OH Cottonwood, How I adore thee( a love poem)

[Augie]

You are silly easy to split,
You dry in months,

nigh weeks​

Alas, You are not up to the task of

December
January
February​

Unless you are a adjunct,

but I do adore thee​

No one else seems to
For this,

The Arborist

Drops you in my Driveway
Cuts you to length​

You are for the Shoulder season
For a quick Light
For short heat

 

[Jags]

Yer weird.

 

[StihlHead]

I dunno 'bout where you live, but 'round here, its called chit-wood, it stinks like cat piss when burned, no matter how dry, it takes more than a year to season here, and I do not get it any more. Its almost always available for free here on CL for a reason: it stinks. Only worse wood here is Tree of Heaven Hell.

Other than that, I agree completely. Though you have a different species that has less heat value. Here we have Black C-wood, AKA: California/ balsam poplar. Read: avoid.

 

[Augie]

'bout where you live,

Start in Downtown Windsor Ontario Canada, Head North..... I am north of ninety percent of the Canadian Population.



Our Cottonwood is Populus deltoides, better than your I think...I am reading it is a hybrid Poplar with about 16Mbtu per cord

 

[PapaDave]

Hey Augie, ........don't quit yer day job.
I mean that in the most nicest way.

 

[Paulywalnut]

I dunno 'bout where you live, but 'round here, its called chit-wood, it stinks like cat piss when burned, no matter how dry, it takes more than a year to season here, and I do not get it any more. Its almost always available for free here on CL for a reason: it stinks. Only worse wood here is Tree of Heaven Hell.

Other than that, I agree completely. Though you have a different species that has less heat value. Here we have Black C-wood, AKA: California/ balsam poplar. Read: avoid.

I don 't think any of those adjectives would make a very romantic poem about his love for firewood. All true though.

 

[Highbeam]

I have burned lots and lots of cottonwood. In modern stoves, and when properly processed and seasoned, it's a fine wood. People used to say the same thing about pine.

 

[Augie]

Hey Augie, ........don't quit yer day job. I mean that in the most nicest way.

Damn... guess it is time to start playing the Lotto

 

[StihlHead]

Start in Downtown Windsor Ontario Canada, Head North..... I am north of ninety percent of the Canadian Population.

Yah, well, unless you live in Petoskey or on the UP, I am north of all that. We have eastern species of c-wood here as well, and it has somewhat less dense wood, but does not nearly stink as much. We also have the same species as aspen as back east at higher elevation here, but it is not worth going after in my experience.

 

[StihlHead]

I have burned lots and lots of cottonwood. In modern stoves, and when properly processed and seasoned, it's a fine wood. People used to say the same thing about pine.

You keep saying that, but I will keep refuting it. I have processed and burned a lot of black cottonwood here, Populus trichocarpa. I got a lot of it three years ago when the rivers here flooded and they dragged a lot of it out of the river. I got a permit to hunt those logs for firewood, and I cut a lot of that stuff and dragged it home and processed it. Even after 2 years of drying to 18% on my MM, it still stank like cast piss when burned. I burned the last of it last spring. I will not cut, process or burn any more. In my Earth Stove or an Englander 30-NC, it stank/stunk/stinks when burned in either one. Old or new. Same results. There are many stands of c-wood around me here, and it is usually always available for free on CL here. No thanks.

On the flip side, I burn a lot of pine. I cut and burned tons and tons of Monterey and Bishop pine when I lived in California. I have several dozen lodgepole and shore pines on my property (different variations of the same species) and that burns just fine. Not the most heat, but no stink. I actually like the smell of pine smoke. I will not go far out of my way for pine, but I will process and burn it. I would rather have alder than pine or c-wood, and leave the stove door open and the house will smell like bacon. Alder is the flip side of c-wood, and smells great. I smoke meat with that stuff.


I love the smell of burning Cottonwood in the morning!
It smells like.... cat piss.

 

[Augie]

Yah, well, unless you live in Petoskey or on the UP, I an north of all that. We have eastern species of c-wood here as well, and it has somewhat less dense wood, but does not nearly stink as much. We also have the same species as aspen as back east at higher elevation here, but it is not worth going after either in my experience.

No I live 45min north of Downtown Detroit. Your north of me for sure. I dont go after it, that is the best part, My arborist drops it in my driveway. He usually gives me one load of cottonwood or other low BTW wood for every 4 of Maple,oak,ash.... I did have to take some willow, but it is what it is, free wood.

 

[Ehouse]

Aspen chunks first thing

Sugar Maple makes it sing

The whistling kettle

 

[StihlHead]

No I live 45min north of Downtown Detroit. Your north of me for sure. I dont go after it, that is the best part, My arborist drops it in my driveway. He usually gives me one load of cottonwood or other low BTW wood for every 4 of Maple,oak,ash.... I did have to take some willow, but it is what it is, free wood.

Well, if they were dropping free firewood on my property, I wood not mind some odd loads of c-wood, willow and even Tree of Purgatory between the better hardwoods. But that is all some kind of fantastic fantasy here, and does not happen. We hunt wood here and have to pay for gas and fight off the other wood hounds. I may flip to buying 3 cord loads of Doug fir log ends next year. They are $300 delivered. That is as cheap as I can get.

 

[StihlHead]

BTW: A lot of people do not smell cat pee or cottonwood stink, which have the same basic chemistry. Its a genetic thing. Which is why there is such a stink about burning the stuff, and resulting debate. If you do not smell cat pee you likely do not smell c-wood stink, so it does not bother you like it does those of us that can smell it. But judging by the amount of cottonwood that is always available for free from here up to Seattle, a lot of people can and do smell it.

