Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[svk]

We’ve had three days straight of severe storms. Power has been out intermittently each day in addition to near record temps. Luckily we haven’t lost any trees yet but neighbors have. I guess being proactive with my geriatric trees is paying off, knock on wood.

 

[rarefish383]

30 kilometers isn’t too far. That’s about 18 miles for those who don’t speak metric. I have gone farther but try not to. Usually it’s a favor when I do. As for scrounging, a local tree guy is selling dump trailer loads of rounds for $80. Buying wood goes against everything I believe except the math works out quite well. Roughly 3 facecord in a trailer that size. Facecord sells for $80-100 split. Takes me all day to cut a tree and load that much wood plus gas and oil etc.
Buying a truck load of logs costs more per cord (double) then that. So I may, gulp, actually buy wood.

Only bought wood one time, about 45 years ago. I only did it because my friend wanted a load, and the guy knocked a pretty big chunk off the price for getting 2 trailer loads. He guaranteed 10 cord. All split and stacked it was only 7 cord. I forget what we paid, but I think I only made about $20 per cord. I guess it was an OK deal for my friend, but I decided I'd never buy wood again, and I haven't. Like you said, it just goes against everything. Now I have 3 farms full of dead Red Oaks that I can't keep up with. The other thing is I'm Quite OCD about the length of my wood. Every piece that goes in the pile is with in a quarter inch of 18", Any uglies and shorts go to the fire pit. We need something to drink beer around when the weather gets cool.

 

[JustJeff]

We are in a heat wave here in Ontario so cool drinks and shade are in order, the saws and splitter will wait it out.

 

[panolo]

Built a hoop house solar wood kiln out of cattle panel and green house plastic. Trying to dry oak in 3 months instead of 2 years. Outside it was 81 and inside the contraption it was 139 degrees with the door open. It pegged my hanging thermo that went up to 120 so I had to use the hand held one. Couple rows stacked and I had to call it quits. Think it is an early morning or a late evening type gig.

 

[rwoods]

Picture of contraption, please. Ron

 

[Cowboy254]

OAK SCROUNGE!

So I went over today to check out this English Oak type scrounge and spoke to the couple who wanted it gone. Apparently it was the arborist that diagnosed English oak and for all I know, it could be. The owner had been hacking away at it with his micro saw for two weeks and had had enough.



Here's a leaf.

Look's like you will have your work cut out for you. A couple of big nasty's in the top of that thing. But I have seen some of the stuff you get and your definitely not afraid of a bit of work.

The branch stubs were a bit of a pain but I did find some nice figure there. I made a number of slices and left one with the owners to make a cutting board or something out of if they're so inclined.


Ended up with a nice load.



There's still the biggest 5 rounds worth left in the trunk plus another one already cut off plus some other odds and ends.



Prolly not another full load's worth (unless I pinch the bits the owner has cut and stacked by the fence ) but I have to go back now and get the rest.

You know why.

Because it's there.

 

[LondonNeil]

Hmm, might be, might be Turkey. How big is the leaf? Small (2-3 inch) English, big (4-5 inch) turkey.... Maybe. It's a nice tree though either way. How did you like the smell? Unique isn't it. The straight stuff will split easy, then stack for a long drying time before e enjoying it's nice slow burn

 

[Jeffkrib]

Cowboy if it’s anything like what I got the other day you’ll find it’s soaking wet when you split it but it splits easy.
Looks like we’ll both be burning oak in 2 or 3 years from now. I’m looking forward to seeing how good it is compared to eucalyptus.

 

[LondonNeil]

I'm afraid youll be forever disappointed . Eucalyptus will never be good enough again.

 

[Cowboy254]

I reckon the leaf was 3ish inches. Wasn't big. I'll go back to scrounge the rest tomorrow in any case. I like testing out different woods and adding to my personal wood knowledge base. Worst case scenario, I've burned 20L in fuel in the car and saws and have 2.5 cubes of firepit wood and some good exercise. Besides, I haven't run big saws for a while and every man needs to blow the cobwebs out now and again.

 

[LondonNeil]

I reckon English then, good. As Jeff said, it's very wet and exceptionally heavy when wet and still a heavy wood dry. Interesting to compare to your native hardwood. Although the different growing conditions may make for a difference, eucalypt here is not so dense. You should find it mostly a rewarding fiskars session, but noodle the crotches. You get some pretty warm summers so maybe 2 years to dry, it is slow drying wood though.

How did Limby like it? Getting his teeth into an Oak must a felt good!

 

[Cowboy254]

Cowboy if it’s anything like what I got the other day you’ll find it’s soaking wet when you split it but it splits easy.
Looks like we’ll both be burning oak in 2 or 3 years from now. I’m looking forward to seeing how good it is compared to eucalyptus.

What is this oak you got the other day?



I had a few swings at one of the rounds and I wouldn't say it split easy. Took several good swings. Prolly shouldn't have swung at a branchy bit. You're right though, LOTS of water in it. Once I get it down to size I'll stack it on the retaining wall in front of the woodshed, plenty of sun and breeze in a single row and many 105°+F days in summer. Hopefully it'll dry out a bit quicker than it does in its native environment.

