What species of wood...

We haven't been burning wood for heat. We use it for cooking in the firepit behind our cabin. I basically have been using whatever is down, so it's a mix of oak, black walnut, hickory and some pine.

This winter we are using a Sotz burner in one of the barns and a cast iron box stove in another. I plan on continuing to use whatever is downed wood.

Mike

Whatever I cut down. Burn it hot, don't let it smolder all night. Clean out the chimney twice during the winter just to be safe.

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Ultra Lord is not afraid of chickens!

We were given a huge old coal & wood furnace. It's enough to heat a 2 story large farm house.

We burn mostly sassafrass & cherry & some oak & maple. And of course coal.

We only use trees that have fallen the previous summer & spring, never have had to cut any live trees yet. This supplies 2 households.

Tricia

This is an interesting thread to me because our place isn't quite ready to occupy yet, but I've been spending the summer (very) slowly accumulating firewood for this winter. We bought a Woodstock Soapstone woodstove and will attempt to heat a volume very approxiamtely 36 x 36 x 15, with few internal walls and an open loft on the second floor.

I've chopped up about a cord and a half of red oak (with a little white thrown in) that blew down last year. I saved the better logs for milling, but at this rate, they may be burnt in the stove as well. There's at least another cord or two just lying around that I have to get to...

Our woods are mostly oak/hickory with a few other species thrown in, though we seem to have a fair number of dead elms scattered throughout as well. I have no idea what species they are as most have the bark already fallen off, but I've been sawing them up anyway. And yes, from experience, splitting elm (whatever kind it is) is a royal pain in the keister.

I noticed yesterday that a giant hackberry tree came down recently (it had a beautiful straight, 20 foot trunk but split halfway up) and was wondering if anyone had experience splitting and burning this species. Apparently it's closely related to elm- I just hope it splits easier!

And for whatever reason, I can't find a dead/dying hickory on our property to save my life. I can't wait to burn some of that in our stove...

cheers,

thebugguy

I use a throw off of a Fisher woodstove and burn what grows on the place and that is tons of black locust.

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We have now officially entered the twilight zone.

Thread drift....

We have been working with a forester to learn how to manage our woodlots, and he mentioned something that as newbies we didn't realize:

Its not always best to take all of your firewood from dead trees. Leaving some dead standing and dead and down trees creates important habitat for some creatures. Don't be too eager to clean it all up.
It might be better to cull a damaged tree and open up space for healthy one below it.

Seems obvious with hindsight, but it never occurred to us. We thought if we never cut a tree for firewood we were doing great....

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Hut on the Hill Farm
http://www.hutonthehill.org

Black locust makes a very hot fire. One of my neighbors at my city place cut down a large black locust & gave me about 2 ricks of logs & about 1/2 rick of small(1''-3'') stuff that is good for kindling or stove wood. I've not used much of it yet because it hasn't been cold enough here yet, but since the tree was cut down last March it should be seasoned enough for this year.I've been buying some apple & pecan for my smoker & use some of the larger pieces in the fireplace. At my country place I burn oak & some pine & cedar or whatever else blows down or dies.

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Freedom isn't Free

That was exactly what i was thinking!!! I was always taught to burn the hard woods and stay away from pines and such I just always thought it was a no, no because of the creasote and flue fires.

We burn oak (red and white) and a bit of hickory or maple.

Belinda

I really like this thread , and enjoy this knowledge in here.We have a wood stove with twin blowers upstairs , and a large wood cook stove in the basement.I like a mix of many woods, and we burn whatever suits the occasion.If it is very cold I fire both stoves up and keep them chunked full of Hickory,Oak, Maple, and Locust.We burn very much Poplar in the spring and fall and just today me and my youngest daughter downed three nice Poplars, worked off the laps and then cut into cookstove (short lengths )to split tommorrow.Nothing beats wood, and for cooking also. Marty.

We have winged elm and it is hard as a rock. When hubby cuts down a tree he saws it into rings...you just can't split the stuff. It's slow to catch, but once burning will burn for a long time. We haven't noticed a bad smell when it's burning though.

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I'm running so far behind I thought I was first!

http://hickahala.blogspot.com/

Oak or ash in a Central Boiler outdoor furnace...wonderful! Hot water heat with thermostats just like downtown...no dust,smoke,wood chips to clean up. If you can heave the piece of wood in there you can burn it...and we get all our hot water for free,too. Long since paid for itself. Down here in so.MO we can get a dump truck load of log ends for $100--that will do us for a winter. DEE

Wow, all this talk about our beloved pine and spruce. We make no special ritual of burning high fires. Before we got the Blaze King, we used to put a spoonful of chemical into a hot fire once a week.

The pine and spruce, and some birch are such a big improvement over the poplar. Poplar isn't nearly as hot, etc. There were huge piles, 15' high, just 100' from the door. So we burned that poplar for a few years. And poplar is everywhere, but we have upgraded to pine, spruce and birch.

We haven't had a problem. But others around here have had fires in the chimney. Sometimes it caused big problems: burnt roofs or parts of the house. So that's not too good. But there aren't alternatives here -- we don't even think we need an alternative -- pine and spruce are great. There sure are a lot of people around here who burn pine and spruce. Pine and spruce smell good too.

I love hearing about all the other woods -- they seem so exotic.

Alex

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Thou art That

We are on the tail end of years of burning elm. Dutch elm is slowly but surely killing the last stands. My property was planted about 30 years ago with a hybrid elm of some kind, all of which are now dead. As they fall down I burn them.

The only problem I have had with elm is splitting it. Smaller pieces are managable with an axe, but anything over 8" diameter you better save for the log splitter.

I mix the elm with oak, cherry and maple. I used to burn a lot of spruce and pine, but am getting lazy and don't want to carry as much wood anymore. I used to sell the hard wood, but now save it for my own use.

Pete