I'm about 1/2 way thru splitting the BL that's going in the holzhausen, and I think I might be a couple trailer loads short of a full stack... So the specific variety of wood I'm looking for is "barkless black locust uglies", which are coming in handy for keeping my outer ring level. It should also be about as dry as the rest of the BL going in there - low 20's, high teens. Figured the best source would be smaller diameter trees that were mostly suspended off the ground. There happened to be two of them kind of in the way of a trail and future work site. Both nice easy access. This one was pretty close to the road, and close to a couple standing dead leaners that will come down eventually. This one was hanging over the main "trail" leading into my little gold mine, so ya know, for safety's sake and all... Worked on it from the small end first, until there was only about a 4 foot chunk left dangling. Then I dropped the rest of the stump. Made for a decent trailer load. Might need another, especially if I have time tomorrow after I drive my grandfathers old Farmall cub back home...
Yea I've been called a few splits short of a cord Shawn Bet it feels good to have so much high BTU wood so so close. Getting dry stuff ready to burn is even better! You gonna be burning any of it this burn season ?
Nope - got at least this year and next taken care of. This might get used 16-17, if it ends up being drier than the other locust I css earlier this summer. Got everything sawn up, plus another 1/2 load of branches. Picked out the shorts and split those up too. Ill have a nice selection of curvy and odd shaped pieces to work with now.
It sucks having a bottomless supply of oak. But look to the bright side, at least it smells better when you burn it.
Yeah, I only have about 10 decent sized oak... Plenty of this black locust though! Guess ill just have to settle...
I see a decent amount of it up here - if for any reason you ever drive up I81 in Virginia the road is practically lined with it in many spots.
I thought it was supposed to be more of a southern Appalachian tree. Apparently it must have been pretty popular with the farmers around here. On my street, and on my way to work, I see tons of them. The thing that I think I like most about it, is that it doesn't rot! My grandfather was probably the last person to cut any firewood in this stand, so some of this might have been down for 20 years! This stuff would have been ant food years ago if it was any other species. It splits great, but it's heavy, even at 20% MC. It can leave a pretty big mess of bark too. Got smart this time, and left 99% of it in the woods.
