Doing more storm cleanup. Yesterday I was cutting tops and took everything firewood size (>3-4"). Today in an effort to further reduce the brush piles, I cut to length a bunch of branches mostly from about 1-1.25" and up. I've got 4 garbage cans full and will have at least 4 mores worth by the time I'm done. So the question is; should I dry this stuff for kindling and small fires or just burn in the chiminea like I was going to. It's all very clean and currently bug free so I could even stack it in the house. I've made rows outside with stuff like this before and it looks kinda neat but not sure its worth bothering. Anyone ever deal with anything similar? (sorry for the bad pics)
I'm working through a bunch of Maple pieces like that. I just throw all those on top of the regular stacks.
I save it when it's at the house Use the small stuff for fire pit wood Don't go out of the way to bring it home though. The good rounds, 3" & up come home .
I look at it this way, if my saw, my gas mix, and my troubled lower back has had anything to do with more than leaf stems, I'm keeping it! What we need is a small device to strip twigs and leaf stems from branchy, limby stuff <3-4" diameter. Like a debarker, but not sooo aggressive. Just my pain meds talking....
This stuff is mostly oak. There's some locust, a little basswood and a decent amount of sass. Those oak sticks can take a long time to dry, around here anyways. That's kind of why I'm toying with the idea of bringing them in. If stacked neatly it might look cool for a year until they're burnable in the stove.
I put 'em in some container, trash can, wood box, or whatever, and use them in dead of winter to top off the load for the night.
I've been tinkering in my mind how to dry chips quick like and cheap.... Old clothes dryer, windmill powered spinning, add solar collector for heat? Keep wondering about such things....
It it was worth the work up to this point, then it is also worth the little extra work of putting them into the wood stacks. I would not do a separate one, just mix it in with the other wood. In addition, even if oak, it does not take long for those small things to dry out; certainly not the time it takes for a large log even after it is split. We do sometimes stack small stuff by itself but most times it just goes in with the regular wood. In spring or fall it works well but also in the winter months, it can get mixed in to pack the stove tight during those long and cold winter nights.
