Noticed a 12"DBH dead red oak that fell on a fence right along the road. I contacted land manager and asked if I get the tree off the fence and repair it, can I have the tree? Got the go ahead, so took advantage of unusually cool low humidity August day for PA and got it yesterday. Only problem was the mob of blackflies' that attack me the second I stepped out the truck door.....d@%$ they were bad. Copious amounts of deet and 2 stroke smoke kept them at bay a little, but it was miserable. Worth the effort though, clean, barkless, no ants and pretty dry already, I split an 8" round and checked with moisture meter. 21%. So split and stacked in the sun and top covered, should be ready to go by winter if I need it.
Dang, those insects try my patience. We're bad with black flies in May - this time of year it's deer flies, and they're miserable too. This winter when you're burning that primo wood you won't even remember the insects. (Hopefully)
I’m not saying your oak will do this, but I got some nice aged on the stump standing dead red oak one summer. I mean it looked ready to go tomorrow. I split stacked and covered it several months before using it. It was the most unbelievably obnoxious bubbling hissing snake wood I ever tossed on a fire. No idea standing dead wood could hold so much water months after being covered.
I didn’t have a meter at the time. Never would have considered checking it, because it had been dead for so long.
That's happen to me too, but I think I'm good with this one. I burnt some of the smaller diameter stuff in a campfire last night and it did not bubble and hiss, rather burnt well.
Oak are notoriously slow giving up its water. Here on rare chance I get some.. it’s on a 4 year stack
As a follow up to that tree, I never had such a miserable oak in my life to split as this one. Have not used wedge and sledge in years and never on anything this small in diameter. I'm REALLY going to enjoy watching everyone of those pieces burn.
