Scoping out another load of BBL at the gold mine. I'm finding a decent amount of elm in there with bark falling off as well. Occasionally, I won't find any bark at all, so I need to look at the form of the tree to tell the difference. But you sure cant tell the difference just by kicking the trunk to check if its going soft, which usually works in my stands where it's mixed with maple. By the time the bark is gone on a maple, its compost. Thoughts/experience? I have a bunch of dead elm to GIBIR; probably closing on on an entire seasons worth. I was considering working on that stuff next, but maybe I still have a few years, and should focus on other stuff that rots faster?
I work on the slowest drying stuff first, then move to whatever else I want to cut. Once I get back to my 2-3 year plan goal, it'll be easier. The dead/down, and barkless Oak is helping get me back on track......I hope. I've had marginal luck with the barkless Maple around here. If it's been held off the ground though, it's not always completely mulch material.
That's basically been my strategy as well. I have a couple cords of soft maple by the garage, still in rounds, that I'm planning to burn next year. But I'm not going to bother splitting and stacking until I use up more of this years supply, since it dries so fast. I'm trying to work on the harder stuff that needs more seasoning time first. This black locust just does not rot, so once I have enough for my holzhausen, I might not go back for any more for several years. There's so much other stuff down back there; once the three year plan is in place, ill need to shift focus to getting the stuff that rots the fastest.
In my experience around here over the past 3 decades dead American (White) Elm can last 3-5 years depending on its size & if its still standing.Slippery (Red) Elm can last sometimes a decade.But anything (except for the heartwood of Black Cherry & especially Black Walnut,White/Bur Oak & Mulberry) will start to go bad in a 2-3 years tops once its on the ground and/or growing in a wet/low area.
I'd put maple, in the "get it quick" category. Birch , if it's dead it's probably already rotten or punky. Then I'd get the easiest stuff CSS'd Easier to me means more wood stacked up in a shorter time. The sooner it's in a seasoning stack, the longer it will last & the sooner it will be ready. Locust will last a long time, elm with the bark off should last quite a while too. Can you prop it up off the ground until you can get it CSS'd ? Additionally: We sure need some pictures.
Yeah this may be the last batch of locust for a while. Should have enough to complete the holzhausen now. Speaking of birch and stuff that rots the quickest... bogydave you're probably our resident expert here. You ever bother with any that was "starting to go"? I've heard that if you get it split, or even score a line down a branch with the chainsaw ("unzip" it), it can halt the rot. There's some dead BB back there that feels a little soft under the bark, but I'd hate to see those primo btus go to waste. It's either that stuff next, or let it go and focus on the maple. There's a bunch of Norway down. Regarding pics, I was gonna post a thread with all my weekend activities probably tomorrow. But here's a little teaser for ya. Some hot naked blonde on blonde action - you ever see curves like this?
Soft probably means it compost inside. No experience with Black Birch though. If it's dead or down here , the firewood value is most likely gone. Even live trees with dead tops, the centers are usually rotten or hollow. Good compost though, (if you remove the bark )
So long as it is standing, elm will last a long, long time. The picture below was taken 3 years ago. The tree is still there and waiting. It is fine. I have a bunch of elm we should get this winter and we may because some of our ash is beginning to go bad. Elm will do just fine. The only thing is that most of our elm doesn't get much bigger than this tree. But that's okay too as there is less splitting to be done. btw, we have a lot of elm that has no bark now.
Yep, most of mine look like that. They don't usually get bigger than 6-8". There's a couple bigger ones that look to have been fighting to stay alive for a while - top dead, but shooting out tons of little branches from the trunk. I'm guessing that's at least part of the reason for it's "hard splitting" reputation? I did cut one down and gave it to my BIL - they needed some dry stuff - split by hand just fine. The ones I'm finding in this stand, even on the ground, seem pretty solid still. I think once my "log storage" next to the garage starts to empty out next spring/summer, I'll refill it with some of the elm that's down, and get it off the ground. May have to turn some of that black birch into a science experiment... Could always use some more compost if it doesn't work out!
I've had a stack of uglies from the last few log loads I got that I just got around to dealing with. The maple and gum were in pretty rough shape, but the red elm was still perfect. It's got really thick bark, which I think helps protect the wood
I think what I have is American Elm, and most of it looks like Backwood's pic - bark falling off, or gone. I think the wood itself must be rot resistant, the bark sure wasn't!
I like dead, barkless elm allot. If you do not have a hyd. splitter you may not like it much if it needs split.
All the standing dead elms here on the farm last for years......the bark falls off rather quickly though. And FWIW it can be a real treat to split. But it's decent firewood, not the best.....but worth getting.
I must have built in hydros... Or maybe I just got a nice straight grained one. I split the one I sent over to my BIL with the Fiskars, just to see what it was like. Didn't have any issues - yardbird trees in general have been the hardest thing I've tried.
The load of red elm I had was easy splitting too. I still haven't found any wood that rivals sweetgum for worst to split
Red Elm splits very easy most of the time for me wet or dry. American elm on the other hand usually does not, especially wet. With white elm I will put a straight piece on the splitter and if it comes out looking like spaghetti I just leave it in rounds for 6 months to a year and then split it. Elm is terrible about holding moisture under the bark so if it still has bark on it I will either put it some where completely protected from rain or leave it out for a couple months and knock the bark off.
Black birch goes quick. Standing dead will certainly have some punk to it. Get it and see what condition it is in. Splitting it and keeping it dry will stop it from getting worse.
Shawn, what you have sounds like white ash to me. I've never seen an elm shoot out new branches like that but almost all the ash has done that since the EAB got into them.
