We had some storm damage in the neighborhood, as everyone in the mid-atlantic has probably had lately. I saw a tree company working at a neighbor's house and was able to get my truck loaded a few times by their crew. This is 2 trunks of a 3-trunk silver maple. The 3rd trunk was rotting, so I got to be choosey and only took solid wood. I also skipped the 6 to 8 feet of the main trunk that was huge and would require lots of noodling. Here's an empty rack at my processing area filled with the some of the silver maple rounds, I'll split them soon enough. I'm pretty far ahead, but I'm not too far ahead that free wood isn't getting processed. Then, the adrenaline wore off and I started busting up the remaining rounds before moving them to the processing area. Heh, funny how that happens, work smarter not harder or some such... So, this will hopefully work out to two/thirds of a cord, maybe a bit more. Always looks like more when it's sitting in rounds next to your driveway! I've got about 2 cords of chestnut oak, beech and black locust here already stacked and ready to go for 15/16. I've got 4 cords of chestnut oak at my cutting area ready to go as well. However, this winter, I burned up my good wood prior to this epic winter and was caught with my pants down towards the end of February. I'd still be burning if I had anything sub 20%. Thus, the silver maple stockpile for next year. Silver maple rules, it grows like a weed around my way, it splits like cheese, and is dry in a little over a heartbeat.
Welcome to the club! Nice score. Soft maple is a favorite of mine too. Great way to get caught up on the supply.
Welcome to FHC! I'm trying to get a silver maple scrounge myself. It's not bad wood at all, and easy to split. I'm finding that yardbird trees don't always follow the rules though, and even easy splitting species are tougher than their forest dwelling kin.
Paul bunion - Yes, they now know where I live and that they can dump rounds when they are in the area
Great stuff. Noticed with spring almost here that my tree service contact is getting busier now. Last week he had 3 ads on CL for a decent sized White Pine,a Hard Maple & big Mulberry.And just 2 days ago 2 more ads for a Honey Locust & another big Silver Maple.All the ads were gone within a few hours.I'd have grabbed everything if I wasn't pretty much maxed out space-wise here.Thanks to the 2+ cords of Silver & Mulberry he dumped here in Dec/Jan 2015 already. Still have almost 1 cord of Silver that I'm burning on,remainder of what was dumped in Feb 2014.
Welcome to the land of the Woodenheads! I'm burning Silver Maple now and probably will for the rest of the season. I also like it for mixing with oak, locust and such just to get the more dense wood well started.
