More wood for me then! Took this elm down today. Last time I had elm I left it in the round for a few months then split it when the bark was coming off. Good looking splits and a lot less tearing stringy mess when you do it that way. I've got a hydraulic though so that makes a difference.
What I like best are: Gambel oak Douglas fir Pinyon Aspen/spruce I have an over abundance of ponderosa pine. Also juniper is here but I have lots of shag bark (or Rocky Mountain as it is also called as well as “cedar”) near me but it eats my chains for breakfast and leaves lots of ash so I just avoided it this last year or two. But alligator juniper I hear is excellent but it’s a drive for me. The gambel oak is the same distance drive but the opposite direction so when I do make it, I elect to get the oak. I am hoping to stumble across some alligator juniper so I can try it out. Never burned any but only hear good things about it. Anything else just comes from Craigslist and is from someone’s yard tree they cut down. 90% of the time it’s just more ponderosa pine but I have scored elm on occasion and one time sycamore. The elm here I have— never smelled anything bad about it and I have a hydro splitter—and I love watching it’s blue, slow motion “ghost flames” through the glass when it gets to it coaling stage—just as fascinating to watch as the oak that holds its shape and just glows red.
It varies a lot for me. A few years ago my pile was 100% black locust and hedge that I cut on my neighbor's property. It was hard to get to, heavy to haul, and hard to split...but I could get by with loading the stove twice a day. Now we (me, my BILs, and my FIL) get triaxle loads of tree service logs and/or sawmill reject logs dumped and it's luck of the draw. Last year we got a bunch of untreated RR tie cut-offs from the mill so my pile is almost entirely oak and hickory. This year we'll probably get a lot of ash from tree removal jobs. I have been lucky enough not to have to go into the woods to make firewood for several years now.
I heated the house for over a month last fall with a big dead elm we pieced out at a job. The tree was barkless, bone dry and rock solid. Pieced it down, bucked it, hauled it home, split it in the driveway and stacked it on the stoop in the garage. Burned clean and hot.
It varies for me, but the last few years it's been mostly Ash, Red Oak, Sugar Maple and Black Locust. I also have cherry, beech, apple hickory and in the mix.
Mostly oak , hickory , pecan and ash. In that order. Occasionally some maple and hackberry. There is all the elm you want here but I have too much of the top 4 to bother with Elm.
Ash Honey locust Black locust Sugar maple Shagbark hickory Red oak Cherry Hackberry Black locust is my new favorite, shagbark was for a long time. BL with no bark makes almost no ash,
