Good amount there. Stacked the general cordage splits today. Temporary until a rack opens up. 6.5' x 5' tall so a face cord. With the bundle splits my load yielded over a half cord. Killed this spotted lantern fly while stacking. Dunno if it came from Joe's or is a local.
I think your county (along with Fairfield) was one of the first counties in CT to detect SLF. That one is probably a local goon. I had a thought yesterday ~ Since I don't currently have them at my house, I probably shouldn't bring home any more TOH wood until at least next spring. Reason being, this time of year they lay their eggs on TOH bark, so if I bring home infested rounds, all I'm doing is helping spread them faster.
With the stench a blind one can find it....PU!!! I really cant stand the smell of the fresh splits. Id rather have the wood yard full of fresh pin oak splits. Road trip back to Joe's in March? Mebbe that pile of limbs will be dry enough to burn by then?
I'd go back for more in the spring for one more load. That's the thing with fast burning low BTU wood though: I don't want cords and cords of it taking up real estate at my house.
I hear you and can relate. Thinking mine will be put aside for that outdoor burner in West Hartford. Ill top off their half cord with some some wood from my prior score (cottonwood & white walnut) They're not fussy, just ecstatic my wood ACTUALLY burns and doesn't smolder.
Not too big 10-12”ers. Oh those branches are gone. Burned like the dickens this time around. Not really sure why but I was dousing the fire with water to keep it from getting wild. The original fire dried some out I assume. All those seed pods I plowed up were dry and one pallet I put on there seemed to be made of gasoline wood. It was weird.
Story on the local news about the spotted lantern fly Look out for spotted lanternfly egg masses in Connecticut this fall – WTNH.com
Seen my first live in person SLF in Cleveland OH this morning...tried to step on it, but it got away.
FWIW I was tossing some TOH out of the pen today from May of 2023. Still had some nice heft to it compared to the Aspen/popple filler wood. Weight might not be everything but I’d rank it more of a medium burn like red maple maybe? Or at least weighs the same.
Tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is HORRIBLE! BTW, I didn't read this whole thread, but wanted to remind everyone that TOH has extensive ability to sprout from the roots if cut or mowed. The recommended method is applying herbicide with "hack-and-squirt" method to kill the root system first, then after 30 or so days you can cut them down. Here's the link to the Penn State Extension page on TOH. https://extension.psu.edu/tree-of-heaven It will give you more specific instructions about how to control/eradicate. Good luck.
You don't have to cut em. Triclopyr/Diesel (diesel is surfactant). 12-16" band base of trunk. You'll never see the first root sprout pop up and they fall apart top down, mostly.
Not all that bad if you can keep them trimmed down. I mow that grass at least once a month and they sprout less and less. Eventually the roots will die entirely. They do sprout in the stonewall, not too bad tho. We had a grove in the woods on what was once a clearing. They all blew over one year, was sorta strange to see a whole grove of TOH blow over but nothing else affected, head scratcher There’s a few that popped back up but not many. Weird
