Picked up the 2nd of 3 loads today...and the homeowner was nice enough to not only hold the wood for me but came out and helped me load it in my truck! Heck of a guy, and again offered to call me when they take other trees down. A great Craigslist score if I say so myself!
Pretty great when one thing leads to another. I went to grab some pine a couple years ago to help out an arborist connection, and it turned into several cord of sugar maple and ash, some of which is on deck for tomorrow morning!
Picked up the third load yesterday, and have used a little of the afternoon to start splitting. I wasn’t 100% sure of the quality of the wood since it had been out in the rain/snow in rounds for the last couple of years, and some of the rounds look a little questionable on the outside- But after starting to split, I’ve found that the rounds that look a bit rough are only that way for a half inch, three quarters at most. The rest of the way through is just beautiful oak BTUs. It’s about 2 1/4 cords total, couldn’t be happier and the price of “free” works for me!
I've found the same: dead oak is not a book that can be judged by its cover. The sapwood punks up quick, but the heart stays solid long after.
It rained Saturday and Sunday here but there was a short break or two. We've been burning through more pine than I thought we would and I had some rounds stacked in the woods so I split as many as I could. By hand, as it was threatening rain and my back is feeling pretty good. A couple wedges and a hammer are pretty easy to put away on short notice. The row in the back of the left bay is last weekend: A whopping 20 cubic feet or so, but more than I had Friday. The tiny bit in the front row is what I had left for this year, plus this: Not much left and it's only February. I'll take a MM to a piece or two in the back row to see how dry it is or isn't, when I can find my MM. Pine dries out pretty quick though, especially split kinda small. These were dead standing so it's not like they were green not too long ago.
surprisingly, no one steals pine rounds left in the woods also surprising, the fresh split old rounds test out at 15.3 to 17.8 (smaller vs larger rounds) the pine that has been split for a few months test 13-14 or so