I'm not yet convinced about @LondonNeil 's bragging about being forever disappointed about burning dense eucalypt after the oak. AFAIK, all English wood floats.

http://www.wood-database.com/english-oak/

http://www.wood-database.com/gray-box/

http://www.wood-database.com/yellow-box/

Then again, this wood that I brought home today might burn and make the flue glow for 3 days and make be look like a complete dork.

 

[Cowboy254]

I reckon English then, good. As Jeff said, it's very wet and exceptionally heavy when wet and still a heavy wood dry. Interesting to compare to your native hardwood. Although the different growing conditions may make for a difference, eucalypt here is not so dense. You should find it mostly a rewarding fiskars session, but noodle the crotches. You get some pretty warm summers so maybe 2 years to dry, it is slow drying wood though.

How did Limby like it? Getting his teeth into an Oak must a felt good!

Yes, it will be interesting considering the growing conditions. Given the lower density of plantation grown eucalypt in the NH in cooler and wetter conditions, would NH species grown over here in hotter and drier conditions be denser than back home? Could be. I think I'll noodle a few pieces of oak and bog-standard peppermint and blue gum into similar sized 3-dimensional rectangles and test it out. In 2 years time. Oh, the suspense!

There was a nice looking locust where I was today, too. Maybe I should tell him that it died given that all the leaves have fallen off it and offer to remove it for him .

 

[LondonNeil]

I think your woods win, but you'll find the Oak pretty good.

 

[Cowboy254]

How did Limby like it? Getting his teeth into an Oak must a felt good!

A 661 in wet wood = fun! The workhorse 460 had a good time doing some noodling as well. I have smashed the rakers down on it and it takes great big scoops just letting it self feed on a slight angle from the horizontal. Dry wood is where you sort the men from the boys so I'm not going to get a chance to test them out against the vaunted English Oak in dry form. The monkey saw came along for the ride but didn't really get a look in today.

 

[Cowboy254]

I think your woods win, but you'll find the Oak pretty good.

It's all a compromise, isn't it? Getting massively dense wood might be great if you have a small trailer, not much time and have to travel a bit to get your BTUs so space is an issue. It's also good to have something that can last overnight as well. TBH, most of the eucalypts around me are only mid-density, between red oak and locust. Big bits last through the night and there's very little ash so it's pretty clean. But it's not so dense that it can't put out serious heat when you need it fast. Super dense stuff (like gidgee acacia which is about twice the density of red oak, I shyte you not) is so slow burning that it's next to useless to warm your place up from cold. It'll last overnight though, and also the next day.

Bottom line: I had some fun swinging saws today and came home with a load of mystery oak that will hopefully be good burning in due course. Cowgirl and the Cowkids came over with me and had a fun day in the park and did some shopping for whatever Cowgirls and Cowkids are interested in. So, it's all good.

 

[LondonNeil]

Wowsers! We call that ''coal" .Only ours is found undergound.

You need some spruce, . We all need some spruce from time to time, for those vibrant flames for quick heat or to cosy by with a cuddle partner.

 

[Jeffkrib]

What is this oak you got the other day?



I had a few swings at one of the rounds and I wouldn't say it split easy. Took several good swings. Prolly shouldn't have swung at a branchy bit. You're right though, LOTS of water in it. Once I get it down to size I'll stack it on the retaining wall in front of the woodshed, plenty of sun and breeze in a single row and many 105°+F days in summer. Hopefully it'll dry out a bit quicker than it does in its native environment.

I'm not yet convinced about @LondonNeil 's bragging about being forever disappointed about burning dense eucalypt after the oak. AFAIK, all English wood floats.

http://www.wood-database.com/english-oak/

http://www.wood-database.com/gray-box/

http://www.wood-database.com/yellow-box/

Then again, this wood that I brought home today might burn and make the flue glow for 3 days and make be look like a complete dork.

Posted pic pg 1559 post #31166
I now have 1 cord of fresh pine and 1 cord of fresh oak ready to split and stack.

 

[rarefish383]

The link says it's in the White Oak family. Our White Oak is one of the faster drying Oaks, I commonly burn it with one year drying. I'd split a piece now and weigh it, let it sit in the sun for a week and weigh it again. Even in freezing temps it will dry and loose weight pretty fast in sun and wind. I used to cut and split one weekend and stack the next and you could feel the difference in weight that fast. You mention English woods floating. Our Sycamore (London Plane tree) has so much water in it, it sinks, and it's not very good firewood.

 

[Cowboy254]

The link says it's in the White Oak family. Our White Oak is one of the faster drying Oaks, I commonly burn it with one year drying. I'd split a piece now and weigh it, let it sit in the sun for a week and weigh it again. Even in freezing temps it will dry and loose weight pretty fast in sun and wind. I used to cut and split one weekend and stack the next and you could feel the difference in weight that fast. You mention English woods floating. Our Sycamore (London Plane tree) has so much water in it, it sinks, and it's not very good firewood.

Yes. But I meant when dry.