Last weekend my buddy took down several enormous ash trees at his house (all victims of the emerald ash borer). All of them were 2-3 foot diameter at the trunk and died last year. Anyway, he gave away the large trunk sections to different people in his family but let me have at the leftover pile of limbs. I’ll take it! There’s probably 3 more truckloads left behind. Sometimes it’s nice to work with the small stuff that doesn’t need splitting, especially in June. Just cut and stack. It’s also nice as a scrounger to go to a legitimate place for a change and leisurely cut everything to length and load without looking over your shoulder the whole time for a state trooper By the time the snow flies all of this will be ready to burn.
That's great Eric. I love ash that size as I can leave it as is and it burns nicely. Because that tree has been dead only a year the wood should not have lost anything. However, I would definitely hesitate burning it next winter, especially because of not being split. That old wives tale of being able to burn ash right away is just that; an old wives tale. Of course you can burn any wood right away but you will not get the real benefit of the wood and it is hard on both stove and chimney.
I second that. Ash has a relatively low moisture content when it's live (around 30%, if I'm not mistaken). My stepdad (a life-long landscaper, lot clearer, and general wood guy) once told me "Ash is the only tree you can cut down and throw it right in the stove." And for all I care he can do that with his stove, but not me. I'd say check it with a moisture meter in the fall, and if it hasn't hit 20% then leave it for another season. But hey, it's your scrounge, and if you gotta burn you gotta burn! And that's a nice scrounge, BTW. Nicely done!
Right on. Moisture in ash normally is around 35-36%. That is okay for some folks but not for me. I will never forget the winter we burned fresh cut ash. We got through it but let's just say we were not comfortable and burned a lot of wood and had the draft way open most of the time.
Totally been there. Got a cord of ash from a family member one summer. He even split it for me too! Boy was I excited once fall rolled around... Long story short, we were subject to some stinky, smoky, hissing wood that burned about as good as a bucket of water. Learned my lesson!
Yeah. In my case I was injured really bad (back) back in 1984 (you can imagine how the wood cutting goes from that point on. That plus age...). After a couple of years I had to give in and buy some wood but was not concerned as a fellow who was once a close friend cut and sold firewood. Yet, when he brought it I was shocked to see that he had just cut and split it. Of course I hit him hard on that but he knew better than I, or so he thought. Said that is how they've been burning for years and that is all he was selling and he sold lots. OMG! Needless to say, I never got any more from him. We got through that winter but probably only because I could not work so was always there to tend the fire and believe me, it took a lot of tending. Gradually I got back into cutting and also had a little help, but very little. Fortunately I got lots of ash. Now imagine if you can how I split that ash. I sad on one log and using sledge and wedge I split....just by tapping the hammer. Yes, it was slow but I got the job done and eventually I got so I could do enough to get us through. Gradually I also got ahead on the wood supply again and also bought a hydraulic splitter and boy oh boy did that ever make me smile the first time I used it. Soon I was again 3 years ahead on the wood and have never been that low since. Even this year; I was not able to do any wood work this past year but, we have plenty of wood on hand.
Drying time noted. I split and checked a couple pieces with the moisture meter this afternoon and they ranged between 25-31%. Not too bad for stuff that's been dead a year and freshly cut. I ended up splitting most of it to help it along on its drying journey. At this point I have enough wood on hand that's already well below 20% to get me through the 2020-2021 winter anyway, so I don't anticipate needing any of this until the following year.
I love burning Ash, and it gets a ticket to the front of the line in the woodshed typically, but most of ours is standing dead for at least a couple years and by the time it hits the stove is in the 15% range. I always split everything down to about 2-1/2" diameter, just because... I like the stuff that bursts into flame real quick after tossing it in the stove.
Nice scoop for sure Eric. Good of them fighting with the large stuff and leaving you the easier loads.
Ash is definitely one of my favorites. I like how its easy to split, I like the drying time, even the smell of it in the stove conjures up childhood memories from way back when. There's so many dead ash trees around from those darn borers, which worries me. Eventually we may get to the point where the American Ash becomes a thing of the past.
They can struggle all they want with those behemoths, I have nothing to prove I was up there last year when they took down the very first Ash on the property and grabbed some 3 foot sections... I ended up with 2 entire truck loads, but man, I had to work long and hard for it! All that monkeying around, rolling over logs that were several hundred pounds each. Of course beggars can't be choosers, and I'll take whatever I can get that's feasible to do so with the setup I have.
Hydro just went through the property next to the place i work and i dont need it but had to take a walk in the woods to see what they cut down. Ended up telling my buddy who works different shift as me and didnt know they went through with the chainsaws? He's dealing with it at nights and is having a bit of a time with it as most of the ash is monster. No thanks been there done that.
There is some hope. We still have a few that are alive and we've been fighting this for 18 years now.
Man if you can get your hands on some rubber roofing it'll dry out that wood faster than anything I know.It'll be ready to burn by winter.
I had a suspicion there were ways to beat the drying game. Short of dragging all of my wood into the Mojave for a month, that sounds like it might work.
I used to love ash but around here it’s been dead so long that every standing ash is a crap shoot trying to drop it plus all the limbs explode like like shrapnel when they hit the ground. Been passing on ash the last couple years.
I noticed that last summer when I was visiting my father in law not too far from you in Butler PA. The dead standing ones were stripped clean of all the smaller branches and looked like a stiff breeze would mow them over any minute.
Last standing ash I tried dropping started coming apart on the way down about 4’ above the back cut. Didn’t realize I could move that fast at my age. And no, I’m not one of those that stands by the tree as it falls, I’m backing away when I see movement. Let me know next time you’re down this way, we can cut some wood then tilt a few cold ones. Let you try some ported Makita ands ported Echo.
Scary stuff. Probably better to wait for a storm to blow them over, then go investigate to see if there's anything worth taking. No tree limb is worth losing your own limbs over.
Yep that is a nice haul. I like your thinking on the smaller wood for quicker drying time and a lot easier to handle. And now that you have split a lot of it that is even better.
