Good morning, knowledgeable tree folks.
My family recently relocated from Virginia to Texas. We're getting settled in, and my husband suggested that a one good activity for the day would be to cut down some cedar. We have about three acres which, unfortunately, was overgrazed, and it's so barren of natural vegetation that the neighbors refer to it as a moonscape. Thankfully there are many well-established trees, and so leaf litter will help to provide some soil in coming years. Nevertheless, there is too much new growth of Ashe Juniper, and we need to clear some.
I've burned Eastern Redcedar here and there in a woodstove, as does my mother, so I know it can be done. I've never had that much of it, though. We do have some dead oaks (red and live) that we'll need to process as well.
We don't actually have a stove, and we plan to spend a least one winter here to figure out how much heat we might actually need in the cool months before we think of one. We will build the woodpile, though, as we need to take care of the land.
We do have a prefab fireplace that has gas logs in it, though I've been told it's woodburning as well. I doubt it will see much use, but I'm wondering about using Ashe Juniper if we wanted to build a fire. I know it wouldn't have high BTUs or be long lasting, but I don't know how much call we'd have for either of those things.
Is it safe to burn Juniper/Cedar in a pre-fab fireplace (it does have a good screen in case of sparks)? I'm not one who's scared of pine for a woodstove, but this whole prefab fireplace is a different animal to me. I'd appreciate words of wisdom or advice from those more knowledgeable and experienced.
My family recently relocated from Virginia to Texas. We're getting settled in, and my husband suggested that a one good activity for the day would be to cut down some cedar. We have about three acres which, unfortunately, was overgrazed, and it's so barren of natural vegetation that the neighbors refer to it as a moonscape. Thankfully there are many well-established trees, and so leaf litter will help to provide some soil in coming years. Nevertheless, there is too much new growth of Ashe Juniper, and we need to clear some.
I've burned Eastern Redcedar here and there in a woodstove, as does my mother, so I know it can be done. I've never had that much of it, though. We do have some dead oaks (red and live) that we'll need to process as well.
We don't actually have a stove, and we plan to spend a least one winter here to figure out how much heat we might actually need in the cool months before we think of one. We will build the woodpile, though, as we need to take care of the land.
We do have a prefab fireplace that has gas logs in it, though I've been told it's woodburning as well. I doubt it will see much use, but I'm wondering about using Ashe Juniper if we wanted to build a fire. I know it wouldn't have high BTUs or be long lasting, but I don't know how much call we'd have for either of those things.
Is it safe to burn Juniper/Cedar in a pre-fab fireplace (it does have a good screen in case of sparks)? I'm not one who's scared of pine for a woodstove, but this whole prefab fireplace is a different animal to me. I'd appreciate words of wisdom or advice from those more knowledgeable and experienced.
