Had some from near the Chambersburg Mall that was pretty well shot. I think it had been infested with the locust borer...
I've seen that too. I think it might be from some type of fungus? I'm pretty sure I kept everything that was like that - there wasn't much. Good to hear it still burns nice, I'm still waiting to try it. The other type of "punk" I've seen is it can get a little slimy between the growth rings, and want to split apart there. I kept everything like that too. The birch might be some semi-fast drying btu bang for your buck too, just make sure you split everything. Round pieces will never dry out if the bark is still fresh - it's watertight, and the wood inside will just rot. But I've heard you can get them to dry if you score/"unzip" the bark with the chainsaw. Sounds like you're banking up some primo btus my friend! Congrats! (in a couple years! )
Good deal. One of my dad's friends said the same thing. When it was all said and done I probably snagged about a half cord of the stuff. I'm splitting it on the big side by my standards and planning on the 16/17 winter for it. I snagged at least a cord of the Hackberry which would be for the same winter but I'm half tempted to sell it. I have a ton of medium btu wood with some Norway maple and red oak on the way in the next few weeks.. I think I'd rather have the Norway than the Hackberry.
But too much is always gooder. I'm planning to overdo it a bit on the shoulder wood this year. These past couple winters have seemed to hang on most of the way through April. This week has really been the first time I've gone a couple days without a fire. I'd hate to sell it, and end up needing it, and then have to dip into something better instead! Or heaven forbid, turn on the furnace!
I should have taken more pictures of this originally but the farmer that is taking these trees out has made it really easy to cut this week. I was under the impression it was gonna be one big conflagration but he pulled all the slash and root balls into piles that were burned. Looks like he made a conscious effort to get more of the bigger stuff cut. There was a black locust wrapped up with a walnut that he pulled apart. I would have cut more of the locust but I foooooked my chain and it was already a long day of firewood. One of the big hackberry trees we started was pulled to the side and would now be an easy dismantle. I'm gonna go look for that black birch tomorrow at the risk of my wife clonking me on the head with a piece of black locust..lol.. I wish there were more members in my area. I don't really want anymore hackberry by my goodness there's a ton of it and it's easy easy cutting now.
Shawn, I have a lot of larger sugar branches and limbs that are in a tangled mess. I hope to get them sorted and stacked for the coming shoulder seasons. They are nice and dry, having been cut last winter and tangled way off the ground. I agree about getting lots of shoulder season wood with the winters we have been having. The past week my uglies stack has been growing at least as fast as my splits stack. Drvn4wood, I see you brought home some smaller wood too. Get a bunch of the bigger branches if you can. They will dry pretty quickly and go a long way in the shoulder season.
Yeah, the smaller stuff was all dead but still solid. I liked having those branches last year for getting the stove hot fast and burning down some bigger splits.
I will always take primo btu wood branches, down to pretty small stuff. The lesser btu wood, I've started to become a wood snob and only take down to 3-4" rounds.
Man this Hackberry splits like poo! My buddy with the nice trailer load on his Dodge earlier in this thread is dropping his splitter here for me next week. Thank goodness. This stuff laughs at the Fiskars. I'm not the biggest guy but I can swing and these little rounds are taking 2 or 3 to get apart.
