DonB
ArboristSite Member
Hi Y'all,
You have a nice forum here with a lot of good info. Thanks!
Even though I've been using a stove to heat the house for 15 years now, I'm learning quite a bit from reading your posts. I never really acknowledged the importance of properly seasoned hardwoods but I normally use nothing but live oak. I cut and split enough to last a few years at the time but I start burning it when it's green. It always works great and never gives me a problem. Even when freshly split, once you get it going, it burns like coal. Hot and slow.
This year, however, I'm laying in a supply of red oak from a lightning split tree. I don't know much about this wood but from what I'm reading around here, it ain't quite the same as live oak for green use. I have enough of it split and stacked to last for a few years but from the way it sounds, burning the stuff this winter may be problematic even if I use the driest of the wood and mix it with what's left of my old live oak stash. We shall see.
Another thing I've learned here is pine may not be all that bad as fuel wood. Except for using scrap dimensional pine for kindling I've always avoided it like the plague but I think I'll check it out. I have the middle 30' of a hurricane snapped longleaf pine (southern yellow pine - dead 4 years) hanging in the top of an oak tree in my woods and I'm pulling it down tomorrow. I'll think I'll dice some of that up for firewood and see how it does.
Don
You have a nice forum here with a lot of good info. Thanks!
Even though I've been using a stove to heat the house for 15 years now, I'm learning quite a bit from reading your posts. I never really acknowledged the importance of properly seasoned hardwoods but I normally use nothing but live oak. I cut and split enough to last a few years at the time but I start burning it when it's green. It always works great and never gives me a problem. Even when freshly split, once you get it going, it burns like coal. Hot and slow.
This year, however, I'm laying in a supply of red oak from a lightning split tree. I don't know much about this wood but from what I'm reading around here, it ain't quite the same as live oak for green use. I have enough of it split and stacked to last for a few years but from the way it sounds, burning the stuff this winter may be problematic even if I use the driest of the wood and mix it with what's left of my old live oak stash. We shall see.
Another thing I've learned here is pine may not be all that bad as fuel wood. Except for using scrap dimensional pine for kindling I've always avoided it like the plague but I think I'll check it out. I have the middle 30' of a hurricane snapped longleaf pine (southern yellow pine - dead 4 years) hanging in the top of an oak tree in my woods and I'm pulling it down tomorrow. I'll think I'll dice some of that up for firewood and see how it does.
Don