Question for the conifer guys. I was cruising a back road and found about 10 manageable hemlock that look like they have been down for many years. I checked them out and all the logs on top of the pile are solid, bottom is iffy. Easy pickins, pull right up and cut. Already limbed. Question is I won't get to this wood for at least 4 years once css. It will be top covered with good exposure. Will it still be good? I just didn't know how long the pine species will store.
Definitely not bad, but anything on the ground is likely just sacrificial wood if its Hemlock. Gets really soft fast on rainy ground...
...when you say on a back road...you mean private land or state land? Not sure how that works in your area in terms of harvesting like this...not something that we have around here that I am aware of...look forward to learning about this in your area...Thanks.
I scored about 6-7 cords of white pine a few months ago basically right out my back door. I stacked them separate but I would be terrified to put them in a barn or shed. Those stacks are riddled with something that is chewing on them. The noise is like a clicking sound and loud. They are some sort of little beetle between the bark and wood and they make quite a mess. Not a fine sawdust powder but more like shredded little pieces in piles. Also discovered some white looking grubs in there too. They look like they would make a nice trout bait. I'm actually afraid they are going to destroy all the wood before I get to burn it. I'd be terrified they would eat a structure if I put the wood in it! I could get another 6-7 cords if I wanted to as its still there for the taking and easy to get but Im concerned over these damm bugs and don't want to stack any near my hardwood in fear they'll infest it as the only place left to stack is next to the hardwood stacks.
If you peel the bark off a section of those pine logs you'll likely find pine beetle grubs under the bark . They'll get into any horizontal logs here, even rounds. If you've got logs for lumber they usually peel the bark off. When they get bigger they tend to tunnel a little deeper into the sap wood. Or there's two different kinds of pine grubs. But they deposit the eggs in the early spring in the bark crevices. No bark-no grubs. They don't turn the splits into sawdust but they do make a few tunnels. Once they get to an edge or fall out it's over. Something comes along and eats them. They are noisy little crunchers. The tiny ones might be powder post beetle grubs - usually a very fine powder rather than a frass but I've only seen those in red maple here. Usually just in the splits on top of a stack. Powder post beetles are usually not a problem in a house but I have seen them in joists. Heat treating them is supposed to kill them. But not necessarily from firewood, they bloom in the Spring for a short period not all year long.
Yeah I've peeled some splits bark off and those tiny little beetles( which remind me of a very very tiny coffee bean)are making little tunnels between the bark and sap wood, it's amazing how much little piles of shreddings they make. The grubs I've found are actually eating more of a hole into the sapwood itself, and those things got some nasty little fangs/pinchers. Looks like something on a science fiction movie. This is the first time I've ever dealt with a woodpile infestation and it is driving me crazy and has me worried beyond belief!
I have never burned hemlock. In my experience it's always better to get the bark off of any softwoods. Sometimes that's not possible and especially if you cut green wood and bring it home to season.. often I see blowdown trees that fell over with the bark on, and they almost always have bugs in them. If they blow over after all or most of the bark has fell off there almost always a better quality of wood. Only preaching on conifers here, I can only identify two species of hardwood elm and locust.
Free (almost) and easy. Get at least some I say. Then you will know for sure. Worst case, you got some shoulder season wood which will save your oak etc for when it’s really cold.
No need to worry. They are loud and fat, but take off once the wood is split and stacked. Once we get chickens, I'll never have to buy feed if I just keep splitting pine/spruce/hemlock. Some piles of rounds it seems every piece has half a dozen of the little buggers. Never see them in the fresh cut wood though.. Only after the logs or rounds have set for a season or more.
Oh hey that’s a great idea! Then the chickens get fat as all get out and you trim the flock a little bit come winter!!
