Anyone feel different towards burning due to over ash firewood supply?

[kennyp2339]

Hello all, this is a bit of a rant but I was thinking about the situation I'm in / came across, the ash borer has since gone through my area and I have more dead ash tree'e then I know what to do with, I've been whacking them down and splitting them up but every time I look into the woods I can easily find another 5 large trees dead standing. I knew this was going to happen eventually but now that I'm here and seeing this, its kind of changed my whole thought process of firewood in general.
I use to gather "scores" of wood, whether is was answering a market place ad, finding something along the road, or my work looking for a place to dump logs, I never had an issue with collecting wood supply, but it felt special to me to gather, split, stack and burn it, now that my supply is literally in my backyard and I have so much that I know that some will just rot away I dont feel as connected to the whole wood burning cycle. I want to get it all, but I just feel mechanical to it all at the same time, I use to challenge myself with split size, burn times, stove efficiency ect... now it just feels like I want to, or need to just go through it all as fast as I can and let her rip, idk if anyone else feels like this, or maybe I'm just disconnected from the whole process of things.

 

[GG Woody]

I let about 12 Douglas Fir trees stand too long, they've gone too rotten, they are under 150yds from the wood pile. I'm kicking myself (gently) for that.
I get how you're feeling, but I'm now travelling well past those 12 trees to procure trees. I should have stacked those somewhere years ago. Now I'll still have to clean some of them up when they inevitably fall on my trails!
I have high efficiency furnace and heat pump, it's no fun.
Fortunately there are plenty more trees in the forest, I'll get them when I can.

 

[mpaul]

As long as the wood is cut split stacked and covered off the ground you should be able to burn the wood decades from now. If you have the space to store it properly why not do so? Otherwise cut it down and sell it.

 

[Eman85]

Read up on the oak blight, keep on burning.

 

[crstrode]

Here at the southerner extent of the Selkirks, it is pine beetles that have been killing Ponderosas. Over in the past year, six mature trees have died and were taken down at significant cost. In the 8 years since moving onto this little 2-acre lot, about 50 trees have been removed. The first 30 were hauled away - then I wised up and installed a Blaze King insert in the basement. The last tree to come down yielded about 4 cords of nice firewood. Best move I've made in many years

 

[qwee]

I heard something about new Ash trees that have modified genes that allow them to kill Ash Borers Disease. These new Ash trees are not tested enough yet to release them to the public. If all goes well these trees will become available to everyone. If so, you should replant your forest with these resistant trees. Ash may be coming back.

 

[Mutineer]

I sold most all of my ash starting 10-12 or so years ago when they started dying, there were plenty of buyers here in NE Ohio looking for already split hardwood. I don't like burning ash because it leaves more ash than other hardwoods. I did sell it too cheap but I wasn't looking to get rich, just recover my costs and maybe have enough to buy some more chainsaws, chains or a new engine for my splitter, Most of what I sold was for what is improperly called a facecord for $60, the people were very appreciative and several kept checking back with me for any new supply. Still have a couple standing dead in my woods that I need to get cut down before they rot, but the older I get, the less the incentive is to use some of my dwindling spare energy and time for that vs building up my own stacks with maples, oaks and occasionally hickory. And it's a cash business so Uncle Sam wasn't on the need to know list of the cash flow totals.

 

[bholler]

Hello all, this is a bit of a rant but I was thinking about the situation I'm in / came across, the ash borer has since gone through my area and I have more dead ash tree'e then I know what to do with, I've been whacking them down and splitting them up but every time I look into the woods I can easily find another 5 large trees dead standing. I knew this was going to happen eventually but now that I'm here and seeing this, its kind of changed my whole thought process of firewood in general.
I use to gather "scores" of wood, whether is was answering a market place ad, finding something along the road, or my work looking for a place to dump logs, I never had an issue with collecting wood supply, but it felt special to me to gather, split, stack and burn it, now that my supply is literally in my backyard and I have so much that I know that some will just rot away I dont feel as connected to the whole wood burning cycle. I want to get it all, but I just feel mechanical to it all at the same time, I use to challenge myself with split size, burn times, stove efficiency ect... now it just feels like I want to, or need to just go through it all as fast as I can and let her rip, idk if anyone else feels like this, or maybe I'm just disconnected from the whole process of things.

