This score was straightforward,

[Woody Stover]

and elmentary. A little Pin Oak and Black Cherry but mostly American Elm (I think, haven't seen much.)
Tree man hauled it over from a job at a neighbor's house, and dumped it right at the stacking destination...sweeet! He burned me with one kinda punky medium- sized Elm log and a couple stumps, but whaddya gonna do? Upper branches are ready to burn today. Trunks I checked were more like 30%. If I split that Elm trunk to 4-5" on a side, how long to get dry?

 

[johneh]

If it was dead standing one good hot dry summer
it will dry fast if no bark

 

[gzecc]

The free ones always leave some crap with the good stuff.

 

[begreen]

Very nice score. You'll know if it's elm when you go to split it. That stuff can be very stringy.

 

[Woody Stover]

Very nice score. You'll know if it's elm when you go to split it. That stuff can be very stringy.

I'm hoping the small ones may be hand-splittable. So far I haven't gotten the power splitter out, and been popping some small dead Red Elm, Mulberry and Dogwood, about a cord and a third so far. Pretty sure the American is a whole 'nother league than the Red Elm.

 

[Woody Stover]

If it was dead standing one good hot dry summer
it will dry fast if no bark

It will have no bark, but we haven't had a hot summer lately. There was a scorcher about 6 yrs. ago. Temps stayed over 90 for weeks at a time, and most times when I looked at the humidity, mid-afternoon, it was under 30%, sometimes down to 20%...pretty much unheard-of here. I was behind on dry wood, and I did a lot of fist-pumping when looking at the weather stats that year.

 

[kborndale]

and elmentary. A little Pin Oak and Black Cherry but mostly American Elm (I think, haven't seen much.)
Tree man hauled it over from a job at a neighbor's house, and dumped it right at the stacking destination...sweeet! He burned me with one kinda punky medium- sized Elm log and a couple stumps, but whaddya gonna do?

If it was free how did he burn you?

 

[Woody Stover]

If it was free how did he burn you?

I was glad to get the wood, for sure, so no big deal if I have to mess with a couple stumps and what-not. They've done work for us before, and I like them, so it's all good. Any time I can get wood that doesn't require me to go into the woods and fight the ticks, poison ivy and sticker bushes, and pack rounds up out of the ravines to the quad trailer, I'm thrilled. At the same time, I'm saving them work by taking the wood and chips off their hands.

I was there watching them cut and told him "That log is punked out; Why don'tcha toss that in the woods, he doesn't care." But the lovable old goat grappled it into the box truck with the rest of the load. Maybe he was hesitant to drive on the guy's lawn, but he had to go down there anyway to drop another dead Elm that was on the edge of the woods. I'll saw that one up and haul it away in the next couple days. I'm also helping my BIL, who lives next door to this neighbor, get a blown-down White Oak from him, that toppled a couple weeks ago. BIL is busy fighting his taxes, right now...

 

[Woody Stover]

Here's the haul from last year when this tree man took down a Sugar Maple that was too close to the house, with a rotting core. Gotta be 1.5 cords at least, I'd think. There's a dead White Ash to the right of the rounds but it might be too far gone...we'll see. It would be gnarly, growing out in the open with a lot of branching and crotches.

 

[Woody Stover]

Maybe he was hesitant to drive on the guy's lawn, but he had to go down there anyway to drop another dead Elm that was on the edge of the woods. I'll saw that one up and haul it away in the next couple days.

My understanding was that the other Elm was to be dropped in the guy's yard, but the tree man ended up tossing it off the yard into the edge of the woods in a pile. I picked through it, but most was punky. I was able to get a couple quad trailer loads, anyway, but that was a lot of digging. There was also a dead standing Black Cherry that I grabbed. Hauled that right to the porch for these next couple of cool nights, when I'll fire up the stove again. No sapwood, 16-18% moisture.

I was in the woods today, getting more dry wood...my back's against the wall to get all the in-laws enough dry wood for next season. I don't want to move any of my dry wood over there. Mostly got dead Red Elm and Red Mulberry for them today. But I saw one Red Elm that had blown over, then sent up sucker shoots, trying to survive. That thing was essentially alive, about 60' or so. I'm going to keep it...my Red Elm stash is about gone. It's not particularly long-burning wood (between Black Cherry and White Ash, I'd say) and some would say 'Don't waste your time." But I dunno...for some reason I have a bond with the Red Elm. I like the color, the bark, the small sapwood, etc.

 

[Woody Stover]

I saw one Red Elm that had blown over, then sent up sucker shoots, trying to survive. That thing was essentially alive, about 60' or so. I'm going to keep it....I have a bond with the Slippery (Red) Elm. I like the color, the bark, the small sapwood, the smell etc

OK, I beat the rain and got it up top. It's wet; Two years in the stack needed, I guess.

Reptile/amphibian ID needed.

 

[johneh]

Snake common Garter snake aka grass snake I think but I have been known to be wrong
Toad put him by your wood pile he will eat every bug going and get big and fat
Don't let your dog lick him What ever the chemical on there skin is will make you think
your pet has rabies Ask me how I know

 

[Woody Stover]

I'm not sure about the snake, he was 5 or 6' long! I'll try to look it up. You can see a truer color pattern where the light reflected right...

 

[Woody Stover]

Fox Snake looks like a possibility, based on the pattern...

 

[Soundchasm]

Great scores, BTW! Maybe the snake is a black rat snake? I don't think it's a northern water snake. I have plenty of them and the females can be 3-4 feet, but not 5-6.

We had a milk snake in the house and he was 5' long. I got a leather glove and caught him. I didn't want to squeeze and hurt him, and I discovered something funny. You really can't hold onto a snake! Hah! So I passed him hand to hand while I took him to the woods.

On a hike, I went to inspect a downed tree and some old stumps. Dog jumped into some sawdust and started dancing La Cucaracha. I saw the snake making a break for it, and it took more than a moment for his tail to disappear. He had to be 5-6'.

 

[CincyBurner]

Snake looks like black rat snake.
We had one coming out of the wood piles into the sun about this time last year (I guess with lots of chippies, a few black rat snakes). Really long !

 

[Woody Stover]

looks like black rat snake.

I think you're right. This one for some reason didn't look as dark as some of the others I've seen. But they list Black Rat as "common" and the Fox Snake as "rare," and I've seen quite a few.
https://hoosierherpsoc.org/IDsnake.html#sn20

 

[Woody Stover]

looks like black rat snake.

This one for some reason didn't look as dark as some of the others I've seen

In the pic you can see the color better, when the body was at an angle coming up onto the pavement and the light was reflected differently...more of a brown hue going on. There's another variant, the Gray Rat Snake...