Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Quick Dry Your Small Wood For Winter
Trees around the yard have to be totally cleaned up when we cut them, so it's waste not, want not, and the small wood comes to the house for the firewood stack. We want the pieces to dry fast, so we use this technique to accomplish that. Unless it's elm. Haul the elm out in the woods and let it molder away!
We cut firewood year-round it seems. We have a big pile of split wood downstairs, and a humongous pile of wood in the barn. We have been cutting black locusts lately in the oak patch we planted in 1993. Locust dries fast if you split it, and it is hot firewood, so we are stacking it under the eave to burn during the upcoming winter. It will burn well in four or six weeks. We also have some dead pin oaks and black oaks spotted, so we will be busy until Christmas making wood.
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3 comments:
I seem to recall a poem (?) that said "avoid the elm, even its very flame is cold" - or words to that effect.
Merle
Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year.
Chestnut's only good, they say,
If for long it's laid away.
Birch and fir logs burn too fast,
Blaze up bright and do not last.
Elmwood burns like churchyard mould;
E'en the very flames are cold.
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke.
Applewood will scent your room,
With an incense like perfume,
Oak and Maple, if dry and old,
Keep away the winter cold.
But Ash wood wet and Ash wood dry,
A king shall warm his slippers by.
Elm requires good dry wood alongside so it will burn, and it makes an excessive amount of ash. Takes a long time to dry, too. The red oaks make good wood in a hurry. The open pores of the spring wood let moisture out, and split red, black, or pin oak can be ready pretty fast. We have put wet red oak next to a small hot fire, and then it is ready to burn in short order. White oak wood has to sit for a year. It is water tight and does not want to dry. Stack hickory a year ahead and it will be dust because of powder post beetles when you need it. Catalpa burns nice but pops and throws sparks really bad. Hickory does that, too. Mimosa makes a pleasant smelling campfire. White pine will clog your chimney.
I was hoping you'd remember that one too.
Thanks for posting all of it!
Merle
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