That's where I'm at. I've been scavenging mostly fast drying species like ash, maple, cherry, and black birch because I need viable inventory in the short-term. Except for the behemoth red oak that recently fell into my processing area.. That's slated for the 2023-2024 season.
The importance of dry firewood can never be overstated. It's amazing how the only difference between the best burning oak and worst burning oak is time.
The ironwood / musclewood name game is more than just regional here in our area of Ohio. It seems very localized and just about everyone in this area calls them something different. My wife's family all thought I was a nutcake when I first met her and we were out in the woods and I mentioned that we only had ironwood in the woods where I grew up and that they had both ironwood and musclewood. Dad's place is only 15 miles away. They gave me very puzzled looks when I walked up to what they all called ironwood and I called it a musclewood tree. Our woods had tons of young 4-7" ironwood trees that were straight as a die. In Boy Scouts we had used them to build monkey bridges over the swamp and a couple towers that were 25' or so high. We always cut that for our summer camp firewood as well. Dad never did own a chainsaw so I grew up with an axe, bowsaw, one-man crosscut, and a two-man crosscut for when he got home from work.
