I prefer to cut all summer and split and stack as I go. I hunt in the fall when everyone else around me starts cutting. Most of my wood I cut from blow down trees! Lots of red oaks have died the last several years here so lots of trees are falling. For me I don't like to cut big living oaks they are a thing of beauty but some times land owners are going to just push them up in a pile and burn them so I cut them up for wood.
I cut as much as I can in winter, spring, and fall I try to just stack. Since I'm trying to get ahead with my hoard, I've been cutting whenever I can, even fall. I don't cut in hot summer months. I've got other, more fun things to do then. Cutting and splitting is fun, in a sense, but I don't like roasting my butt off. When the inland lakes' water is warm enough, I'm in it.
I cut any time if a good opportunity comes up; but My main cutting is done in Oct, after moose season a few frost knocks the bugs out of the woods. More fun for me to cut in the 30° to 40 ° temp range
Whenever the opportunity arises and I have space to spare, though that second condition is somewhat flexible. I've been refilling my racks all winter as I emptied them -- pear tree from one neighbor, hard maple from another, soft maple from a third neighbor, ash from a few miles away, standing dead red oak from a little further away. I'd like to go cutting now, since the weather is so pleasant, but I'm about done for the year.
"Start" cutting?? Well nobody told me to stop!! I have dreams about it... I built this pile last summer/fall after I ran out of pallets to stack on. That's more than enough to replace everything I burned this year. This was all down or standing dead - ash, red maple, red pine, and a little elm. The splitting and stacking is about 1/4 of the way done; hope to have it done by May, so it can dry through the whole summer. Due to the lay of my land (low and flat), I have to do most of my hauling during the summer. It's just not easily accessible other times of the year. I had hoped to start hauling more in the winter, but the amount of snow we had here this year made it impossible. If I'm dropping trees, I prefer to do it when there are no leaves, and no nesting birds to disturb. But really, any time of year I can get out there, I'll take. I basically jump at any chance I get to play with my chainsaws.
Like everyone else, any time is a good time to cut and stack firewood. I like to cut and split while the wife is working. Any time its between 30-70 degrees and dry is good for me. Red Oaks are dying here also. Mostly snapping off about 10" off the ground. They usually look ok but have a rotten spot inside.
I guess, I'm different, what a shock huh, I won't cut alone bad legs risk not worth it. I like to cut this time of year. get them to the 2 acre landing block split at leisure in morning when it's cool til fall. in fall, I restack dry wood onto wood deck holds 10 plus cord and keep refilling til snows too deep then hibernate in front of wood stove til spring. snows to deep in winter to cut, we will have a cutting party next weekend a few buddies will come up with saws drop andvlimb all down and damaged wood. then over next week tow with tractor to landing. BUT this year I am going to put up 30 to 40 cord to get a 3 year plan established. so I would be cutting now except we have 35 mph winds
I hate processing wood when its hot out, gets miserable at 90F+. I prefer 50F and below for CSSing. I usually start cutting when I start burning and replenish the stacks as I burn. I got behind this winter but almost caught back up. I've got enough wood on the porch to finish up the year and should have the stacks full in another week or two.
I have 1 Bradford left in the yard. 5 years ago when we bought the house, we had 5 total... 2 got whacked right off the bat, 2 broke in the wind (weak). Thinking about cutting the remaining one down. I always heard they weren't worth burning... Any thoughts?
I cut and split to stay in some form of being in shape. I'll cut all year round because I enjoy it so much.
I haven't burned any yet, but I suspect you heard wrong; it's pretty dense stuff. Not the easiest to hand-split, though.
I think most fruit woods are pretty high BTU, Bradford pear has been discussed on here somewhere before Here we go
I agree, I'd tried to split some up for the fire pit a few times. Maybe we can find some btu #'s somewhere. I could see "Bartlett" pear fitting that type, but does "Bradford" qualify, since it is ornamental- just asking, 'cos I don't know if there's a difference between Fruit & Ornamental varieties
