Been burning wood out of the shed this year - cut and stacked 32 months ago. Nice and dry - this section of the shed is 5 rows, about 3.5 cords total. Down to the last row and and it’s all Willow and Box Elder. What was I thinking? Yea it burns fine it’s just poof gone. Never taking Willow again!
Yeah, I learned the hard way how not to pile in the shed. Usually the junk wood gets piled in the barn so I purposely have to want to get it.
It was wood and it was free so seemed like a good idea at the time. Live and learn. Burns better than snowballs though. I unintentionally took a small amount of willow a year ago. Thought it was mulberry before i cut it. Gave it to my friend to mix with his wood.
I did that once…I am midst hickory and maple right now. Strategic stacking and no junk wood goes in the shed!!!!
Gpsfool, did you plan the stacks that way, to have shoulder season type wood on that last row? Of were you just grabbing and processing what you could, and that's just how it shook out? So, I was thinking something similar along these lines the other week when it comes to processing wood. Not meaning the willow as an exact example, but more along the lines of wood species drying time and burn characteristics..... And I'm sure my question will be impacted potentially by how much wood a person has on hand and where they are in the '3 year plan" concept... When processing and stacking wood...do most folks separate out by species/drying time/burn characteristics? Or just stack everything together if that's how their processing area/wood pile ends up being at the time of processing (ie maple, oak, black locust and poplar could be side by side)? I can see how it can be beneficial both ways..the "ease of throwing everything in one stack and not being spread out...but also the benefit of having different piles to pull from based on conditions and need. But that also is more moving around seeking out that needed wood type at the time. Yeah I know, I'm over thinking it to a lot of folks.... But I could see real world advantages of the thought process.
I separate between shoulder fire woods and quality hardwoods. Also separate hickory and black locust. Mostly because they are woods I never had before and wanted to keep them separate for testing. Also one of the few who bring an entire winters worth of wood into the basement. I separate down there also. Just gives me a choice of what I want to burn at any one time. Sometimes when it’s real cold and I’ve let the house cool off too much I’ll burn the lighter shoulder season woods. I can make more heat burning hot and fast with no coaling stages to go through. Just takes more wood and more running up the stairs.
I have 3-1 cord bins devoted to shoulder wood. 3 year plan. All of my good wood gets piled in 2+ cord bins in my wood shed.
LOL, sounds like lodgepole, the only wood I've ever known. It took me forever when I first joined here to figure out why I did not have coals in the morning after overnight. I had to stoke at 2 am to make til husband got up to restoke before it was all just fluffy fly ash.
I had 2 large willows on my property. One uprooted and smashed our above ground pool, the other I have tried to kill once. Having already known it's reputation, all the wood went on my outside burn pile. The one I've tried to kill came back with a vengeance.
I tried to educate a brother one time about willow. Was explaining to him about BTU's and such but he's old school. "If it's wood it burns. You can take your BTU's and stick em up your...!" It's the only time I ever got an apology from him. He said the paper he lit the fire with burned longer than the willow.
Have you tried throwing in a mixture of LP and Doug Fir at night? You would be surprised at how little ash is left, and stove depending how many hot coals are left. I don't shut down my stove from Beginning of October to the end of May (generally spaeaking). If I burn only Doug fir I only have to take out a few gallons every two weeks or so. If burning LP, I have to do this every 5-7 weeks. I always leave an inch or two in the bottom so my stove will kick off right away.
When I trim willow up here, it always amazes me that the leaves get so much bigger and how much faster that junk grows. Even in zone 3 you can expect four foot of growth after a hair cut. Willow sucks.
