Am I Going to Like.... Whatever This Stuff Is?

[williaty]

A new road is going through near me and they clearcut the woods last week. Each night, I'd been attacking the log pile after the crews knocked off for the night. Drove my John Deere 1023e down the main road followed by my wife with our little Subaru wagon pulling a trailer. Tow limit on the car is 2,000lbs but some back of the envelope math says some of the loads were upwards of 3,500lbs... plus the weight of the trailer! She said it did make it a little dicey getting it started moving with the race flywheel and clutch in it My best estimate is that I now have around 18,000 pounds of wood (based on maxing out the lift capacity on each log and counting the number of logs per trailer) sitting in my driveway. I recognize a couple of the logs as maple and 2 of them as ash. However, the biggest tree is something I don't recognize. 90% of the pile came from a single tree that was over 60" diameter at the base. Took them 4 days to get it all down to the ground. When you hit the end of it with a hammer, it sounds and feels like rock maple, but I'm used to seeing smooth gray bark on a maple, not this broken up stuff. I have a closeup of the bark and of the end of one of the logs:







This is what my driveway looked like about 2 days before I stopped (due to lack of any more room). The pile in front of the camera is about twice that high and a little wider now and you can't even see the second (larger) pile in the background.




Now I have to cut, split, and stack all of this and I don't even have a stove yet (hopefully next spring)!

 

[NewHarmanOwner]

Looks like Silver Maple to me.

 

[gzecc]

x2

 

[Ash]

Props to you for getting some wood before a stove. So many people get a stove in the fall, then start looking for wood and struggle and become frustrated when trying to burn wet wood. Get that stuff split and smile every time you walk by it cuz you'll enjoy it next year.

 

[BenTN]

whatever it is, Great Score.

i am in the same boat as you, working wood before stove purchase. i have 7 cords of ash, oak and hickory stacked and working more. a little more than i can burn camping, but i enjoy the work and time outside. maybe i'll have my woodburner by next year.

 

[williaty]

Looks like Silver Maple to me.

So silver maple is just one of the many variations of non-hard maple? How is it for drying and then for burning?

 

[Ash]

So silver maple is just one of the many variations of non-hard maple? How is it for drying and then for burning?

Well I'm not so sure its silver maple but silver maple dries quick and burns excellent but not quite as long as many hardwoods.

 

[NewHarmanOwner]

So silver maple is just one of the many variations of non-hard maple? How is it for drying and then for burning?

With sun,, open space and good airflow, you're good to go in a year easily. It burns well and hot, does last as long as oak, but it is very good wood. Get more if you can. I got a few cords saved up already.

 

[Oldman47]

The bark looks sort of like sugar maple to me.

 

[MaintenanceMan]

It'll burn better than a snowball......

 

[FaithfulWoodsman]

Deff could be silver. I have some that I got this past spring. 18-23% right now. So it can dry relatively quick. It burns decent especially for shoulder season.

 

[johneh]

X2 on the sugar maple
Identify Sugar Maple Trees Step 7
Look for brown, furrowed bark. The bark of sugar maple trees changes color as it ages, from a grayish-brown to a dark brown. It is characterized by vertical grooves that are closely spaced. The edges of the plates gradually lift as a sugar maple gets older, and the plates flake away from top to bottom once the tree has reached ample

 

[tigeroak]

I burn about 2 cords of this every year and it is soft maple. I like it a lot puts out enough heat for me to use down to 0 or lower then use the hard woods for over night. 100 % Soft maple.

 

[tigeroak]

Forgot to say I dry mine for 2 years but one will do but 2 is better.

 

[williaty]

We have ~2 cords split and stacked since Spring 2015. Since most of it is ash, I'm hoping that'll get us through our first year of heating (starting Fall of 2016) and be dry enough by that time. This stuff, I hope to have split and stacked by early Winter 2016 to burn starting Fall of 2017. If we start burning faster than our stash will last for Winter 2016-17, I'll have to supplement with EcoBricks or something. That would also cause me to put some of the stuff we cut Winter-Spring 2016 into the stack for Fall 2017. I realize I'll be cutting it close on all of this, only giving things 18 months to dry out, but it's the best I can do for now. Hopefully, we'll be able to stack faster than we burn to get up to a solid 2-3 years ready reserve so stuff is good and dry.

 

[tigeroak]

Get the maple in the picture split and stacked and you could use it for next year too. I like it after 2 but it will be good to go in one.

 

[Pennsyltucky Chris]

Maple. You split it this winter, it will burn fine next winter.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

So silver maple is just one of the many variations of non-hard maple? How is it for drying and then for burning?

Silver maple dries in a year if stacked properly, it gives off nice heat but burns faster than most.......IMO.....

 

[heavy hammer]

Looks like a silver maple you will like it nice heat dries quick awesome score remember free wood is almost never bad keep it dry and you will see

 

[CentralVAWoodHeat]

Wood like that is a great score but make sure you have the permission of the landowner or state/local who owns that area you are gathering wood from.