Last Winter was very moderate for longer than normal & I ended up burning some high btu wood in the Spring shoulder season. This year we hit a big score on Catalpa wood, so off to the races. Have put up 4 cord of dry Catalpa & White Pine & have about 6 cord more of the Pine. Some Pics. Pic here is of the pasture & woods that we need to clean up. Second pic is some of the finished product. Upload speed is super slow, I'll add more pics later. This looks to be a good size score. I'll haul the skidder over & leave it to deck logs once the pasture is done.
I have about a cord of catalpa at my folks that was felled 15months ago. Half of it is quarted rounds. I need to tie out with a friend and his 250 pu, to go get it, a few miles away. I have about a cord of it already CSS'd. I need to get it covered. Should be fine for shoulder season.
Nice going amateur cutter. I've never burned any of that but can imagine what it is like. Looks like a nice cutting spot too so long as the sun isn't too hot.
Nice looking work AC! There was some catalpa down the street from me last spring. Tree service trimming. Didn't know what it was at the time. Too gnarly for any decent wood. Weight and texture reminded me of sassafras.
i took one log at the time and posted here for ID. I split this foot long round and i agree. Drove by the tree later on and the flowers, then bean pods. I was at a function two weeks ago and a guy there picked a bean off a tree which i identified it as Catalpa. He didnt believe me and looked it up on his smart phone and was impressed i knew that. "Ill take tree ID for $200", Alex
Another pic of the field. White Pine round on the splitter. These are some good size rounds. Pretty good trailer load.
Does the pine gum up the splitter? Is that the same field you pulled a bunch of dead ash back in late Winter?
I picked up some pine-ish evergreen rounds with the hope of some nice shoulder season splits, but couldn’t hand split them. I’m hoping if I keep them stacked a while they’ll split easier dry. This just to say I’m jealous of your pine splits.. looking good!
Shoulder season is early and late in the heating season. Not yet full blown 24/7 burning, but perhaps a nightly fire to get the chill out. Lesser btu wood is the wood of choice. Here, it could be late September and October. Then, maybe April into early May. Depends on how the weather and Temps are each year.
That Pine was cut in the spring & pretty well bled out, so no real sap issues. This field is a whole different job from the Ash score. That one is difficult to work in summer due to heavy undergrowth. We'll be back there come winter. Jobs are about 8 miles apart.
I saw some juniperus Virginiana at the dump and figured I’d jump on it for shoulder or for kindling.. not so jealous anymore.. this should split pretty easy. It was light, so I think it will be good to go for this season.
One nice thing about working there is if you got too hot you could always walk over to that pond and take a quick dip!
Catalpa burns nicely when seasoned, smells "perfumy" when burning (I don't care for the smell of the smoke), but definitely a good SS wood if you have the space to store it.... I'm swimming in chestnut oak and white oak at the moment, even gave a huge trailer load away last week. Just picked up 5 more decent sized trees at that jobsite. I gotta get crackin' on the splitter, just haven't had any time!
Try again when it gets below 0. Makes it easier to get through, in my experience. -edit- I see you might not be below 0 by your location.. I'm that case, however cold it gets, try that.
