Good wood or bad wood?

[ms180man]

I recently aquired 20 acres of land which has about 50 trees about 8-14" in diameter that have been cut down, limbed and skidded into a big pile a LONG time ago. My friends and I have invested in a ramsplitter hv25 with a 4 way wedge and a 16 gpm pump and we have started cutting and splitting the logs and stacking it into cords. We have about 4 cord in one day with 25 or more to go. We plan to start selling it soon. We have a 1 ton dump.
My question is I'm not sure if it's any good. It has mushrooms and stuff growing on the bark. The bark also falls off easily. It doesn't look any good on the outside, but once split it smells good and is not rotten or anything. I was told it was cut 2 years ago, but my untrained instinct tells me it's been there at least 4 years. Would a picture help? I've never seen mushrooms and stuff grow on a downed tree any sooner. Someone experienced please advise if we are just doing this for exercise or not.

 

[smokechase II]

What species is the stuff?
The mushrooms you speak of means it has at least started to rot.
But it still may be useable firewood. I didn't say great firewood.
Find part of the same species of tree nearby and cut off a dead limb.
Check out how solid it is compared with your rotten pile. The closer they are the better.
Start a fire, safely, and burn some of your rotten wood side by side with the dry dead limb. If the rotten stuff burns much faster. Beware.

 

[Newfie]

If it doesn't smell, look or feel rotten, then it should be fine. I wouldn't sell it w/ moldy slimy mushroomy bark though. 2 year old logs stacked in a pile can grow all kinds of stuff,

I would also make sure that you know what a legal cord consists of. 128 cubic feet of stacked split wood. I would be amazed if there was as much wood in 50 trees of the size that you described that you think. Maybe more like 10-12 cords.

 

[WESCOMAN]

I have to agree newfie. I can cut down 5 simular sized pinion pine trees and get .32 cards in my short bed truck. These trees are from 15 to 20 feet high and about 12" in diameter. I would say you have about 10 cords depending on how long your logs are. Anyway regardless on how many cords you have I personally would not sell anything that has mushrooms or whatever grownig on it. If the wood is good under the bark then rent a pressure washer and spray down the logs to get that gunk off the outside. I personally wouldnt go through the trouble since I have 100 square miles I can log easily. Since this is your property then maybe thats an option for you. Just an idea.

 

[jp hallman]

I lived in Niantic for eight years, had five acres on Riverview Drive. I'd say the wood is just fine. It's good that the bark just falls off. Log length trees stacked in a deck stay "fresh" for a long time, years even. I cleaned up my acreage and had wood stacked for several years that was still of good quality for firewood. Hard to guess at the amount you have laying there without seeing it. Go for it!

 

[ms180man]

condition of wood

I'd have to agree with you Newfie, we are about 1/2 way through the pile now and we have pulled out 6.5 cords now and the wood is fine, the bark is falling off and the wood underneath looks ok. Jeff

 

[Newfie]

Cool. Log piles can often be deceiving. They can look a lot bigger, although I had one recently that looked a lot smaller. Ended up being about 80 cords.