Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I work in public works in a small town.
This was back on March 31st this year after a series of strong storms and straight line winds it was crazy how this tree fell down then but not during the Dec 11th tornado outbreak that wrecked 1/2 the town.
I scrounged the small stuff but the contractors got called in since the city doesn't have the means or equipment for such a large tree this ash was a monster!
View attachment 1001661
View attachment 1001662
View attachment 1001663
View attachment 1001664
View attachment 1001665
Wow, those ARE some monsters. What would you guess that they are at DBH? I've never had the privilege to cut stuff that big before. And I forget, is it ash or elm that's a PITA to split? One of them is real fibrous and tangly when you split it. I don't have either on my property, so I can't remember what I've seen/read about it.
 
Wow, those are some monsters. What would you guess that they are at DBH? I've never had the privilege to cut stuff that big before. And I forget, is it ash or elm that's a PITA to split? One of them is real fibrous and tangly when you split it. I don't have either on my property, so I can't remember what I've seen/read about it.
DBH?
Ash is easier to split than elm.
 
I spent the last two days gathering some firewood from the in-law's property. They had a few maple trees cut down by a company, because they didn't want me to drop the trees on their lawn and mess it up, so they hired a crew to come in with a climber to drop them. And I'm no climber. I also cut up a hollow cedar that was by their lake. I'll just use that for the burn pit outside. The maple will either go in my fireplace, or OWB.

And a short, 2-minute drone video of their property. It's been a nice "office" to work in for a couple of days.



DJI_0066.JPG
DJI_0054.JPG

DJI_0052.JPG

DJI_0056.JPG
 
I spent the last two days gathering some firewood from the in-law's property. They had a few maple trees cut down by a company, because they didn't want me to drop the trees on their lawn and mess it up, so they hired a crew to come in with a climber to drop them. And I'm no climber. I also cut up a hollow cedar that was by their lake. I'll just use that for the burn pit outside. The maple will either go in my fireplace, or OWB.

And a short, 2-minute drone video of their property. It's been a nice "office" to work in for a couple of days.



View attachment 1001807
View attachment 1001806

View attachment 1001805

View attachment 1001804

Cedar makes great kindling
 
Red Oak is very heavy when green (wet), but it is porous so it will dry faster than White Oak.

That is why White Oak is what they use for wine barrels, ship building and the locks on the Erie Canal.
Red oak takes better than a year to season here I burn a lot of cherry and black locust.
 
Cedar makes great kindling
That's true. But I will get busy in the next couple of days making some wax and noodles to make some fire starters. We were talking about them five or six pages ago. I hadn't known about the (whatever they're called) fire starters that are made of noodles mixed up with wax until recently. So, I had the wife buy some candles, and I'm going to melt them down in an old crock pot, and then pour the wax over some maple noodles, and see how that works for starting fires. Based on what I've seen on YouTube, it will either eliminate, or greatly reduce the need for kindling when starting fires. We'll see how well they work in real life though.
 
That's true. But I will get busy in the next couple of days making some wax and noodles to make some fire starters. We were talking about them five or six pages ago. I hadn't known about the (whatever they're called) fire starters that are made of noodles mixed up with wax until recently. So, I had the wife buy some candles, and I'm going to melt them down in an old crock pot, and then pour the wax over some maple noodles, and see how that works for starting fires. Based on what I've seen on YouTube, it will either eliminate, or greatly reduce the need for kindling when starting fires. We'll see how well they work in real life though.
Corn cobs are great for kindling as well if you access to them.

If you have access to black walnuts the fruit they drop in the fall let them dry and turn brown because they burn white hot with little to no ash and make great fire starter because the oil in black walnuts burn very well.
 
Corn cobs are great for kindling as well if you access to them.

If you have access to black walnuts the fruit they drop in the fall let them dry and turn brown because they burn white hot with little to no ash and make great fire starter because the oil in black walnuts burn very well.
I use cobs to clean the underside of my mower decks…stack up a few piles then run them over….works like a charm!!!
 
Back
Top