Today at the Ash score, the town hired tree guys came by to look at 2 EAB kill trees near where I am cutting the Long Awaited Ash Score. I chatted with the tree company for a few minutes. They have 2 or 3 EAB kill Ash trees on the road to take down. This town pays to have any contractor wood chipped. The town used to deliver tree lengths to townfolk, but someone backed into something one day, and now they just chip it all. But the tree guys or any townie can let the tree guys know they want the wood and the tree guys will leave it. Needless to say, I have 4 Ash trees to cut left from the original score. Now I will have 3 more left roadside for me (or whom ever wants it). The tree company is local, and drives for a fuel oil company outta Stafford. He says that the Weathersfield and one other fuel depot locally has been out of HHO for WEEKS. They get their oil piped in from New Haven CT. New Haven is so low on oil, they refuse/are unable to pump any to Weathersfield and the other location. The guys at the oil company fully expect to see oil get to or exceed $8/G The tree company fellow says he burns wood at about the same rate as I do, but has a teeny weenie collection of wood. He claimed Ash should be 13% right off the stump if dead, and can be burned right away. I whipped out my meter once he was gone, to test the wood I was splitting (dead a year or better). The meter pegged over to 'high'. He also thought Oak would dry in 10 months. He didn't hear me when I suggested to the contrary. SCA whole lot.
You can get any wood to burn green. That does not mean it is good. I remember the days when we were sawing all cottonwood. Boy, how it stunk around the mill! Yet, we burned the slabwood every day. It gave a hot fire too. But there was no way we would burn that in our stoves. I did burn fresh cut ash one winter. We got by but it was a miserable winter. I think we cleaned our chimney 4 times that winter too.
Tree guys are not necessarily wood stove guys. Unless we're desperate, unseasoned wood won't be in the wood stove here.
