The tree company has come back a couple times. Pine,White oak (not much) and now willow so not that exciting. But still free wood delivered. It seems like it’s most likely destined for the fire pit. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It DOES rank a little better than Balsa wood... Here's an interesting quick read: Burning Willow Firewood
I do burn it when it falls on my proverbial lap. I would never whine if someone delivered it for free to my place, unless it was not bucked. Probably from a yard in my neck of the woods, and full of metal. Old horse shoes to be exact. Hoard it up if you have the space. It just burns like crazy when dry, and smells weird to me. Nice bright flames for the fire pit IMO.
Everyone's already given you the bad so here's some good I've found. Split it small and use it to heat up the stove and get the better wood you have going. If it was free, delivered and cut to length use it.
Against popular opinion. I burn it. I helped a friend take down 3 monster willow trees a couple of years ago. He gave me all the wood. It actually burns well. It doesn’t throw a ton of heat. But it’s great for those chilly fall or spring mornings - when you just need to knock the chill off. When it’s dry, it splits very easily and straight. And it burns super clean. It won’t gunk up your glass on your stove. The smoke does stink a bit. But, I don’t let anything go to waste. And like my dad always says. Burning something will keep you warmer than burning nothing!
Burns better than snowballs! I have never gotten much Willow, but I would take some...as cash said, burning low BTU woods in the spring and fall keeps you from using up your "good stuff" until you really need it. Just takes up a little more room...so might not work out so well if you live somewhere really cold and have limited storage space.
Here's an option for the people into this sort of thing: Hugelkultur gardening – Master Gardener Society of Oakland County If it turns out that to you willow is near worthless as firewood, you can bury it and let it rot intentionally. I actually did this earlier this spring with some firewood that was way too far gone to even burn in the outside pit. One of my raised garden beds I built on an incline but built it level, so one end was really deep. Instead of filling the entire bed with soil, I piled all sorts of rotten wood in the bottom to take up space. Over time it'll break down further and feed the plants above it in the garden bed. Plus it helps retain moisture in the soil.
Might as well experiment with it since you have it already. Imagine making grass clippings into logs and you pretty much have willow.
Wood makes poor fill since it's volume decreases by about 99% once it's decomposed...exactly why many places won't take it for fill...causes sinkholes later. My employer had a large area that they were filling in...the EPA permit specifically said no wood.