The ash is all gone here. Either cut or rotted away by now it's really sad

 

[Max W]

Hello all, this is a bit of a rant but I was thinking about the situation I'm in / came across, the ash borer has since gone through my area and I have more dead ash tree'e then I know what to do with, I've been whacking them down and splitting them up but every time I look into the woods I can easily find another 5 large trees dead standing. I knew this was going to happen eventually but now that I'm here and seeing this, its kind of changed my whole thought process of firewood in general.
I use to gather "scores" of wood, whether is was answering a market place ad, finding something along the road, or my work looking for a place to dump logs, I never had an issue with collecting wood supply, but it felt special to me to gather, split, stack and burn it, now that my supply is literally in my backyard and I have so much that I know that some will just rot away I dont feel as connected to the whole wood burning cycle. I want to get it all, but I just feel mechanical to it all at the same time, I use to challenge myself with split size, burn times, stove efficiency ect... now it just feels like I want to, or need to just go through it all as fast as I can and let her rip, idk if anyone else feels like this, or maybe I'm just disconnected from the whole process of things.

Sounds like it’s gone from a hobby to a job

 

[Gearhead660]

Hello all, this is a bit of a rant but I was thinking about the situation I'm in / came across, the ash borer has since gone through my area and I have more dead ash tree'e then I know what to do with, I've been whacking them down and splitting them up but every time I look into the woods I can easily find another 5 large trees dead standing. I knew this was going to happen eventually but now that I'm here and seeing this, its kind of changed my whole thought process of firewood in general.
I use to gather "scores" of wood, whether is was answering a market place ad, finding something along the road, or my work looking for a place to dump logs, I never had an issue with collecting wood supply, but it felt special to me to gather, split, stack and burn it, now that my supply is literally in my backyard and I have so much that I know that some will just rot away I dont feel as connected to the whole wood burning cycle. I want to get it all, but I just feel mechanical to it all at the same time, I use to challenge myself with split size, burn times, stove efficiency ect... now it just feels like I want to, or need to just go through it all as fast as I can and let her rip, idk if anyone else feels like this, or maybe I'm just disconnected from the whole process of things.

Same situation here. Went from famine to feast. Got a place to cut now with more wood than I can use. Running out of room to store. I enjoy the gathering process and don't want to stop, so I have started looking for people that need firewood and will give to them.

 

[BKVP]

Unfortunately my new farm only has 3 medium and one massive black locust trees. Lots of weeds, gophers and badgers, sadly no trees. But I did add a pond!

 

[Wisco Shepherd]

Same situation here. Went from famine to feast. Got a place to cut now with more wood than I can use. Running out of room to store. I enjoy the gathering process and don't want to stop, so I have started looking for people that need firewood and will give to them.

Nice way to give back to folks, or barter I have traded wood with folks in the past for tools, skid steer projects, petsitting..................

 

[marty319]

I don't think there is a pine tree alive in my area anymore.pine beetle killed every tree.im very worried about a fire coming through here after what happened in Jasper alberta and other areas.

 

[mcdougy]

Enjoy the ease of processing ash, you will never have too much. There isn't a faster tree to process from standing to split in my opinion. Mine are all gone, wish I had another 100 of them to process. Loved splitting them up with the fiskars amd really enjoyed how much I could make over a weekend.

 

[30WCF]

Store it for a rainy day. Ya never know when you’ll get hurt and can’t process wood for a year. As I get older I get hurt easier and move slower. But likewise, I usually see more free and easily snatched wood that you can drive the truck up to than I want to bother with picking up.

I have a couple nice pines and oaks in mind to work over this winter. I mean, I can hit the downed trees with my truck easy to pick up.

 

[Dieselhead]

Store it for a rainy day. Ya never know when you’ll get hurt and can’t process wood for a year. As I get older I get hurt easier and move slower. But likewise, I usually see more free and easily snatched wood that you can drive the truck up to than I want to bother with picking up.

I have a couple nice pines and oaks in mind to work over this winter. I mean, I can hit the downed trees with my truck easy to pick up.

Wise advice! I’ve had a couple of those years.

 

[johneh]

I have a 220-acre forest of sugar maple red Oak, White Ash
and a sprinkling of beach white birch. and some softwood pine,
cedar and spruce. We have been harvesting the Ash as it dies from
Ash borror. We can not use all that we have on hand now so it
is stored in a drive a shead piled on old cedar rails We figure that
the shead can hold 100 cut and split cords (not near full yet)
The only other wood we are taking now is anything dead or
dying or wind-damaged

 

[MongoMongoson]

Enjoy the ease of processing ash, you will never have too much. There isn't a faster tree to process from standing to split in my opinion. Mine are all gone, wish I had another 100 of them to process. Loved splitting them up with the fiskars amd really enjoyed how much I could make over a weekend.

