Crossing my fingers

Taking a look at a Craigslist posting of free wood....said it was easy to get to...downed elm.

Called the owner said I can drive right up to them and take what I can. Going to take a look today and if it works out, start cutting Thanksgiving morning so I can get back in time for some football.

Wish me luck!

Good luck, I'm drooling over this score I couldn't possibly get to:
http://maine.craigslist.org/zip/3422558075.html

Good luck, brother. Get some rest the night before, that way you can kick ass and make a good haul out of it!

Remember, we LOVE pictures on here........help satisfy our cravings for pics!!

Honestly I'm surprised someone hasn't been all over that by now . . . since many folks are cutting, splitting and then burning that wood right now . . . for worse or for "worser."

Schlot, don't forget the relatives and the turkey

Got that covered....my sister does Thanksgiving for the whole family on Saturday. I just have to make some pumpkin bread and a cheescake.

Hopefully that Elm is debarked & dead.You will need all the luck in the world if it's American Elm with the bark still attached.

You are saying this because of the splitting?

Took a look at the site, and will post a few pictures in a little bit. But there is a lot...A LOT of trees to work. All freshly cut and easy to get to. 99% sure it's American Elm.

Schlot, he is definitely saying elm can be a bear to split. But if it is down and dead it might be okay. We cut quite a bit of elm and wait until it is dead and the bark off or mostly off. This way it splits decently rather than all stringy. If you have to split it and it is all stringy, that does not make good firewood but does make some kindling; big kindling. We simply won't cut a live elm nor would I want one that grew in a fencerow as it would no doubt be a twisted grain and therefore extremely hard to split even if dead.

can't we just shoot it and make it dead?

Have I mentioned I hate dealing with ELM????!!

Ray

Here is a picture of it the site and closeups of the wood.



I had good luck splitting some elm with the FIL's splitter. I know what you mean about it getting stringy though.

I looked up American Elm and it had decent BTU's. Are you saying if it's split and gets too stringy it won't keep burning too well?

Obviously the site had a lot of BTU's for the taking, but I don't want to come back with a bunch of junk either.

schlot are you certain that is Elm? Looks much different than the American Elm I dealt with..

Ray

I have split elm by hand - it is difficult but not impossible. I remember having to resort to the sledge hammer and wedges to halve the pieces, then from there using the maul. It did make me miss the oak I usually work on though!

Well my 99% doesn't mean too much since I'm a newbie, but it was very similar to the wood I split and got IDed by the state forester a few months ago.

Do you think it's a different Elm or something else?

The Elm I had was nearly white wood and would not split so I ripped all of it with a chainsaw.. Hope some more knowledgeable people chime in on this..

Ray

I know the stuff that looked like that I split was fairly stingy, and I was glad I had the splitter when I got through, but they were reddish like this.

Get all the wood you can ! Folks are always looking on CL.

Well, made a run this morning to cut some of of the CL scrounge. Doesn't seem to be a popular wood with a lot of people, but I figure it's easy and free BTU's.Plenty more than this, but had to come back to help my FIL do some roofing.