Neighbor had an elm taken down on Wednesday and I got the wood. Told her to just have them drop it and I would take care of cutting it up but she tried to get them to cut it at 16". They did do an okay job and left the trunk for me to deal with.
Went out yesterday and finished cutting it up. Moved it to my side and cleaned up today. Should be some nice heat come 27/28 or beyond. May let it sit for a few months before splitting in the hopes I don't fight it too much.
That is super Stephie. Close to home too. If it were me, I would definitely give it more time for drying.
Nice that its close to home. Im really fussy about length and wouldve really insisted they leave it long. Do you normally take elm despite its reputation? My scores of it back in 2024 split rather easily so I wont shy away from it anymore if easy and its decent. Have some rounds of it waiting for the time to come. Too stringy yet even though it was in log form for several months. Oh and that sound heard across the FHC is The Wood Wolverine cringing!
Yeah, sometimes those tree services cut to oddball lengths, but free is free. Being a scrounger, Elm is fine with me. Most of us have wood splitters that make the task easier. Not saying I know every type of wood in every format, but most. I’ll gladly mix in most any firewood. Since I’ve been doing various cutting recently I’m doing a few woodpiles segregated by types. The one larger ‘beehive’ in the works is all green hardwoods, no plans to touch for 2 years or more. In other areas I cut some white pine, decided to pile the split wood near where it was cut. This way the plan is to move it toward the house when ready to burn. As Spring is on the way, been burning all the marginal seasoned wood I see. It’s still plenty cold for a warm fire.
Seems like the white heartwood is the worst to split. This is a little darker so hoping for the best. I shoot for 16" but as long as they fit on the splitter they will fit the stove, just have to go N.E.-S.W. is all. Faster drying is gooder too as my premium totes are 3-years plus split now. I will try to keep the post updated when I start to split it.
Free and just across from the property line is good. No way I would have passed on that either. But an elm taken alive is a temperamental beast. My advice, (and consider what you are paying for it), is to get it bucked to your preferred length and then stack it out of the way and forget about it for a year or better. Then split it and let it sit in the stacks for 2 more years. That’s got to be some wet, heavy stuff. Any water coming out of the stump?
