Surprise Firewood Delivery!

[Caw]

The high cold snap winds brought me a gift last night. I had been planning to take this EAB casualty down this summer but nature did the work for me. Thankfully she left it in a convenient spot to harvest and didn't smash my house!

I'm having my shoulder surgery Monday but I now know what I'm doing all day Sunday. Hopefully there's some decent wood left in it:

 

[PaulOinMA]

I was wondering if anything would come down in my yard last night.

 

[mcdougy]

No damage to the house or vehicles is a good thing....looks like there might not be much wood left in that one, but the saw will answer that pending question. If it's all punky roll it off into the weeds in log lengths. Save your fuel and effort as punky ash isn't worth the effort. Try a cut 10' from the stump end first, to see if there's any solid wood left.

 

[orlkc]

I had one half of a long-dead double oak (gypsy moth causality) fall in the wind last night and take out a section of fence. The other half of it, though, is hung up in a pine tree at a 45 degree angle. If it doesn't fall on its own in the next few days I think I'll need professional help to get it on the ground. As it is this morning I can neither repair the fence nor buck up and split/stack the trunk that smashed the fence.

 

[Caw]

No damage to the house or vehicles is a good thing....looks like there might not be much wood left in that one, but the saw will answer that pending question. If it's all punky roll it off into the weeds in log lengths. Save your fuel and effort as punky ash isn't worth the effort. Try a cut 10' from the stump end first, to see if there's any solid wood left.

Yep that is exactly my plan. Great minds 🙂

 

[hedge wood]

One of these days we are going to have a lot of dead ash around here. So far I haven't had any dead ones on the farm yet. Hope you have some good firewood there. Take care of that shoulder. I had to have my right shoulder worked on twice coming up five years ago. It locked up after the first surgery. It still gives my fits some days.

 

[Caw]

As we predicted above the tree ended up being mostly too far gone for the stove but it is good enough for the fire pit. I bucked up half of it for my son to practice splitting. The other half I rolled I to the woods. He got through 75% of it today...not bad for 7 years old!

 

[Caw]

Kid is making short work of it.

 

[Woody Stover]

Kid is making short work of it.

Now, that wood looks really solid.. 👍

 

[Caw]

Now, that wood looks really solid.. 👍

Its too punky for the stove. But it'll work nicely in the fire pit!

 

[Woody Stover]

Its too punky for the stove. But it'll work nicely in the fire pit!

Wow, that's hard to believe from the pics, but you never know about pics, I guess...? Granted, the part where the trunk broke off when it fell doesn't look promising, and when banches break off in that manner, flat all the way across the width, it's not a good sign.
I don't see any punk to speak of on those splits however, and those pics look pretty good on my monitor, like your camera is getting good images.
Is the bark tight on the wood? Looks like it, and those half-rounds in the back look pretty good as well except for a couple spots on the ones on the left end, and some uneven color and appearance (water absorption?) on the right end half-rounds.
How did the saw go through them, like a hot knife dropping through a room-temp stick of butter or cutting at normal speed for Ash? It cuts pretty fast in any case, but I can tell when I'm hitting punky trash.
Some folks might be a lot pickier that I am about what's good wood and what is gone.
I had some hard Maple rounds sitting across the road from a yard tree, uncovered for three years. Like Ash, Maple doesn't hold up too well. I ended up discarding about 20% of the wood, which about broke my heart. 😏
Here's a couple pieces that are next to the stove, ready to be used. The top one is solid wood, although slightly spalted. The bottom one is pretty spotty, lighter in weight, but surprisingly it still has a good bit of wood that I cannot sink my thumbnail into. I use a split of that trash on the front of a new load to kick it off, since it catches fire very quickly.

 

[Caw]

Wow, that's hard to believe from the pics, but you never know about pics, I guess...? Granted, the part where the trunk broke off when it fell doesn't look promising, and when banches break off in that manner, flat all the way across the width, it's not a good sign.
I don't see any punk to speak of on those splits however, and those pics look pretty good on my monitor, like your camera is getting good images.
Is the bark tight on the wood? Looks like it, and those half-rounds in the back look pretty good as well except for a couple spots on the ones on the left end, and some uneven color and appearance (water absorption?) on the right end half-rounds.
How did the saw go through them, like a hot knife dropping through a room-temp stick of butter or cutting at normal speed for Ash? It cuts pretty fast in any case, but I can tell when I'm hitting punky trash.
Some folks might be a lot pickier that I am about what's good wood and what is gone.
I had some hard Maple rounds sitting across the road from a yard tree, uncovered for three years. Like Ash, Maple doesn't hold up too well. I ended up discarding about 20% of the wood, which about broke my heart. 😏
Here's a couple pieces that are next to the stove, ready to be used. The top one is solid wood, although slightly spalted. The bottom one is pretty spotty, lighter in weight, but surprisingly it still has a good bit of wood that I cannot sink my thumbnail into. I use a split of that trash on the front of a new load to kick it off, since it catches fire very quickly.
Link Removed

View attachment 309322

It was pretty soft to cut though. I've burned a lot of ash and these pieces are way too light for their size. I'm not too upset about it. I'm fortunate to have 12 cords or so on hand and be 3 years ahead do I can be picky. I use my firepit a lot and use cordwood to power my evaporator so I'm not upset, it'll get good use!

 

[Woody Stover]

It was pretty soft to cut though. I've burned a lot of ash and these pieces are way too light for their size. ....I'm fortunate to have 12 cords or so on hand and be 3 years ahead do I can be picky. I use my firepit a lot and use cordwood to power my evaporator so I'm not upset, it'll get good use!

Yeah, unless the saw is throwing chips, it's trash.
Well, I used to have around 12 cords stacked but that was years ago, and I've in recent years been burning down my stockpile. I only use about maybe a cord and a half a year though. I need to hit it heavy this year. I've got 10-15 Oaks down here and some are held off the ground by branches. The sapwood will be punk of course but the heart should be good on some of those.
Not to mention a huge log score across the street where they cleared some land.
Nice to have other uses for the marginal wood. Might as well get some use out of it since it'll release its carbon whether it rots out there or you burn it. 👍

 

[Caw]

Agreed. I burn 4 cords +/- 0.5 a year so I keep 3 years on hand. 3 year old wood is so much better than 2 year old stuff.

I'm a little behind right now though I need to get one more log delivery before summer once my arm heals.

 

[Garbanzo62]

Think I saw something come down in the swamp.. Gonna check it out after work.

 

[Woody Stover]

Think I saw something come down in the swamp.. Gonna check it out after work.

Watch it; Instead of a log, it could be a very long gator lying in wait! 🐊 😯

 

[Garbanzo62]

yeah it was a rotted pine that I knew about. I was just at a different angle.

 

[Woody Stover]

yeah it was a rotted pine that I knew about. I was just at a different angle.

We need to hook up with those swamp people guys on TV, that scavenge logs that were lost when logging boats sank. Might be some good firewood down there that they would give us! 😉