This weekend I had a neighbor knock at my door and asked me if I wanted some firewood. He told me that another neighbor told him that I will come and drop and haul off dead trees. Not sure which one told him but this is the 5th person that lives near by that has opened up their land to me to cut and haul out the dead trees. Now I have 7 acres plus my own 1.5 acres of woodlands to cut from. This weekends haul I am estimating about 4 more cords of beetle killed pine. This is awesome for me for a couple of reasons first I get free wood, I don't have to go far to get it, and it reduces the fire danger in my immediate area.
You are still working hard for what you have, but it is a win win for the landowners and you. Thanks for sharing. Nice dog in the picture. Your helper?
Good stuff! I try to not turn down free wood and the same people come back year after year with more. Word does get around.
It's getting to be the same for me gmule. Except I'm getting some low btu stuff for the wear and tear on my saws... Oh well, shoulder season and firepit are good to go for several years!
Thats a good looking start to a good reputation. I'm sure the news will travel and you'll be a busy boy. Nuttin wrong with that
X2 on all the previous posts! For me, just like Eric VW, it seems to be shoulder season wood most of the time. "The word" sure travels quickly if you can be prompt and leave the land in better shape than before you got there! Congrats!
gmule, I've gotta tell ya, you got your reputation the day you signed up and became a member here!! Good score!
Being a member of the firewood hoarder's club, a great reputation to have, Nice barkless pine is much cleaner to handle than the stuff that still has bark. You find that barkless is drier wood ? How much seasoning time needed getting the dead standing compared to the down stuff ?
These pines are pretty much ready to burn due to the way the beetles kill the trees. The beetles kill the tree by eating the cambium layer of the tree. When the cambium layer is destroyed the tree can no longer move water or nutrients and the tree dies from drying from the inside out. Once the green needles turn to rust the tree has a about a 25- 30% water content. if the bark has fallen off and the outside layer of wood is grey it has about 10% moisture content. you also have to be careful when in the forest with a lot of dead standing trees because the risk of them falling is high. The dead standing trees are actually drier than those that have been on the ground for a while since the trees on the ground will wick moisture from the soil. this is not my picture but it shows how dry the trees are when they are cut down if you are in an area with a lot of beetle killed trees you can hear them creak from a light breeze because they are dry and already splitting up the sides they are so dry. During the summer months I can CSS a beetle killed pine and let it sit in the sun for a couple of days and burn it the next week. It takes a little longer to dry in the winter months but can still be ready in a month. A green cut tree will take a 6 - 8 months to dry out comparatively. When I used to hunt all I would have do is take a chainsaw and a maul with us and we would drop a beetle killed tree CSS and burn it that day while we set up camp.
Yea, some good points, but; we here know the amount of work in a cord of CSS wood. & pine isn't the cleanest wood to process. You're getting your good reputation the old fashioned way, you're earning it with hard work !! A good thing about dry pine, it's light weight. How's it for splitting? more pictures when you can
These lodge pole pines are not as messy as you would think. They are a straight grain soft wood with a thin bark that are super easy to split. I use a 12 ton hydraulic log spliter if I want to blast through a pile of rounds or an 8lb maul if I want some exercise. These trees don't get very big compared to what you guys that burn hardwoods are used to. A large diameter tree will have a circumference of 10 - 13 inches and a average height of 60 - 80 feet
