heating season. Eric Johnson had well over 40 cords a couple years ago.

Also tell her that by burning well-seasoned wood that you get more heat from the wood which also reduces the amount of work needed to put up a year's supply.

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Have told her that but I have a couple problems:

1) She's an Interior Designer, not just the normal wife who thinks she's one, but rather the full deal w/ prior work in Chicago... Therefore what everything looks like in our house/yard is important to her.
2) I "only" have an acre lot and live in a neighborhood. This results in only one path through my front yard for my truck to go through to get to the back yard (read: truck tracks in yard)and only a limited area where it looks decent to stack wood. (see number one)

I might be able to get away with about 10 cords total, so 2 years of wood, but it will need to look nice. Has anyone ever built a fence with firewood? I'd like see a picture. I was thinking of putting post every 8 feet and making them four foot high, nice easy calculation and no worries if they fall over and hurt someone (or less worries).

golfandwoodnut said:

I agree with the HH. If you want Exterior Design Beauty you can't beat them. And you can store a ton in a small footprint, solves both your problems. You can see mine on the image.

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I'll have to look into making one/two maybe. Only problem is my lawn slopes gently and it could make it more complicated. I hate restacking and can't imagine that much wood falling over

Reading your signature I see you're near Pittsburgh too. That simularity, burning, and golf could get us into trouble since you're close by.... I'm in Chippewa, PA.

Backwoods Savage said:

No fence but even though I hadn't yet cleaned up the stacks are not ugly (at least to me they are not). Done simple. I cut saplings to 8' length; 2 saplings per row. Splitting I intentionally split some wood in squares or rectangles and these get used on the ends of the stacks. A lot of rows, the ends are filled with kindling just to fill the holes and it is also a good way to dry kindling.

EDIT: I should add that those stacks are now covered with old galvanized roofing. I did that just this past weekend. The sides and ends will not be covered and that wood will not be burned for another 4-5 years.

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Those look nice.

I just got the go ahead on my wood fence. I'm going to put the posts in the ground this weekend before the ground is too hard/frozen. Will update with progress as things proceed over the next couple months...

golfandwoodnut said:

Slope is not a problem, mine is on one too and there is a post going on now about building a HH on slope. If you build them right, alot stronger than rows. But I like rows too. By the way I golf at Seven Oaks, just outside Chippewa.

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I think I'm going to try to to a fence then if I can get more wood build a HH in a corner with another row going along the other edge of the yard.

Seven Oaks is nice but difficult from what I've heard. Havne't gone there yet but my Aunt was a member quite a while back before her first husband passed away. I only started golfing last year and took some lessons this year, doing OK and can almost break 85ish on a good day. I mostly golf Rolling Acres.