CL Funny - Pine is so evil we need to warn others!!!

[Trues]

http://newjersey.craigslist.org/zip/4955271803.html

I saw this ad today on my local CL and thought it was funny enough to share. The opinion that pine cannot be burned inside any home runs rampant around here and educating those with that opinion (including my FIL) seems to be a lost cause.

 

[Lake Girl]

More for your use My sister and brother-in-law have the same opinion. They have a stand of lodge pole pine on their property that they just leave to rot...

 

[Seanm]

More for your use My sister and brother-in-law have the same opinion. They have a stand of lodge pole pine on their property that they just leave to rot...

Thats a shame as lodgepole is one of the higher btu pines. I burn several cords of it a year around here.

 

[Montanalocal]

Lodgepole is supposed to be the better pine, but I live in an area where Ponderosa is about the only pine.

I have burned it exclusively for many years, and it burns hot, fast and leaves little ash. I like it. Some of my stacks.

 

[Seanm]

Lodgepole is supposed to be the better pine, but I live in an area where Ponderosa is about the only pine.

I have burned it exclusively for many years, and it burns hot, fast and leaves little ash. I like it. Some of my stacks.

Nice looking stacks. I can see all the standing Ponderosas in your pictures. We dont have any Ponderosa within 40 minutes drive of us but we are surrounded by lodgepole, fir and larch. Ponderosa is still a decent pine to burn especially if you have access to lots of it! We would find it in the columbia valley where its a bit milder. From looking on a map of your state you are quite a ways south. Do you have any Larch in your area?

 

[Paulywalnut]

I did a little experiment. Two seasons ago I split an 18 inch round into 4 pieces. I put one chunk in back of my seat of my
Pickup truck. The aroma was amazing, and guys getting in my truck would comment, "wow what's that smell? " I told them and they gave me a weird look. Anyway the aroma went away and this winter being there two years I burned it in the stove. What a pleasant burn. A lot of crackle but plenty of heat and because of the size it lasted and hour or so with a nice blue flame. I'm putting aside pine now and I'll keep a cord or two for future burns. I'm sold on dry seasoned pine.

 

[BrotherBart]

Yep. Two years minimum and that stuff burns long and nice. With oak splits I get two hours a split. Not a hell a lot more than two year dried pine.

 

[coaly]

Deleted post on CL already. There's one that comes up regularly in NEPA that warns to call the police if anyone slips any pine in your firewood load. Quite a rant.

 

[ckitch]

I had a guy almost try to stop me from taking it when I told him I was going to burn it inside in a stove. He said it was for fire pits, or outdoor boilers only. I just kind of agreed, I didn't want to worry him, but he was really concerned!!

 

[weatherguy]

I've been burning pine for a month, I burn oak or sugar maple on the cold nights and throw a little pine in the morning for a shorter fire.

 

[JRHAWK9]

Last fall I c/s/s some live standing pine on stacked it on pallets and top covered. I noticed a day or two ago almost all of it now has sap oozing out from the cut ends. This is the first I have ever seen this behavior. I plan on letting it season a couple years before I burn it, but I don't remember the pine I cut down a few years ago doing this. Is this normal for pine to do this?

 

[Fred Wright]

What's the old saying... when nonsense is repeated often enough it eventually becomes accepted as fact.

 

[JRHAWK9]

What's the old saying... when nonsense is repeated often enough it eventually becomes accepted as fact.

got that right.......just look at religion/mythology! lol

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Say its not true ,i burn 90 % pine every year.

 

[Montanalocal]

Hi Seanm,

As to Larch around Helena, we do not have any, I wish we did. We are on the East side of the continental divide, and you have to get over on the west side around Missoula to run into Larch. We do have some Fir around, but nobody wants to cut it because it is in the minority, and is the only tree around that is resistant to the pine bark beetle. I have more dead Ponderosas within a half mile of my house than I could burn for the next ten years. One good thing, we have not seen any new infestations for several years now. We has a very unusual cold snap a few years ago that I think done em in.

 

[jatoxico]

Lodgepole is supposed to be the better pine, but I live in an area where Ponderosa is about the only pine.
I have burned it exclusively for many years, and it burns hot, fast and leaves little ash. I like it. Some of my stacks.

Really pretty area and nice looking stacks. That grass looks like it would burn hot and fast too!

 

[Montanalocal]

Some of the dead pine around my area.

