Take my tree ID (& bonus dog ID) quiz!

[Oww My Back Hurts]

I've been busy trying to build up several year's worth of wood for my fireplace. I came across a variety of different types of trees & I took as much as I was able, regardless of species. Now I'm trying to figure out which wood will be ready to burn next winter! I really have little idea so I thought I'd post pics and maybe someone will be kind enough to help me out. I've included possible hints



1: The wood is wet in this pictures. It was surprisingly heavy and the sawdust was almost orange when I cut it. Smelled good


2: This stuff split really easy


3: Very lightweight. Split easy, inside was almost pure white, including the larger rounds



4: Insides were a little stringy. The bark was so rough it wore a hole in my gloves



5: I didn't get much of this. Weird red splotches like the tree was bleeding



6: This was cut & split last fall, my friend thought it was ash



7: This was cut last fall, just these split today



8: I've already had this one ID'd but I figured I'd include it



And here are some pictures of my woodpiles. In the background, split & stacked, are wood from pics #6&7. In the foreground are mostly types 8 and 2 with some 4 mixed in



The piles of wood from left to right are types 7, then the 8/2/4, then the 1/3/4/5
Next project is to build something to stack all this wood on so I can get it off the ground (which is what the pt 2x4's are for). Also in the foreground is my guard dog who made sure no cats snuck up on me while I was splitting the wood.

My plan was to burn the stuff in the background that's already stacked first, then the pile on the left (more wood # 7), then the pile on the right, then the pile in the middle, is that a good strategy?

 

[tigeroak]

1- wild cherry, some say one year and burn -- me 2 years or more
2 - ash , again same as above
3 - soft maple, good to use in one year -again I go 2 years
4 - hackberry, 2 years BUT keep it off the ground as it goes bad quick[does here]
5 - I am not for sure
6 - as stated above
7 - cottonwood or elm 2 year on elm cottonwood next year
I cut and keep on hand 15-20 cord so I give my wood more time to dry. I got wild cherry in a rack marked for 2015-16 burn season. Hope to be at 25 cord by the end of this year.

 

[nrford]

1. Red Oak
2. Ash
3. Aspen
4. Hackberry
5. Box Elder
6. Ash
7.Cottonwood
8. Balm of Gilead

 

[Woody Stover]

8. Balm of Gilead

Yeah, that was gonna be my guess...

 

[bigbarf48]

7 is cottonwood that's all I know haha

 

[CTFIRE]

Looks like a German shepherd, but the wider shoulders. Not the American line, the German variety.

 

[TimJ]

.7 looks like sassafrass

 

[Applesister]

You think your back hurts now!! wait till you stack it all!!
Thanks for the fun...I feel like a squirrel coveting some other squirrels nuts. Such fun.
Okay
1- some kind of minnisota oak
2-Ash
3-Quaking Aspen
4-Hackberry
5-Box Elder
6-firewood
7-Black walnut??
8-Walnut??
9- nice pile of nuts nice job...
10-more nuts.
11- dog-??

 

[Applesister]

Balm of Gilead? Is that wood the same as Balsam poplar?
if those ring stains are all thru the wood I bet its really pretty wood.
Or is that just end staining?
And yeah...the big round with the thick bark...cottonwood.
Balm of Gilead is planted around me as a nursery tree in housing developements. Its shaped like Linden a little. Some sort of genetically altered variety. Smells good.
The dog has a shepherd butt and tail. I have a female and her neck and head is narrower. My shepherd watches the cats chickens and deer. She chases people Best farm guard dog ever!!

 

[Oww My Back Hurts]

Thanks for the responses everyone, please keep them coming! Sounds like agreement that #2 is ash and #4 is hackberry. #7 being cottonwood sounds right, I have a batch I split last year and it's unbelievable how light it is now (and how heavy it was then...). #8 I posted here: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/new-to-the-forum-new-to-gathering-wood.106624/#post-1391500 and the consensus was white oak

As for the dog, she is a great guard dog but she likes to chew on firewood! Sometimes she pieces all over the yard and once she had a 5" sliver sticking out of her mouth (I am guessing hackberry as it looked like #4 above), I had to use a pliers to get it out (fortunately it didn't seem to hurt)

 

[midwestcoast]

That was a fun quiz! I did good. I had #1 wrong and no clue on #8. The way I do these things is:
Look at pic & decide what I think it is
Go to nrford's post to see if that is what he says
If it is then I feel smart, If not I go back to the pic to see what I missed & try to learn something.
Check out the guys sig line.

In this case #1 looked like Cherry to me 'till I went back & saw the grain & the rays clearly saying Oak.
I have no idea who Gilead is, not to mention what his Balm looks like, but that is a tough pic to I.D. from. The pics in the other thread are much easier: Oak. Beautiful grain on that stuff.

Welcome and Nice Job! That is a whole mess of wood!

