I've been burning a lot of that Aspen lately (not the stuff I just cut, but a bunch I scrounged last July) and it burns HOT! I loaded up the stove with it this morning, went outside to do some splitting, came back in 30 minutes later to get a drink and the house shot up from 70 to 82 degrees! My wife cracked open a window because she couldn't take it... I looked in the stove and the coal bed was white hot. Ended up choking the air down a little more to get things back to normal. So for anyone not wanting to go after the "garbage" wood... give it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised.
The fact that these shoulder season woods burn down piles of coals from hardwood, is reason enough for me to seek them out. The other part about them, that they dry out in a summer, it's another huge thing. Give that stuff 2 years split and stacked and there's pretty much no way it won't be dry.
I like it for the same reasons, great to start fires with or to through some in the stove in the morning to burn down coals and get some quick heat.
Awesome looking deck Eric Schamell, and cool that you and you’re dad are figuring out what works for both of you. You saying that your dad was in construction and you are a machinist reminded me of a story my father in law told me......one of his favorite apprentices as a commercial tin knocker used to be a tool and die maker. Father in law said he was a great apprentice because of the quality of his work, but at the beginning, he used to always have to remind him, “ you don’t need to follow the same tolerances you used to”! You ever find some of those same tendencies when you go to work on something at home? I enjoy woodworking and when I built my pole barn several years ago, I found myself chasing measurements I probably didn’t need to, but I’m conditioned to that kind of work, ya know?
Thank you. And yes absolutely I’m guilty of checking a couple dimensions on my deck with dial calipers At least I didn’t bring out a micrometer or a 0.0005 dial indicator, or a machine level that’s accurate to 0.0001 over 10 inches....
Eric Schamell did you use pressure treated for the deck? Kinda looks like it. I have to re do my main deck. I'm getting ideas for it. Been thinking about using pressure treated wood. I hear good and bad about it. I obviously like that it will last a lot longer. But I've heard it doesn't take stain as well. Deck looks fantiddily, by the way!
Thanks and yes it is all pressure treated lumber. A little loud color wise but I’m hoping some stain will calm it down a shade or two. The new stuff is a lot different than the older PT lumber from 25-30 years ago. The stuff from back then was really obnoxiously green.
Oh yeah. I remember that stuff. I've done a bunch of smaller projects with the newer treated stuff. I like it a lot. It doesn't even stink like that old stuff did. Sorry I fat fingered your name in my question. I have since fixed it
Fuel for thought. This is the first week of burning for me this season and my go to fuel has been the Aspen from this score. So: less than 9 months cut/split/stacked, top covered through one of the wettest summers on record, and this wood is dry as a bone and burns phenomenally.
Nice! Looks very inviting. Is this some route 9 stuff? I have a small mound of splits from there cut in February. Only time ive ever cut it.
This was laying across the trail at the Middletown Locust spot we worked together. I don’t remember if I cut it before or after we worked that score together. Anyway, the tree had snapped at ground level during Isaias and was off the ground. Great candidate for shoulder wood.
Yeah that stuff gets a bad wrap, but I burn a pile of it too. Mostly because there's a fair amount of it in my woods and after it gets so big, it just blows over.
Aspen is a regen wood. At least out west. That , Birch and willow are the first trees to come back after a clearing or fire. But because they come back so fast. They are also short lived. Conifers , at least the ones we have in Alaska are shade trees. They grow well in the shade. By the time the conifers get to the height of the Aspen. The Aspen has died of old age. It is great firewood. It and Birch are my preferred species when it gets to be cold. 40, 50, 60 ect below ambient. I don't think that is quite Shoulder Season. I do find it very funny that where it gets truely cold none of the real Hardwood's grow.
Less than 10 minutes from my house, a tree company was clearing about a 2 acre lot. It’s been happening slowly over the last 6 months or so. They have huge piles of white/red oak, hickory, black birch, etc staged up for milling (or so I presume) Today I drove by and noticed they put the garbage out to the road for the taking. Two piles of quaking aspen with a couple half punky ash poles thrown in. -I don’t need more wood at the moment. -I certainly don’t need more aspen. I have access to plenty of hardwoods, but I can’t help myself sometimes If I had a saw with me I probably would’ve loaded the truck up until it was sitting on the bump stops. Why I go gaga over “lesser” woods when sitting on a mountain of top shelf, I can’t fathom
