spencerhenry
ArboristSite Operative
i delivered a face cord of wood to a woman in aspen a week and a half ago. it was half aspen, half red oak. the oak i buy, but load and then stack myself, the aspen i cut, split, load and unload, by hand. when i load the truck, the ugly dirty, wet, or otherwise crappy pieces get tossed away. the aspen i loaded for her was from the sunny side of the pile, had been cut and split long enough ago that some of it was starting to turn silver, it is dry wood for sure. two days after i delivered the wood, she calls me and says that the wood wont burn, that she puts a bunch of georgia fat wood and a few pieces of firewood in the fireplace and it just smokes and then dies out. i suggested that she try some of the firestarters that you can buy at the grocery store, the waxy, oily bricks that look like they are made of sawdust. several days go by and i get another call from her, she says she has spent over $50 on firestarter and still cant get it to burn, she even hired some brown boy to "clean" the wood. he tells her that the wood is the dirtiest he has ever seen, and that it is full of bugs. he tells her that the bugs are a mite that birds carry, and the wood is covered with them. now i have sold thousands of face cords of wood over the years, and hand cut, split, load and stack all of it. i have seen an occasional beetle, caterpillar, or spider, but all the bugs i have ever found wouldnt fill a pint glass. also having hand loaded and then stacked all this wood, i know it isnt covered in dirt. i told her that aspen bark when it decays creates a gritty black "dirt", but that is wood, it has bark on it. but the reality is, that this wood was CLEAN, alot of it had no bark, all of it was dry. so tomorrow i am going 10 miles each way out of my way to take her some kindling. but i have told her that i want to see how she is building the fire, because i have NEVER had anyone have this problem before. in fact, most of my customers are either referrals, or repeat customers, and several customers have already burned enough wood, that they have called back and ordered more.
i have spent at least an hour and a half on the phone with her, every time she leaves me a message, it is about 5 minutes long. in the half hour long conversation with her today about bugs, she told me that she used 2 of the firestarter bricks and still could get a fire going. last night at the neighbor ladys house, i used 1/16th of a brick, 3 small pieces of pine edgings, and 2 large pieces of split aspen. i lit the firestarter and walked away, 10 minutes later i poked at the pieces of wood, and another 5 minutes later it was a roaring fire. 1/16th of a brick is about 1.25" cubed, not much.
i hate to just ignore her, but i am about to get to that point. i told her that tomorrow i would bring my moisture meter and check the wood, and if it is wet, i will replace it. but i checked a dozen or more random pieces tonight in my pile, the highest meter reading i got was on a piece of pine at 17%, most of the pieces checked were at 11 or 12%.
i have spent at least an hour and a half on the phone with her, every time she leaves me a message, it is about 5 minutes long. in the half hour long conversation with her today about bugs, she told me that she used 2 of the firestarter bricks and still could get a fire going. last night at the neighbor ladys house, i used 1/16th of a brick, 3 small pieces of pine edgings, and 2 large pieces of split aspen. i lit the firestarter and walked away, 10 minutes later i poked at the pieces of wood, and another 5 minutes later it was a roaring fire. 1/16th of a brick is about 1.25" cubed, not much.
i hate to just ignore her, but i am about to get to that point. i told her that tomorrow i would bring my moisture meter and check the wood, and if it is wet, i will replace it. but i checked a dozen or more random pieces tonight in my pile, the highest meter reading i got was on a piece of pine at 17%, most of the pieces checked were at 11 or 12%.
