I would take truckloads of black (cherry) birch in a hot second. Its rt up there with btu’s and dries so fast
Haha, that they are. You can alwasy tell when someone is burning a pile of old hay, it's just a cloud of smoke and it smolders and smokes for days.
So thats what my landlord is burning in his stove! I thought it was the four month old beech and oak he split.
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who posted right at the last min the logger said the birch was nicer wood so I ended up going half and half and it’s all great wood.
Nice! Get that birch split and keep it covered and you’ll be fine. Look at some of the bogydave threads if you want to see some nice stacks of birch. 6+ cord, 2019 wood processing "Done"
If that is sugar or red maple, then that's a great load. If it's silver maple...not so much (still good but not as nice as sugar or red). As for the white birch, I never understood the negative perception about it. Yes, if not processed correctly it will go punky quick and yes, it doesn't have the same BTU's as other hardwoods, however I burn a lot of white birch every year and would take all I can get. I don't have to wait two to three years for it to dry, it splits easily, and there is plenty of it around. In several European countries it is the preferred firewood and not because it is the only firewood available. I was just talking with an arborist a few days ago and he commented on how people will pay him hundreds of dollars to cut down a perfectly good white birch tree and haul it away but then will spend twice as much for green oak firewood that they won't be able to burn for three years. At any rate, I see you're in Min-eh-so-cold so you shouldn't have storage issues during the winter. I don't know how soon you plan to process the logs however if they are going to sit after the snow melts, I hope you put some runners down perpendicular to the logs in order to keep the majority of the bottom logs off the ground. Also, for the birch logs, if they are going to sit for a while I would recommend running your chainsaw down the length of the log to 'unzip' the bark. Birch bark traps an inordinate amount of water and oil inside the bark so having the bark split will at least provide the log some ability to expel some of the moisture and slow down the deterioration until you can process them. When you do start processing the timber, I would CSS the birch first. Once split, you shouldn't have any issues if the timber was living when it was cut. I've had white birch splits in stacks (both covered and uncovered) for years with no issues.
I am not an expert but the chatter among the wood cutters at the SF is a load of logs cut like these can go to a paper mill and be used to make the center layer of cardboard for making boxes. The paper mill pays per cord and a local sale would save the logger the cost to transport the wood. It would be interesting to know if paper mills buy that type of log since they appear too small for a board mill. I c/s/s and cover maple ahead of oak because maple can attract the little borers which introduce two things into maple. The good: yeast and so my woodshed can smell like a distillery for a week after c/s/s maple poles which fermented for several months after borers. Maple is the only wood to ferment in my cutting (I did say it was my favorite firewood ) . The bad: fungus which can degrade maple in less than one year. The little borers do not find every maple log since I have cut maple poles which were on the ground for two years but still had wood clear enough to make furniture. I keep all my c/s/s maple top covered and off the ground.
I wood love to get a load like that. Great size bit too big for processing. The guys around here save wood like that for people with processors and give the average Joe the big twisted trunks and tops. That should keep you busy for a while!
Well I got it all processed and it’s been a great experience. It was a crazy amount of work and a great learning experience. I will be faster next time for sure.