 

[StihlHead]

Oh cottonwood,
How I loathe thee,
For when you are burned,
You smell just like cat pee.

Oh cottonwood,
Shoulder wood at best,
Such a nuisance species,
Invasive in the west.

Oh cottonwood,
Lowly of the trees,
You stink up my house,
No thank you please.

 

[Highbeam]

Even after 2 years of drying to 18% on my MM, it still stank like cast piss when burned. .

Here's your problem, you never dried it out. Something was wrong if it took two years and the wood was still wet. It has a smell but not terribly offensive if you properly season the wood.

 

[Applesister]

You are silly easy to split,
You dry in months,

nigh weeks​

Alas, You are not up to the task of

December
January
February​

Unless you are a adjunct,

but I do adore thee​

No one else seems to
For this,

The Arborist

Drops you in my Driveway
Cuts you to length​

You are for the Shoulder season
For a quick Light
For short heat

Bravo

 

[Augie]

Bravo

Danke

 

[Charles1981]

I live in a swamp, 20 acres of swamp. I have about 30 90+ foot tall cottonwoods standing on the property, about 9 laying standing dead, and 5 more down for a few years approximately. It's free, its on my property, it burns well but not as long as ash and oak, but its free and so I burn a mixture of mostly cotton wood with a few ash in the shoulder season, then more ash than cottonwood during the colder months, and let me say it seasons very quickly, it burns ok, and frankly markedly decreases the amount of hardwood I have to order log length each year.

Love the stuff and I don't smell the cat pee.

 

[StihlHead]

Here's your problem, you never dried it out. Something was wrong if it took two years and the wood was still wet. It has a smell but not terribly offensive if you properly season the wood.

I never dried it out? Say what? You saying my 18% moisture content wood is not dry? 20% moisture is considered dry wood. 18% is drier than that. 12% is bone dry. Cornell University: Anything under 20% moisture is considered 'dry' firewood. EPA: Wood burns best when the moisture content is less than 20 percent.

To reiterate: 2 summer seasoned dry black cottonwood. 18% MM reading. Still stank when burned (the first year and the second). And my c-wood was not wet, it is was properly seasoned, and it was dry, as tested with a 4 pin moisture meter. Well, at least according to the experts it was dry.

Y'all can have the c-wood. Its always free on CL here. Maybe with all that legal weed smoking going on up there it does not smell as bad?

 

[teutonicking]

You are silly easy to split,
You dry in months,

nigh weeks​

Alas, You are not up to the task of

December
January
February​

Unless you are a adjunct,

but I do adore thee​

No one else seems to
For this,

The Arborist

Drops you in my Driveway
Cuts you to length​

You are for the Shoulder season
For a quick Light
For short heat

Awesome poem--I loved it! Keep it coming--I hope you do another one.

 

[teutonicking]

Here is a poem I wrote last year when I was getting excited about burning season coming up and some free wood that I got from a neighbor.

My Favorite Wood
Oak is good for burning—
if you have the time to dry it;
Hickory’s the king of woods,
that is if you can find it.
Maple is a decent wood;
Sugar is the sweetest—
but Rock and Red, and Silver too,
can burn this season soonest.
Elm is tough,
and splitting’s rough—
So is it even worth it?
Poplar is not popular,
but decent in the shoulder;
Fruit woods are sweet,
and can’t be beat,
so apple should be gathered.
Pine is fine,
Not so divine,
But not the Devil either.
Birch and Beech,
from what I hear,
are sometimes underrated;
The King of Beers
stores theirs in there
and makes it even better.
Walnut’s good,
For carving wood,
but so-so in the oven.
Cherry’s nice--
it will suffice,
and can be used most often.
Ash is dry,
and can be split,
Ash will burn well too--
Worth more than gold
we must be bold
and save it from the borer.
Ironwood is tough and strong,
has lots of BTUs,
but locust trees burn blue and hot,
and won’t go bad ‘till used.
Hemlock is like poison wood,
Willow weeps on fire;
But wood that’s free,
at least to me—
has got to be my favorite.

 

[kingston73]

Not sure what the scientific name is but my eastern cottonwood's a PITA. Not so much for splitting or burning but just having the living tree(s) in the yard. These eastern ones are fragile and it seems like they'll lose branches every time a rabbit sneezes. I'm constantly cleaning up the yard because of all the parts and pieces that fall out of them. It definitely doesn't season as fast as white pine and doesn't burn nearly as long as locust.

 

[Woody Stover]

I never dried it out? Say what? You saying my 18% moisture content wood is not dry? 20% moisture is considered dry wood. EPA: Wood burns best when the moisture content is less than 20 percent.

Yeah, and EPA uses wet-basis moisture readings. 20% wet-basis would read 25% on your moisture meter, which reads dry-basis....

Not sure what the scientific name is but my eastern cottonwood's a PITA....and doesn't burn nearly as long as locust.

I never paid close attention to the Cottonwoods we have here so I'm not sure if it is Eastern or Swamp (Black.) Both are native here, according to the book I have. I'll have to check 'em out close up. I should be able to tell by the leaves....flatter base on the Eastern leaves, more oval leaf on the Swamp, and rounded or heart-shaped base.
According to what I see on the BTU charts, it's only half what Locust puts out. So I guess it should only burn half as long?