Ok - looks like a simple reboot of my phone got this thread going. First, hats off to my buddy who gave us a trailer full of shoulder season cottonwood. It’s good to have generous friends with fat stacks. Getting these freebies sorted out started a whole ‘thing’…
Some people may scoff, but that’ll get the job done. I’ve burned a little cottonwood myself. Nice to have a buddy hook you up when you needed it.
The freebie cottonwood is nice and seasoned so it went to the downstairs “ready” stack. But of course I ended up deconstructing almost the whole freakin thing to get things squared away. That’s split buckthorn on the right. It could use a little more time before it goes in the burn-box. There’s some nice dry pin oak mixed in there too, but it’s all the way at the bottom. Anyways it was nice to get this stack replenished.
We don’t have quite the big-rig tractor setup that some of you guys do! She’s tiny, but gets the job done. Yes, she has a name: The Precious.
This stuff should be ready to go next year. It’s mostly buckthorn. There’s some pin oak and mulberry in there too. Stuff that was here laying around on the ground when we bought the place - and buckthorn we cut.
Whatever works! I use a Wheelhorse and a little 4x8 trailer to move wood around. Looks like you had great weather today too.
Yep. Most of this was laying around waiting to rot. We said no way. We didn’t even have a fireplace, but weren’t about to let this go to waste. Oak and mulberry, mostly, at the time. Now it’s my “to-do” pile - so now there are some lengths of buckthorn and pin oak in the mix (added by us), plus the leftovers from the prior owner.
This pt lumber used to be a little playground in the back yard. Took a while to deconstruct it. We’ll use the lumber to build out a little addition on our shed, I think. We’re running out of storage space here. For now, it’s stored on the other side of the “burn next year” pile.
I have burned buckthorn before. In my stove only never sold any. My DNR guy wants me to remove it entirely in my woods but that is close to impossible. Reminds me of black cherry another wood I don’t sell a ton of but gladly burn it in my stove.
That little playground was surrounded by railroad ties. They were secured to the ground with short lengths of rebar. Pulled em out, turned em over and voila - instant storage off the ground. Those are pin oak rounds from some dead standing trees that that my buddy, “Mr. Cottonwood” and I took down - before a freakin kidney stone took ME down.
On the other side, the remaining cottonwood - some nice chunks and uglies there. Plus some mulberry that I can’t wait to split - because it’s nice and seasoned!
My friend and I have a good thing going - he has lots of dead standing wood on his lot that I can help him with, and the same goes for me on my lot. Reciprocity. Plus he’s a great guy; we enjoy working together and busting each other’s b*lls.
It was perfect. Cool enough to fire up the box in the AM, then my wife and I went out and killed it in the yard.
I hate buckthorn in my woods but I’m like a psycho - I LOVE killing it, cutting it up, and burning it. It actually burns pretty good!
Anyways we can’t wait to fire up our log splitter next week and go to work on our oak rounds and other stuff. Onwards towards the three (plus) year plan! Updates forthcoming as we continue the work around here. For now, good night everyone and thanks for reading! ps cottonwood puts on a nice show in the burn box!
I like to keep a little cottonwood around to burn the coals down or for a quick hot fire to get the stew pot boiling.
I picked up some cottonwood a couple years ago, it was good shoulder season wood, really enjoyed it. How much wood do you typically run through (or anticipate going through)? SCA
