Seasoned wood...... Nobody cares

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fishki

fishki

Member
Jan 5, 2017
225
SE Kansas
So after upgrading my little alaskan mill to a full fledged bandsaw mill I now have more damn firewood than I will need in 20 years. Not letting any of the tree go to waste, whatever I don't mill I cut and split for firewood which I intend to start selling once it is seasoned.... yeah right.

Apparently I don't need to let it season, its green and dripping water, who cares, people want to buy it anyway, even after I explain it is not ready to burn they look at me like I'm stupid.

It's wood right? Wood burns right? So whats the problem? Ugh...

Even all the barky cutoffs from the mill that I load on the trailer to haul off that wont make decent firewood I get people stopping in and wanting it for firewood, fine take it, saves me from having to haul it off.

Last week I milled out some 5/4 x 12 white oak for a guy, he wanted to buy it green off the mill, no problem, I made money. The very next day a guy pulls in and wants the scraps for firewood, at this point I no longer care, fine 20 bucks, clean it up and leave.

I'm pretty sure they have to use a couple gallons of diesel to get their fire going. Who knows.

I would really hate to see these peoples fireplaces/stoves/chimneys.
 
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I have trouble explaining the concept of seasoned wood to some family and friends. No-one seems to fully understand that it takes a year minimum being C/S/S and kept dry... I have one family member that asks me for some of my green wood every time there is a blizzard and the power goes out. I've explained multiple times that it's not ready, it'll just hiss and not produce much heat. It's frustrating but whatever
 
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BIGChrisNH said:
I have trouble explaining the concept of seasoned wood to some family and friends. No-one seems to fully understand that it takes a year minimum being C/S/S and kept dry... I have one family member that asks me for some of my green wood every time there is a blizzard and the power goes out. I've explained multiple times that it's not ready, it'll just hiss and not produce much heat. It's frustrating but whatever
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Same here, and it is frustrating. I'm in a large rural county with a lot of poor areas and I see obvious smoke out of maybe 75% or more of the chimneys I see driving around. Probably because the same old stoves or open fireplaces have been in use for generations and owners see no reason to change old habits including burning green wood. It still scares me to see a 100-year-old un-maintained house with smoke coming out of a rusty metal chimney.

But one can only do so much. I'll nicely talk to friends and family about the subject where it's appropriate but at some point you have to let it go. Stubbornness is quite a human characteristic. My favorite success story, though, is one of my sisters. She finally bought a good free-standing EPA stove and understands the importance of dry wood. Fortunately, she lives on enough space to season a couple of years worth. Those in the suburbs or city have a much more serious problem. My other sister is in Seattle with an open fireplace and knows that it is only useful for ambiance fires with compressed logs or sometimes grocery store bundles, and even then she makes sure they are dry ones. Smart.
 
You cant fix stupid ;), you can try but its mostly frustrating for you.
 
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I've taken the step of cutting up two big red oaks that came down at this same family members house, halving or quartering the really big rounds and putting it up on pallets under their deck. They know the rest, it's up to them now ...
 
I almost felt guilt about selling unseasoned firewood, some people get it, others don't. Guess I just don't care anymore. I will sell whatever I have.

Mojappa said:
Are they expressing that they’re going to use it now? Could be gathering cheap green wood to stock up and stay ahead.
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Yes, they are burning it now, or at least trying to.

Ctwoodtick said:
But just don’t burn pine! Man that would really be stupid! Lol.
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If I had pine around here I would sell it too at this point.
 
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ValleyCottageSplitter said:
I see so many CL posts: "Pine logs: for outdoor fire pits only"
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I had a tree service drop a big pine for me once. I kept it simple and said to buck it up fro use in my “fire pit”. No sense in beginning a pointless conversation about pine with him.
 
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I like pine. I mix it in my stove throughout the entire burning season. Starts super fast, makes great kindling, burns hot and fierce. Dries quick too. I must be one of the crazy ones
 
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It is shoulder time. Time for those quick morning and evening quick fires WITH softwoods ( don't call all softwoods "pine" ). For quick warm butts nothing does it like softwoods: fir, spruces, cedar, and yes, White Pine. Alder/Aspen considered a "soft" hardwood.
This is from the Burn Safe Association. !!!
 
Got to love the CL ads now everyone is selling seasoned wood- I just don't know what particular types of seasonings they are using on the wood. They sure have not varied their cut it today, split tomorrow and sell on the 3rd day operations. Just for grins I bought one of those bundles from the store ( about 5 sticks in it- purpose was to check moisture ( big note on label kiln treated DNR approved for camp fires) 30% is what my meter read. So the kiln part is just bug treatment. Size was .7 cf, apx 164 of those from a cord at $6 a pop- figure the supplier is getting $3 net so around $500 a cord. It is a convenience thing for the suburbanites.
 
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Ctwoodtick said:
But just don’t burn pine! Man that would really be stupid! Lol.
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I just had this discussion again. My wife’s cousin bought a house and is clearing an area for a live deer pen which has some locust and white pine. He doesn’t currently have a stove but is looking to get a smaller one for next season. His brother, who doesn’t burn at all and his buddy who does were helping him take the trees down. When I suggested to c/s/s the pine and stack it separately they went on a rant how you can’t burn pine indoors and that I was crazy. I told him do what you want, but I burn plenty of it indoors after it’s seasoned, and have for years. I also pointed out the fact that some only have various species of pine to burn and somehow they seem to not burn their houses down also. I think he is on board with my opinion. I also suggested he join here so he can learn like I have
 
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