 

[schlot]

I think I have a couple of them
2.Ash
3.Silver Maple
4. Box Elder
5 Hackberry
7. Cottonwood

Dog= Belgian Sheperd named Fritz

 

[nrford]

Thanks for the responses everyone, please keep them coming! Sounds like agreement that #2 is ash and #4 is hackberry. #7 being cottonwood sounds right, I have a batch I split last year and it's unbelievable how light it is now (and how heavy it was then...). #8 I posted here: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/new-to-the-forum-new-to-gathering-wood.106624/#post-1391500 and the consensus was white oak

As for the dog, she is a great guard dog but she likes to chew on firewood! Sometimes she pieces all over the yard and once she had a 5" sliver sticking out of her mouth (I am guessing hackberry as it looked like #4 above), I had to use a pliers to get it out (fortunately it didn't seem to hurt)

If that is White oak and you are in MN. Someone must have been fertilizing it.... it is the fastest growing white oak I have ever seen!

 

[nrford]

Thanks for the responses everyone, please keep them coming! Sounds like agreement that #2 is ash and #4 is hackberry. #7 being cottonwood sounds right, I have a batch I split last year and it's unbelievable how light it is now (and how heavy it was then...). #8 I posted here: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/new-to-the-forum-new-to-gathering-wood.106624/#post-1391500 and the consensus was white oak

As for the dog, she is a great guard dog but she likes to chew on firewood! Sometimes she pieces all over the yard and once she had a 5" sliver sticking out of her mouth (I am guessing hackberry as it looked like #4 above), I had to use a pliers to get it out (fortunately it didn't seem to hurt)

As I look at the other pics from above mentioned post I can agree with W.oak. However, that is the fastest growing W.oak I have ever seen. Since you are in MN and have short growing seasons like Northern Mi. I wonder.....was that a yard tree? (it almost had to have been receiving regular doses of fertilizer.)

 

[Applesister]

Maybe it was the start of a new species. A walnut oak....and it was old enough to produce nuts too. But now its just firewood...tisk tisk...
Well at least I was guessing it was a nut tree of some sort. OP said the hedgerow of a neighboring farm. Maybe it provided shade for the cows or horses in the field?
Maybe Hurtback can find some leaves for us or a closeup of one of those beautiful splits. The thing about Oak is its very distinctive in person. No mistaking its heft for poplar or its grain for any other species or its oaky scent.
Or its taste in a 50 year old bottle of rum.

 

[Applesister]

Maybe it was the start of a new species. A walnut oak....and it was old enough to produce nuts too. But now its just firewood...tisk tisk...
Well at least I was guessing it was a nut tree of some sort. OP said the hedgerow of a neighboring farm. Maybe it provided shade for the cows or horses in the field?
Maybe Hurtback can find some leaves for us or a closeup of one of those beautiful splits. The thing about Oak is its very distinctive in person. No mistaking its heft for poplar or its grain for any other species or its oaky scent.
Or its taste in a 50 year old bottle of rum.

 

[Oww My Back Hurts]

nrford: Yeah this came from a narrow fence line between two fields that are being farmed so I would imagine they get a lot of fertilization so I think you are right on. I am curious how you knew it was fast growing, is it the spaces between the growth rings? Also I'm wondering, since it was fast growing, does that mean it will be fast drying?

Applesister I was with you, I originally thought it might be walnut but then I read somewhere that it doesn't grow this far north so then I really had no idea.

schlot: I took at look at some Belgian Sheperd's on the internet and I don't think my dog has the right hair to be one of those. The people we got her from said german shepherd, although I hadn't seen one this black before so I'm thinking a mix of that and something else. Is that a black lab in your avatar?

midwestcoast: Thanks! I was wondering about cherry vs oak as well, can you explain what you mean about "rays"?

 

[nrford]

Yes spce between the growth rings is amount of growth in that growing season.

 

[schlot]

nrford: Yeah this came from a narrow fence line between two fields that are being farmed so I would imagine they get a lot of fertilization so I think you are right on. I am curious how you knew it was fast growing, is it the spaces between the growth rings? Also I'm wondering, since it was fast growing, does that mean it will be fast drying?

Applesister I was with you, I originally thought it might be walnut but then I read somewhere that it doesn't grow this far north so then I really had no idea.

schlot: I took at look at some Belgian Sheperd's on the internet and I don't think my dog has the right hair to be one of those. The people we got her from said german shepherd, although I hadn't seen one this black before so I'm thinking a mix of that and something else. Is that a black lab in your avatar?

midwestcoast: Thanks! I was wondering about cherry vs oak as well, can you explain what you mean about "rays"?

Yes, he is one of three dogs we have....two of which are rescue dogs. He is a lab mix, dumb as a board, but a sweet dog.

 

[midwestcoast]

Also I'm wondering, since it was fast growing, does that mean it will be fast drying?

midwestcoast: Thanks! I was wondering about cherry vs oak as well, can you explain what you mean about "rays"?

I meant medullary rays that radiate out from the center of the round. Like shown here:

I believe all trees have them, but they are very pronounced in Oaks and you really can't see them in other trees.
Oak will not be fast drying no matter how many cows crapped under it. 2 years Minimum to dry.

 

[Oww My Back Hurts]

Thanks for the explanations!