So earlier this year I did a local arborist a favor and took a massive willow tree off his hands. It was a Sunday, the dump was closed, and he had to get rid of the tree. On the phone he told me it was "big," but he dumped it and took off before I discovered rounds as big as 6 foot in diameter. I already have 20+ cords of oak, hickory, and ash, so I was less than thrilled to spend the better part of a weekend cutting and splitting 5+ cords of stinky willow. It's amazing how a wood what weighs almost nothing when seasoned is back-breaking heavy when green. In any event, I called the guy and complained that his "big" willow tree was as wide as I am tall. He said he would bring me some good logs next time he cut some in the area. That was six months ago and I had almost lost hope.. . Today he finally made it right with four 16' dump trailer loads (heaping loads) of maple. There are two types of maple from two different trees. Maple #1: Not sure about this one. Sugar maple? Mature silver maple? Red maple? No leaves or branches with buds available to help ID this tree. Maple #2: I think this one is Norway maple. Anyone agree? Disagree?
Working on my post count eh Sorry you had to process a giant trash tree. That would infuriate me to have to expend energy and $ to get rid of trash. In the winter of 92 I asked a tree guy for wood. I was broke, living in an old colander of a shack and couldn’t afford filling the oil tank. Dk bag dumped a load of big knotty white pine and I got pneumonia.
Until this maple I had just about given up on the tree guys dropping off logs. I have received not only the mutant willow, but also big spruce (burns hot with some fireworks, for about a half hour, then dies out), some mutant stinky poplar logs filled with raccoon crap, and knotty pine logs that's done split right even with a 35 ton splitter. I guess there aren't a lot of customers asking tree services to come cut down their healthy oak or hickory trees and take away the logs... Just these massive, fast growing, quick dying, and low-btu sh*t wood trees.
He is probably keeping the good stuff or giving it to someone else and using you to save on tipping fees. Primo trees are cut down everyday.
Without looking at other replies a say first one is sugar based on wood grain texture. Bark of #1 has a red maple look to it though, second is Norway. Id say you did good John...other than having to process the willow. Idve been POed about that.
Where is Carleton? I have access to all the quality wood you want over here. No need to deal with trash. I agree with Chud , I think you're being used as a free dump.
I concur with silver and Norway maples. you haven't been made whole on the willow firewood hoarding faux pas yet.
I think you're right. I've burned silver maple. It punches above its weight. Dries fast and ends up quite light, but burns hot, clean, and longer than it should given how light it is. I am hoping the 2+ cords of Norway that I get from this tree burn even better.
Yeah, I know. I do have some shoulder season wood now for the next few years if I can keep it from rotting. My experience with poplar -- and willow is in the same family -- is that it really needs to be top covered after it spends one summer uncovered. Just too much of a sponge even when seasoned. And the fungus love it... I am not a firewood snob. I burn mostly oak and hickory, but I have no problem with silver maple, elm, and even a little basswood. But the willow is just plain bad firewood. Seems even worse than cottonwood, which is god awful. Once fully seasoned -- and it will get down to 15% in a year if top covered after the first summer -- normal size splits burn so hot and fast I risk overfiring my stove. There's no controlling the burn rate with air controls unless I want black glass because it off gases too fast. So all I can really do with willow is add one or two splits to a stove full of good hardwood, or have a "flash fire" with 3 or 4 small splits running the stove with the air wide open. Anyone else got any ideas on how to burn the stuff? I've got 6 pallets stacked over 8 feet high with the stuff. I am not exaggerating. Just one tree.
Carleton is in SE Michigan. Near Detroit Metro Airport. A small, farming community for the most part. As for the willow tree, I was being used as a dump. But the same guy has brought me 25+ loads of free wood chips which I use on my trails, in the rows of my garden, etc, so I was just trying to return the favor. I didn't know the favor was 6' diameter. I know he's got to get rid of the chips one way or another, but I love getting them. I got 100+ loads this past summer from a handful of tree guys, and would take 500 more loads if I could get them.
Ok, fair enough if you're happy with the arrangement. I'd ask to borrow his chipper for a weekend & shove those Willow splits through it, if the chips are worth it to you.
I would suggest cutting ties with this tree guy and finding another one. I have had nothing but great success with tree guys. Sometimes you have to repeatedly and explicitly clear about what you want. I even gave several tree guys my homemade 16" magnetic measuring sticks so they would have no excuse for bucking logs 20" or 10". I tell them I don't want any branches as I have enough already and they know that I just want trunk wood and don't want shorties. As long as they are cool about that and it doesn't take much effort for them to separate it's a great symbiotic relationship where I save them several hundred dollars a load and I get free wood that requires minimal processing before I split them.
Lol. You have a pretty unique situation in NY. Up north where many people burn for heat tree services would laugh at your for such requests. I’m sure there are exceptions but very few. Entire tress get sent through the chipper for biomass. The ones that don’t fit in get sold as logs or cut and split for firewood.
The first (and best) tree service guy I met after hearing chainsaws nearby. I had only split a tiny bit of black locust given to me by my neighbor when he cut a huge one down. I helped him operate the splitter. I was initially thinking "Nah, I don't want to bother them" but that was followed immediately by "Well the worst they could say is no I can't have the wood" So I walked over there, asked nicely, and the guy looked at me like he hit the jackpot. He said I could have it. I told him to leave it there and since I'm only 2 houses away I'd come and take it and he snapped "NO!! I've been burned by too many people who said they would take the wood. You show me where you want it and I'll drop it off." I could not believe it. Hahahaha. And that was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. So the moral of the story is.....you never know until you ask.....and if you try you may indeed fail.....but if you don't try at all then you've already failed. All it takes is that one guy that you connect with. Maybe a smaller tree removal company where them giving you the wood saves them more money than otherwise getting rid of it.
We live in very different worlds my friend. In no way would someone cutting wood to my desired lengths and I only want the good stuff dropped at my house save anybody any amount of money around here. It is exactly the opposite. My father had a tree service come in and clear roughly an acre to gain more light for a solar array. He had to concede to the logger for less money to keep some of the hardwood logs on his own property.