He pointed at the bins he fills for 120, looked like a face cord... maybe less! Not even seasoned properly if it is just dumped, split this season. Highway robbery!
Locust is a better wood than oak in my opinion. The only oak species higher in btus is white I believe, and while oak and locust can both be a bear to split I feel locust is better because to, me, it's more exotic. Stick with the locust, it's just as good if not better, and free. Ash and cherry aren't bad either, burn a little cooler and for not as long but definitely don't turn them down as they both split easy. Oh, and be careful with green cherry rounds, they can be really heavy, surprisingly heavy for their size.
Yes, I discovered that about the cherry! Thankfully I cut those rounds shorter than my preferred 16", I want to use a lot of the cherry for cooking. I stopped using charcoal brickets years ago. I have a metal box that I am going to use to make cherry charcoal.
Take the free ash and leave the Oak to the guy. There is a lot of sweat in those logs anyways FWIW it is a likely a Pin oak. It is in the Red Oak family. Good wood too but, I much refer the Ash myself. God Bless
Locust is better wood anyway, and ash isn't that much lower btu wise than that oak. At $120, that wood will sit a while.
Here is the big locust in the corner of my backyard. It is about 80-100 years old, I counted the rings on my neighbor's tree that was of a similar size cut down last year. Theirs was sick, but mine appears to be healthy and doing well. Whenever it shows signs of trouble I will have it taken down and it will go onto the stacks and maybe I could even get some posts out of it. For now, since it is one of the tallest trees in my view from my home, I enjoy watching the birds hang out up there. It is a favorite roost for the hawks in the Winter.
Must be something in the water up there, or short growing season. White oak down here is a bit more difficult than red. Forks & knots yield to noodling pretty quick. Same here with black locust. Only downside with BL to me is the thick bark. Takes up stack space and makes smoke/ash. Often best to strip it and burn it outdoors or compost it. Wood air-dries much faster with it off. Dusky, maybe you could quote a price to remove those nasty fork-assemblies come spring. I can't see anyone but chainsaw sculptors getting value from them. Sure can't call that stuff firewood, not for residential use. Good choice.
Oh yeah that is a nice one too. My parent's house was built next to a sapling or the sapling was planted after the tree was built, apparently not an uncommon thing to do in the 1800's when the house was built. They use them as a natural lightning rod. I think that locus is well over 150 though and you'd need at least a 32 inch bar to cut it, needless to say it won't be turned into firewood until it's dying day.
Ooooo I just figured out how to upload pics from my phone. Here is my ash and black locust load I picked up yesterday, my pile o chips, and the mountain of wood at my honey hole.
Yeah! That is just looking in one direction. There are piles of fresh cut trunks all around that you can't see. The big pile looks like stuff cut before this year. I wish I had a bigger truck!
I have no idea about the older stuff in that pile, but I have scrounged some possible red elm from there. Mostly ash, but there are other species mixed in.
Those two bottom right y shaped pieces. Fairly certain that's white elm. From the looks you may have branches and maybe some other logs around it. My guess it was a hedge-line tree that got the Dutch Elm Disease(DED), and got removed, the nice thing is when it stands dead for a few years it becomes seasoned. so it's good for first time wood burners. Medium btu's and it's already seasoned, downside, you want a wedge as they are a pain to split.
Those y pieces I thought were ash, it has tons of beetle tracks. I cut all the straight pieces off and threw those crotches to the side. Since I have so much to choose from I am now just grabbing easy splittin stuff. Pretty sure I already split that branch and stacked it lol.
