Old Dead Oak Tree

Thought this may be one of those dead ready to burn Oaks I hear about well it ain't and the land owner said it has been dead about 10 yrs and that big branch fell down about 3 yrs ago so I started on it. The bigger stuff water ran out of it when I hit it with the hyd. splitter.
So it will get stacked with the rest of the Oak and wait its turn.

Good lookin' stuff.Will be great in a couple years.

Nice score i am finding out my self first hand that red needs at least 3 year stacked to be ready to burn.

Nice size Oak, what type is it?

zap

In the Red Oak group,guessing its a Southern Red.Very hard to tell them apart without leaves,bark,acorns or a microscope on the end grain.

Great score!

nice score cpt- sorry to hear it didn't give ya that
'bowling pin" sound. 37%...wow

37% for oak means the seasoning process has started, it just depends on how you want to look at it. If it was alive it would peg the meter. Either way it looks like a great score!

I have got several like that, but I dont have the back to mess with it right now.... They are monsters and lost them all in the past 3yrs....

Don't know for sure- not white, red or chestnut- I was going to ask here my guess is Live Oak

Thats from one of the smaller 8" branches water ran out of the others- my meter only goes to 40- 37 or 38 is as high as it ever reads

Not on my place but that broken off branch is big as a tree I probably wont tackle the rest of it. My back is killing me now and today I just brought home 1 load which I split right there and bring 1/3 cord home at a time. I was going to put some sideboards on truck to haul a little more but, thats good for now, I am usually wore out.

Nice demo of how standing dead don't always mean it's ready to burn.
Starts to season after CSS, oak - 2 years + depending on weather & climate.

Good work cpt.,
Ibuprofen Doc says I can take 800 mg, take with food.

I am with Rdust though.......it has started breaking down and once split and stacked that process goes faster again

Nice score Capt........you've proven what's been said all along, that even alot of the dead trees need time to season before burning. That stuff will be good to go in two or three years, and its well worth the wait if you ask me. I got a huge.oak to do myself that blew over on my neighbors' property. I'll save that one for winter.

Dont forget buds, twigs, and leaf scars!!

I knew a few of them but did not do so well on the twig test in school. Now i have forgot everything that i knew about them.

I did get A's on all the quizes and tests though. We had to learn something like 140-160 tree species in Dendrology!! 10 years later i can mostly identify the trees in this state common and uncommon. With latin names for about half (we had to know genus species and family and common name for all those trees and once you had it it was fair game on the future tests!). I am good on most of the oaks though with leaves!! Scarlet and N red can give trouble if you cant get to the leaves...

I agree that a dead Oak will dry after c/s/s faster than green one. This tree was getting punky from bark inwards as all dead Oaks that I have cut do.

Actually, the split doesn't tell the whole story. The parts which MIGHT be ready to burn would be too small to need splitting.

Give it about 6 months then split one of the pieces you just got and recheck it. I have found stuff that is dead standing tends to dry a lot quicker than something that was living and cut. Sometimes I have found stuff like you were showing that was ready for burning after about 3 months of being split. I know it isn't always the case but it's worth a shot.

Yea I cut some Bur Oak that had been logged out and had laid there for 7 years or so, MM read OL which is 42% and by the end of one summer some 6 inch splits were about 20%.

Good I will check it out next October and see what it reads, I don't need it now anyway.

My eyes arent good enough to differentiate between various buds,twigs & leaf scars.

You can use your sniffer for most oaks. Red oak smells like nasty vinegary crap, while white oaks smell vanilla-ish.....

Nah man. Red/Black Oak (when green or very wet) smells like a cross between mouldy Provolone,Limburger & my feet after a 12 hour day wearing boots in August. White Oak does have that wonderful vanilla/caramel scent,like inside a whisky barrel however.

Not that I'd ever want to smell your feet, Thistle!!