I would take anything below white ash on this list and think it has decent seasoning chances for what you after once it is c/s/s. And all of it would do well in the shoulder seasons. If possible, get all you can from white ash up and get it c/s/s all of those will do great when you need the most btus, like Jan-Feb http://outreach.cnr.ncsu.edu/woodworkshops/documents/ChimneySweepsWoodBTUChart.pdf
Aspen, pine, poplar, pine, ash and red or silver maple all should dry pretty quick. My Aspen dries in 8 months down to 14%. Not sure why Bill had that issue with his Aspen? It happens. I heard the bark on Aspen can hold the water in pretty good? It does burn up really quick though, but my experience is that it dries quickly, but don't expect a long burn. Split everything a little smaller and stack them in the sun topcovered if possible. Always could try the solar kiln approach too. I worked this year cutting a bunch of oak because I had enough seasoned wood available for the next couple years and wanted to get ahead a bit and I knew the oak would take longer to season. But if you need to get ahead, cut some of the softer woods since they dry quicker. Bottom line is you (and a lot of us) need to cut more than you need for a couple years to get ahead. Give that new saw a workout this year..
Great thread guys! I actually just burned a piece of dead and downed poplar earlier this evening. There's a whole hill of easy to get poplar where I cut wood. I'll need to cut that up and get it for next year.
t, etc and I keep getting comments like : "I thought you said that would be gone in a year" and " Would that be hard to move so it couldn't be seen from the street" ? Helpful things like that. Billb3 so that's you with the ugly stack over on----- st we are out in the woods over here and I still get the same thing about my stacks " can't you fix that cover before someone comes over"
With a little sleep under my scalp, most of the aspen (and the poplar too come to think of it) is in decline albeit for different reasons and that aspen didn't have a lot of leaves on it any more. Part of the reason it was cut down. I have a lot of dead standing poplar and it isn't worth taking a saw to. I should cut a green live one some day to find out what burning properly seasoned poplar is like.
I'd have to agree with that... It dries fast in the sun and wind as does many others. I find cherry dries very fast as well and burns beautifully. Ash is always a go to for fast dry wood however.
Not that I would want to deplete my beautiful hoard, but I think I could get by on a 1 year plan with aspen, maple, and ash. All of those could be split in early spring and burned the same winter. I like to burn different species depending on how cold it is. Aspen when it's 40's -> 50's, Maple when it's 30's -> 40's, and Ash when it's really cold. In regards to problems with Aspen - it's probably only worth getting if it's live or storm damaged. Most of the time its rotten before it hits the ground. And keeping it bone-dry is critical - it really seems to soak up water, so if it gets wet even a little bit after October when you're trying to burn it, you might as well forget about it until spring.
I stumbled onto a new woodlot within 10 minutes of my place that has a bunch of oak dead and/or down. I'm planning on doing Uncle Augie solar kilns on pallets to dry it down to be ready for burning next fall. I've got a mess of dead elm and ash c/s/s'd already so if the oak doesn't get dry enough I'm not out anything. I highly recommend the standing dead elm and ash as a source of "quickly ready to burn" wood. I'm not 100% certain what's going on with them around our area but they seem to be all over the place and they'll get to be about 16" diameter or maybe a little bigger and then they're dead and all the bark falls off. I'm not certain how to detect tree diseases so that could be one answer but at any rate I'm burning the bejesus outta them!
I'll second what a couple guys said about cherry. It dries quick and is pretty good BTU wise. My plan for while I was waiting for oak to dry was to burn pine (dries super fast) during the day when I'm at home (short burn time) and cherry at night and when I leave the house (long burn time). Pine will dry in less than a year and cherry will dry in about a year around here.
On that 22% oak, I would be willing to bet it will be very nice to burn next winter. Ash can be ready in a year easily. Same with silver maple. Red maple can be ready in 6 months. As for other types, others have mentioned many and we really don't know what you have available there so I'll refrain from naming any others. Well, I could add to the popple/aspen conversations. Twice we have gone a whole winter with over 90% of our wood being popple. One year, it was dead popple. Yes, we burned a lot of it but all it cost was to cut and haul it to the house. We made out okay and nobody froze, not even a water pipe. Still, I'd hate to have to do that again. Better to burn the popple in the fall or spring.
That's the thing.. I really want to save the oak for next winter but if I'm gonna keep going this year I'm gonna have to use some of it. There area I'm in has just about every species around. I'm looking hard for red and silver maple right now..
I know cherry is quick but I'm probably gonna be buying some logs or rounds and the money they want for cherry or other fruit wood around here is absurd. Waiting for a guy that does land clearing to get back to me about ash, poplar, and maple.
And as always, thank you everyone for the replies. I knew I'd get a better idea of what to look for and I did. Never even thought of poplar. And this one is new.. So I'm gonna use it..lol..
Well 12 hour work days don't make any of this easier for me..lol.. Hated to do it but I dug out a row of oak and mulberry to burn that I wanted to save for next year. The mulberry is good in the 15-18% range but the oak is between 20-24%. I'm gonna split the bigger ones again as I bring them in and let em sit by the stove for a few days before I burn them. This 3 year plan thing seems like the way to go... I'm gonna keep working at it and post pics as I go..lol..