Ash from the woods splits great. I have gotten some nasty, gnarly,, huge yard trees since the EAB arrived here and those can be a real stringy mess to split. Of course those are the real monster logs, too, so not only are they a stringy mess but they are hard to even move around until they are split.

 

[mcdougy]

Ash from the woods splits great. I have gotten some nasty, gnarly,, huge yard trees since the EAB arrived here and those can be a real stringy mess to split. Of course those are the real monster logs, too, so not only are they a stringy mess but they are hard to even move around until they are split.

I would wait until they are frozen rounds...it might help a bit or a bunch. Yes I was definitely referring to ash trees from our woodlot. The eab ends up removing most of the branches and your left with a log that takes no time to clean and make rounds. I try to cut the mass majority of my firewood when temps have been below freezing. Most rounds make a split with each strike of the axe. Yard trees can suk, and take the fun and ambition from me quickly. Twisted , knotty tons of limbs all make it much more work for sure.

 

[CatfishHunter]

I think that you should have lots of bonfires with the less-desirable wood. You can also offer firewood to neighbors or friends.

We have a hermit that lives close to us. In the middle of the night he will roam the neighborhoods looking for fallen branches that he can burn in his tiny hovel to keep warm over the winter. A few times I have brought him pine when I took down a dead tree but wasn't going to be able to use all of the wood. He appreciated having a stable heating supply.

 

[bigealta]

Hello all, this is a bit of a rant but I was thinking about the situation I'm in / came across, the ash borer has since gone through my area and I have more dead ash tree'e then I know what to do with, I've been whacking them down and splitting them up but every time I look into the woods I can easily find another 5 large trees dead standing. I knew this was going to happen eventually but now that I'm here and seeing this, its kind of changed my whole thought process of firewood in general.
I use to gather "scores" of wood, whether is was answering a market place ad, finding something along the road, or my work looking for a place to dump logs, I never had an issue with collecting wood supply, but it felt special to me to gather, split, stack and burn it, now that my supply is literally in my backyard and I have so much that I know that some will just rot away I dont feel as connected to the whole wood burning cycle. I want to get it all, but I just feel mechanical to it all at the same time, I use to challenge myself with split size, burn times, stove efficiency ect... now it just feels like I want to, or need to just go through it all as fast as I can and let her rip, idk if anyone else feels like this, or maybe I'm just disconnected from the whole process of things.

I'd look at it completely differently. It's a windfall. Take it at your leisure. No more facebook, street poaching bs. Access is so huge for me, anything that easy is too good to ask for. U r really lucky now and soon enough the "endless" supply will be gone. Then u will be pissed that you let so much go if you don't get it.

I'd feel much more connected to the wood cycle you mention. You are also killing 2 or 3 birds with 1 stone. Getting wood, cleaning up the woods and possibly burning the borers or eggs?

Anyway that's how i'd see it.

 

[bigealta]

I like running the power saw. You can add to the fun by trying different felling cuts and techniques. Dropping the big ones on a cup placed way out. Plunge cutting leaners and releasing the back trigger. H Hinge cutting. Humbolt notch etc.

Or just fine tuning your hinges and reading them to see how you can improve your cuts. There is a lot going on when felling and the more you know, the more you realize how much you don't know.

Happy and Safe cutting.

 

[Wisco Shepherd]

I think that you should have lots of bonfires with the less-desirable wood. You can also offer firewood to neighbors or friends.

We have a hermit that lives close to us. In the middle of the night he will roam the neighborhoods looking for fallen branches that he can burn in his tiny hovel to keep warm over the winter. A few times I have brought him pine when I took down a dead tree but wasn't going to be able to use all of the wood. He appreciated having a stable heating supply.

Always befriend the local hermit

 

[CatfishHunter]

It worked well for Luke Skywalker, less so for the hermit...

 

[Woody5506]

On the contrary that's kind of the situation I wish I had. I'm "over" trying to scrounge wood - CL ads are few and far between as most just sends up on FB marketplace, but the way FB organizes all those ads is pretty irritating and it's easy to not see a new ad for about a week....by which point that wood is long gone. I do have a neighbor who will drop free log loads next to my driveway which has worked out great but that also comes with certain headaches, like a ton of scrap to get rid of.

The more variety of woods I burned over the years the more I come back to ash just being my favorite overall. splits easy, seasons easy, lights and burns easy. What's not to like?

I do agree though I've made many good memories over the years scrounging wood. Meeting other people, talking with land owners, meeting good and bad tree services. It's certainly an adventure lol