Sounds like a good plan to me, saving the oak for prime time. I'd get that pine split and stacked for wind flow thru asap though to use it this year. I like to keep the rain off of pine too. For the same reason you try to keep a coat of paint on a pine trim board - they don't weather all that well. At least not in our local soupy climate.
I did 4 loads in 5 hours today which of course was one of the warmest days of the year so far lol I think I have 2 more trips left to make tomorrow then I gotta get this split up ASAP in order to use it by Nov/Dec.
Good advice for the op. With all the talk about pine drying in a short period one has to remember that you will have to process it and process it properly in order for it to be acceptable by November.
That looks like pine barren pitch pine. If you had needles it would have bunches of three. If it was red pine-bunches of two. Eastern white pine - bunches of five. But that bark looks like too large flakes for white pine. If it's a planted non-native tree, who knows.
I think theres a small branch that still had a set of needles on it. I'll take a look at it and see what the bunches look like. Great info! Thanks! I never heard that before.
Find the fat wood. You'll see it just a deep orange red and its very dense I caught the sight of a block of this stuff that was a pallet pedestal block. I was also collecting oak blocks of similar size. They both weighed very much alike.
Got a little over 1/3 cord split and stacked this morning. I'm figuring I'll end up with north of 2 cords once it's all split. So far I barely put a dent in the pile.
Looking good. If I stack in 2 rows on Pallets I try to leave a 3-4 inch space between the stacks to allow for a little better air flow for drying. I burn plenty of Pine. The price is right! Oh! Not that Price is Right.
I'm part of that group who doesn't spend money on certain firewood. Id rather not spend any but given the circumstances I'm just getting ready for a first fall/winter of burning wood. Im not entitled to a mulligan here just a little bit of a backup plan. I have to be a little bit funny about this but if I actually factor in the math of me collecting wood efficiently IE collection before work on the way to work, a little bit early too, Scrounges on the way back home then the occasional free wood pile grab anything you can. One recent trip came up with nothing. That's a red line risk but I took it and its a learned lesson. The reason I took it? It was madrone, not magnolia with the pink and white flowers. Madrone specifically grows ONLY on the pacific coast states. Its wrapped in fable but the wood is true. Very dense very hard, long burn times and its VERY hot. Seasons within about 6-9 months u can cut it in jan and be ready by fall. Best to cut into little pieces and then use it wisely. Stoves are not likely to take its heat pure. Im in the thoughts of cutting one down because its somewhat close to the ground and two other madrone saplings are vying for the sun on my parents property. Just need to convince my dad this is a way to preserve more and share some wood.
This year I've been a part time burner, no over night fires and only burning on very cold days, and believe it or not I haven't even burned a cord of pine yet LOL. I'm at the 2/3rd mark. This is great because I have 2 cords of oak ready for next year and another cord of mulberry that was just split. I also have another cord of pine on the racks that'll I'll use next year as well. I was expecting to burn all my pine this year but outside a few weeks were it was extremely cold it's been pretty mild here.
Its red pine going by the bark. Sometimes I have to stand back and get a look for me to make any sort of determination.
Red pine bark is very thin and much more 'orangey' than that. My woods is full of it, all planted in the 1950's. The OP is in New Jersey so that generally indicates pitch pine anyway.
