8600 lbs of cottonwood today

[StihltheOne]

Holy Moly im getting to old for this. We cut up 1 of 4 massive dead dry white cottonwoods today, they are in a bunch all together. Man these are giant trees when one gets to working on them. I scaled the truck/trailer and the other truck just was curious. Came out to be 8600 lbs of wood. All of it carried out of a beet field to boot. REally nice super dry cottonwood, no rot, bark, nothing but nice white wood. It was 41"dbh, we measured the bunch of them together and they are large x huge. One down 3 to go, the others will fall outside of the field, hopefully will be easier. Once we started, we had to finish as they are in hillbilly hell. If I left even one piece, I am sure that the locals would be fighting for it. I am not sure how many cords, but I guess 2.5 would be close. I had a long box Dodge cab high and then maybe a bit more, a 5 x 10 trailer 4' high and my supercrew Ford falling off full. It was thrown in, but tight. I am absolutely shot tonite. I have a pix, but I am apparently not clever enough to get it on here. To bad we cant just copy and paste in a post.

 

[miller1]

Thats a bunch of wood, never burned cottonwood but i bet it goes like a fart in the wind, wheres the pics?

 

[E&R_firewood]

congrats, sounds like a good haul. it is something magicial almost to drop one of those giant cottonwoods (what my highschool health teacher would've called a "healthy natural high") i like to mix in some cottonwood with my usual Lodgepole and Aspen, it is readily available, generally grows in nice flat open terrain and most people refuse to burn it . . .my woodstove has yet to utter a complaint when i feed it with cottonwood.

 

[Austin1]

congrats, sounds like a good haul. it is something magicial almost to drop one of those giant cottonwoods (what my highschool health teacher would've called a "healthy natural high") i like to mix in some cottonwood with my usual Lodgepole and Aspen, it is readily available, generally grows in nice flat open terrain and most people refuse to burn it . . .my woodstove has yet to utter a complaint when i feed it with cottonwood.

You guy's and your Soft Wood, oh wait what am I saying that's me lol.
I like to mix Aspen with black Spruce as I never found Black Spruce to be that great But I have 5 Cords of Lodge Poll waiting for winter Plus some Aspen, Spruce, and Poplar. And a 1/2 Cord of Manitoba Maple I am saving for them -40° nights.

 

[Henry G.]

Sorry but you got 8600 lbs of crap. JMO

 

[aandabooks]

Sorry to hear that you worked so hard for cottonwood. If that is all that you have available, it would be one thing.

I had some cottonwood in the pile a couple of years ago. Picked it up off the side of the road at about 9 pm. Didn't know what I had gotten until the next day. Couldn't keep up with throwing it in the furnace fast enough. Only slightly better than buring paper.

If I couldn't pull right up to the tree and have people magically appear to load my truck/trailer with cottonwood, then I would just keep going.

 

[J.W Younger]

thats a lot of wood. I tend to treat cotonwood kinda like sweetgum ,if it shows up near my furnace its all good but I won't go out of my way to get it.It makes good filler fuel for heating the hot water but in the cooler season I need something that will give me a 12 hr burn.In these parts thats usually hickory or oak.

 

[sbhooper]

Cottonwood may not be the best, but it will heat your house just fine. You also got a good workout! I have quite a bit that I am going to be burning the first time the weather gets cold here and I don't think that it will be long!

I just got back from Wyoming day before yesterday. We hunted antelope in the Manville area. We had a great hunt and brought home three a piece. Love that meat!

 

[StihltheOne]

I have never been a big fan of antelope meat, around here it all tastes like sagebrush,as that is what they eat a lot of. Makes great sausage and jerky though. Come and get some more of them would ya? I really do not like dodging them critters at night.
I have to chuckle a bit when people tell me that cottonwood is no good. At
-35 and a 40 mph wind I really like cottonwood as it makes real heat. I can maintain 900 degrees on my stove with cottonwood, I use a lot of wood, but it is really not a big deal as we have giant stoves. I have a little "new" stove in the house, cottonwood in it is not great, but in the MAN size stoves it is awesome!!

 

[chainsawaddict]

Ive burnt a lot of cottonwood. You cut 8600 lbs, but youll end up with under 5000 after it dries

I like to burn it with pine when i first get home, burns hot and fast. Takes the chill off pretty quick. Then I throw on some good hardwood.

 

[StihltheOne]

This stuff is bone dry now, I think that it has ended its major diet that wet stuff goes on. The first couple pieces at the stump might be a tad damp, however they are cracked pretty good. I am sure that it would burn fine right now. I sure wish I could get a pix on the dang thing. These are some cool looking ghost trees!!

 

[chainsawaddict]

This stuff is bone dry now, I think that it has ended its major diet that wet stuff goes on. The first couple pieces at the stump might be a tad damp, however they are cracked pretty good. I am sure that it would burn fine right now. I sure wish I could get a pix on the dang thing. These are some cool looking ghost trees!!

Burn it!

 

[olyman]

just amazes me of some of the wood snobs on this forum. ive burnt it all,esp when i first started, and had no wood--right next to winter--and cut dead standing trees in winter to get enough wood to burn---cottonwood aint great, but i burn it and soft maple at the start of season when you dont need huge amounts of heat. some people on this forum need to grow up a mite------------and i have access to lots of hardwood, but im the type i hate to see any of it go to waste----------

 

[smokinj]

just amazes me of some of the wood snobs on this forum. ive burnt it all,esp when i first started, and had no wood--right next to winter--and cut dead standing trees in winter to get enough wood to burn---cottonwood aint great, but i burn it and soft maple at the start of season when you dont need huge amounts of heat. some people on this forum need to grow up a mite------------and i have access to lots of hardwood, but im the type i hate to see any of it go to waste----------

:agree2: I use a heavy diet of soft maple!

 

[StihltheOne]

Shoot Guys, this is our "good wood". And what makes it great is that it is free!! It is either cottonwood, pine, or russian olive. I would rather go get 3 cords of this as fight for one cord of russian olive. The olive burns ok, stinks, but will make good heat. The worst part about it is, well about everything. If you can imagine if a tree was a porcupine, this would be it. The bark has an amazing amout of dirt and it stinks when it burns. Oh by the way, it is free too. As I said though, it does make good heat.