 

[kennyp2339]

Pine is very EVIL - I have exclusively burned hardwoods for 4 seasons now, last week I finally came across a couple small loads of dry pine, since it was semi warm out I cleaned out the stove box, started a small fire using pine kindling. As the fire grew I added larger pieces (6" - 8" splits) I let that catch and then shut down the air and went to bed, all of this went down around 8 - 8:30 pm. I woke up in the morning and went to tend the stove, I noticed that my cat probe was halfway in the inactive zone, I opened my bypass grabbed my poker, opened the door as was astonished at what it saw. I saw nothing, literally nothing, there were no embers, no ash, it looked like I had just cleaned the fire box out. It was evil, I was robbed ..lolol

 

[Montanalocal]

Yea, pine is kind of funny that way. I can go for one to two months at a time before cleaning out my ashes. That is burning 24/7 during the winter. The down side to pine? You have to reload constantly.

 

[weatherguy]

Pine is very EVIL - I have exclusively burned hardwoods for 4 seasons now, last week I finally came across a couple small loads of dry pine, since it was semi warm out I cleaned out the stove box, started a small fire using pine kindling. As the fire grew I added larger pieces (6" - 8" splits) I let that catch and then shut down the air and went to bed, all of this went down around 8 - 8:30 pm. I woke up in the morning and went to tend the stove, I noticed that my cat probe was halfway in the inactive zone, I opened my bypass grabbed my poker, opened the door as was astonished at what it saw. I saw nothing, literally nothing, there were no embers, no ash, it looked like I had just cleaned the fire box out. It was evil, I was robbed ..lolol

If I want coals leftover I throw a couple small splits of oak or maple, usually at this time of the year I let it burn out in the day so I don't want coals.

 

[Seanm]

Hi Seanm,

As to Larch around Helena, we do not have any, I wish we did. We are on the East side of the continental divide, and you have to get over on the west side around Missoula to run into Larch. We do have some Fir around, but nobody wants to cut it because it is in the minority, and is the only tree around that is resistant to the pine bark beetle. I have more dead Ponderosas within a half mile of my house than I could burn for the next ten years. One good thing, we have not seen any new infestations for several years now. We has a very unusual cold snap a few years ago that I think done em in.

Yup by the look of those standing dead you will have wood for years! Ive noticed the same thing here regarding the pine beetle aka bark beetle. Several years ago all of a sudden there werent swaths of red trees in the summer. Now the ones from years past are rotting at the base and falling over with very few new reds around. I will be keeping a keen eye on it this year to see if they are back in any force. Hopefully we have won the war not just the battle. Ive been told by forestry that not only cold but rainy damp weather during their flight time will kill them off, also disease and aggressive forestry practices can be a factor.

 

[iamlucky13]

Last fall I c/s/s some live standing pine on stacked it on pallets and top covered. I noticed a day or two ago almost all of it now has sap oozing out from the cut ends. This is the first I have ever seen this behavior. I plan on letting it season a couple years before I burn it, but I don't remember the pine I cut down a few years ago doing this. Is this normal for pine to do this?

Very normal. Different pieces of pine end up with different amounts of sap, even within the same tree. I think in part it relates to stress the tree experiences while standing, but I don't know all that affects it. It can ooze out as the wood expands and contracts with day and night heating as it seasons.

It doesn't need extra seasoning compared to other wood to get below 20% moisture. Sap is gooey when warm naturally, not because it has excess water in it. The only thing to keep in mind is the sap will burn fast and hot, so it's good for starting a fire, but can lead to overfiring if you burn a big load of high sap wood.

 

[Montanalocal]

Re: rotting at the base and falling over

Yes, mine are doing that and a lot more of them blew down this last winter. It is getting to the point I am leery of going out into the woods when there is high gusty winds. The other thing I have taken to doing when I am under a lot of stand dead is wearing a hard hat, especially when felling. There are dead limbs that have detached and are balanced on other limbs, and there is the possibility when felling that they can become dislodged when the tree just starts to tip and come straight down. Not good.

 

[Lake Girl]

I noticed a day or two ago almost all of it now has sap oozing out from the cut ends. This is the first I have ever seen this behavior.

Would it be due to time of year the pine was cut or amount of precipitation just prior to cut?

 

[onetracker]

I dropped 6-7 big eastern white pine (widowmakers) near my house 2 years ago. I split and stack as much as i have time and energy for and let them cook for the entire summer top-covered and by late sept they're dry as a bone. some of them hold on to water or have lots of sap...you can tell by the weight. i throw those off to the side for the firepit. i hate to burn 2-3 seasoned hardwood in the shoulder season. since I've been burning pine I've saved about 1 cord of hardwood per year. i can live with that.