Cedar, Love or hate?

[mass_burner]

For those of you that have cedar trees, do you love the stuff or hate it. For me, it all depends on which side of the door it on. I hate in the yard, branches wont break off, thier spiky like knives and its tough on saws.

But I love it in the fire. I keep it separated for when I want to let a little cedar aroma into the house.

 

[Ehouse]

A cut off Cedar stump makes a great splitting block. Never rots, and light enough to move around. Mine is about a foot and a half dia. at the top.

 

[Slow1]

I have a pair of cedar trees just outside my front door. They were cute when the house was new (looked like little Christmas trees) but now they are up to the roof level. I'd like to try them out in the stove, but the wife is emotionally attached it seems... arg.

I burned a bit of cedar once that a friend gave me... Hot and fast is how I remember it burning, made excellent kindling and the smell - well, the pieces I split up sat in my inside rack for quite a while as I just really like that smell.

 

[BrotherBart]

I have a pair of cedar trees just outside my front door. They were cute when the house was new (looked like little Christmas trees) but now they are up to the roof level. I'd like to try them out in the stove, but the wife is emotionally attached it seems... arg.

I had the same thing. One day while she was out somewhere I backed up the Suburban, tied the chain to them and...

 

[Applesister]

My cousin has cedar almost exclusively on a 20 acre plot. Hes up by the Canadian border. In the Champlain valley.
Dont know about burning but its beautiful to snowshoe thru. When the lowland areas are frozen and snow covers all the branches.

 

[Slow1]

I had the same thing. One day while she was out somewhere I backed up the Suburban, tied the chain to them and...

I did that with some other bushes (just used a saw to cut them out, should have yanked the roots out like you did). It didn't go over too well and I dare not repeat too soon... Now I am sure somewhere I can find a reference to these being damaging to the house because they are so close... or maybe there will be a dreadful accident of them breaking when the snow falls off the roof this winter?

 

[Thistle]

A cut off Cedar stump makes a great splitting block. Never rots, and light enough to move around. Mine is about a foot and a half dia. at the top.

I have 3 of those from 14" to 20" diameter,barely 1 foot tall & full of large knots.Not quite 5 years old,a bit battered from saw/axe cuts etc but no sign of splitting or decay yet.

 

[mass_burner]

as these trees get older, they start to lose all their branches. maybe i have a different species, ours don't get over 20 ' or so. They seem to get thicker in the trunk rather than taller, and then they tend to lose all thier bark, but doesn't seem to bother them. when i split them, there are often deep purple viens running through them.

 

[mass_burner]

Now I am sure somewhere I can find a reference to these being damaging to the house because they are so close... or maybe there will be a dreadful accident of them breaking when the snow falls off the roof this winter?

your screwed. she knows you have it in for them. anything now will sound made up.

 

[midwestcoast]

In my book Cedar is for making fence posts, buliding outdoor structures, cooking a nice salmon fillet on the grill, or kindling. Great for all of those things & more, but I don't think I've ever burned a whole load of it in a stove. Kind of a waste if you ask me.

 

[BrotherBart]

Those tall cedars next a house are how varmints get into chimneys and attics.

 

[teutonicking]

For those of you that have cedar trees, do you love the stuff or hate it. For me, it all depends on which side of the door it on. I hate in the yard, branches wont break off, thier spiky like knives and its tough on saws.

But I love it in the fire. I keep it separated for when I want to let a little cedar aroma into the house.

I got a few pieces of it earlier this year. It seems pretty dry now so I plan to just chop most of it up for kindling, and use a few larger splits for a Christmas fire.

 

[mass_burner]

I got a few pieces of it earlier this year. It seems pretty dry now so I plan to just chop most of it up for kindling, and use a few larger splits for a Christmas fire.

Be careful...the cedar I have like to pop, sometimes rather violently.

 

[bag of hammers]

Be careful...the cedar I have like to pop, sometimes rather violently.

yeah, a couple twisty pieces makes a lot of noise. But I like that - part of the show (I just don't open the door until they're burned right down).

 

[CenterTree]

I had the same thing. One day while she was out somewhere I backed up the Suburban, tied the chain to them and...

So, how was your week sleeping in the doghouse?

 

[CenterTree]

Cedar smells great in the closet too.

We have several Bald Cypress trees and about a dozen Dawn Redwoods on our property. The redwoods are up to about 50 feet now. 20inch buttress. I wonder how they will burn (someday)??

Also, I cut a row of American Arborvitae last spring. (60 footers). The logs are super light to carry. We burned a few of them in the campfire just for licks. I wonder if they are any good in the stove??

 

[Backwoods Savage]

My cousin has cedar almost exclusively on a 20 acre plot. Hes up by the Canadian border. In the Champlain valley.
Dont know about burning but its beautiful to snowshoe thru. When the lowland areas are frozen and snow covers all the branches.

In northern MI, not that far from the Canadian border I was hunting once and going through a stand of cedar. Suddenly right in front of me I found some velvet that came off the antlers of an elk. What a terrific find!

 

[firefighterjake]

Love . . . deer seem to particularly love them during a hard winter.

Also, love to use cedar as kindling. One of the nicer smelling woods.

 

[red oak]

Love cedar in the firepit - the aroma goes around the yard. It's also good for starting fires in the stove. It does burn rather hot and fast if I remember correctly.

 

[bag of hammers]

In northern MI, not that far from the Canadian border I was hunting once and going through a stand of cedar. Suddenly right in front of me I found some velvet that came off the antlers of an elk. What a terrific find!

Very nice. I once found a half moose rack while out in the sticks while walking to a lake. No luck finding the other half - probably a half mile away. My sister turned it into a planter on her porch.

 

[bag of hammers]

A cedar split is a great way to coax along a fire, if the wood is a bit less than optimal.

 

[Seanm]

When I was living in Whistler I was on a job site where I was walking down the hallway of a condo building. In one of the units a carpenter was sanding some yellow cedar. The smell was absolutely amazing. That was 20 years ago and I can still remember it. When we were living in Whistler there were lots of red cedar and a bit of yellow and used to love it for kindling and even threw a few slabs of it in the stove since there was so much of it. Now that I live here the cedars are less but more importantly when they come down near the road people take it right away as a prized wood for kindling. Now I cant find any unless I want to hump it through the woods to the road. I would love to have a truck load of it.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

I scored some red cedar this summer and was burning it in my outdoor fireplace, It smelled the entire property with such a sweet awesome smell, it is now my Private Reserve wood burning for outdoors, but now that you mention it, when I have off one day and can enjoy it, I will burn it in the insert,open the door a bit and hopefully get that scent into the house.....

 

[bag of hammers]

I recall pulling one out of the muck on the adjacent property a few years ago. Small tree buried in the mud. I laid it across a couple other trees, and jumped on it and it was was still solid. Left it to dry that summer and it burned beautifully. Back in my surveying days, we'd look for and sometimes find remains of large cedar posts used to mark township boundaries back in the bush, from 100 year old surveys. I like to bring a couple of fresh splits inside just for the amazing aroma. Had one huge tree (down) on our property when we bought it and it took me a few years to use it up. About half way through another that the neighbor kindly donated.

 

[billb3]

Having spent one Winter constantly reloading a small stove with it (cedar), having a huge pile of cut-offs from fence building, it's rather wasted in a wood stove.
Should be burned in an open fireplace/pit where it can be appreciated aromatically.