Took down a small standing dead hard maple for a customer yesterday(12" DBH). Put the small limbs on the dump trailer and anything 3" and up I put on the dump truck to take home with me. I made the mistake of stopping at the shop first. My BIL was there and seen the wood on the truck and asked if I needed it. I guess I really didn't but it would have rounded out my "17" or "18" supply nicely. My BIL is an old school wood burner that cuts now and burns tomorrow and he is never going to change. He kinda hinted that he could sure use the wood. I said fine, whatever, and grabbed my gear outta the truck and threw the keys to the truck and trailer at him. I'm pretty sure I got warmer cutting and loading that tree up than he will tryin to burn it this winter.
Nice job helping out the family. Any idea how long it was dead? Small diameter stuff could be good to go if its been dead a while. My BIL and I cut a couple loads of small diameter windfall ash last weekend, and the stuff that wasnt touching the ground was in the teens on the MM.
Now that you mention it, I do have is 1 and only saw in the shop and I pretty sure he don't know it. He lives by the Cedar river so maybe some beavers will chew it into stove length for him. It wasn't dead long. I planted the trees at this business oh so many years ago when they were all just 2" diameter trees. It, like so many others died a slow death from being girdled by the lawn care companies and weed whackers. The wounds on the root crown of this tree made JFK's head wound look mild in comparison.
Met a guy at the cutting area that says he cut, splits, seasons for a month. He's burning wood now that he cut 2 weeks ago. At least in March , he'll be burning 6 month seasoned wood. LOL Gave him the spill about seasoning, got the puzzled look. Says he has a creosote problem, I said "yea, that makes sense" I mean the wood now is really heavy, gotta be 50 - 60% or more water.
That's like my neighbor. He cuts wood today and burns it tomorrow. I asked him if he cleans his outside pipe and he said no, I only clean my stove pipe that goes thru the wall. I told him if he ever looked at his outside pipe and he said no, I said look at it, it has all this black stuff " creosote " coming out of it. He asked me what it was lol. I told him to clean it before his burns down he looked at me as if I was stupid. I told him have a nice day
I've had a few customers that made sure I didn't bring any "of that dried up chit"... ie... seasoned wood.
My neighbor has to clean his chimney every month cause it clogs up and smokes him out....Green wood....But he has done it all his life....
Not sure I could burn like that. Even though he cleans it on the regular it just doesn't feel like peace of mind to me.
And I'm sure none of those guys have ever stopped to consider just how much it is costing them to burn unseasoned wood. Of course it is difficult to put a hard figure to it but no doubt they will burn at least 30% more wood than if burning seasoned wood. So it costs money and also costs a lot of extra time to cut, split and stack. In addition, cleaning chimney and stove, etc. But sadly, few will change.
That may be the way to approach the subject next time. Put it in cost in real $$, sometimes that hits home better.
My BIL is the same way. Every year (about) I re-mention that the type of stove he has would do so much better with wood that's dry for a couple years. Every year he re-mentions that he's going to get ahead on he wood piles. Every year he asks if i know anyone selling wood this late without a pre-order. Every year I remind him to clean his chimney.
