Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[turnkey4099]

Morning wood!

Widow neighbor called this morning because her tree guy was in her driveway wondering if he could drop a load of logs in his dump trailer at my place. By the time I got off the phone and put my boots on he was here.
View attachment 947320
This load is cottonwood, but he's bringing back 4 more loads of higher quality stuff. Gotta take the bad with the good, but he said he won't bring me the monsters of 4-5' diameter. Says he has 500! loads, so I'm sure I will cry uncle before he is out of wood. I *almost* feel bad calling this scrounged wood when it's delivered.

I think you win the "You Suck" award!

 

[turnkey4099]

Have you burnt any cottonwood before? Guessing it's like burning popple? I have a monster one to take down and was wondering if it's worth the trouble to burn. Thanks!

Prop 1: All wood burns

Prop II: Free wood is especially good to burn.

I have burned cottonwood, not bad but not good either. Lots of ash and it does go up the chimney pretty fast.

 

[turnkey4099]

I roofed a house where a guy had a few 150' monster cottonwood taken down. It was milled up into boards and I wasn't sure what the heck the guy had planned for it. The house was new construction and probly 500k$+ house. The boards were milled maybe into rough sawn 1"×8". Not sure what the heck you would use such a soft board like that for.

I had a neighbor who had just moved here from Montana. Cattle country. He said they prized cottonwood for flooring in the horse barns. I can't vouch for that though.

 

[turnkey4099]

Thanks for the advice. I know everybody in the area burns ot because it's everywhere but will people actually buy it. Trouble with the popple is after a year or 2 the bark starts falling off and makes a mess. I will update once we get that far. We have plenty of popple to scrounge on our property as you can see in the pic. Plus a bunch more in other piles.

I have been cutting and selling willow for over 30 years. $120/cord. I am still surprised that people buy it. But out here there is zero hardwood available except for some take-out in town or on farmsteads. I started my 'heat with wood' back about 1980 going to the mountains to cut good fir and the like. It did not take me long to realize a over 100mile round trip to bring home about 3/4 cord was NOT a paying proposition. Then I discovered I could cut all the willow I wanted withing a few miles of the house. Cost per btu went way down.

 

[3000 FPS]

I still travel to the mountains for lodgepole pine. Just like you not alot of hardwoods around here.
It is still a whole lot cheaper than propane.

 

[SS396driver]

Hardwood is plentiful here . I very rarely cut trees down except for standing dead or when someone needs a lot cleared but that's a rarity. Most of my wood is cut down by the DOT or blowdowns . The wood I talked about before will be for the 24/25 season not counting the maple that came down on my property a few weeks ago . Nice being able to relax a little and not be behind on wood

 

[H-Ranch]

I think you win the "You Suck" award!

I was expecting a little better mix of wood and it may still come, but cottonwood won't make a lot of guys jealous. I think the big black locust/English walnut tree company score last year was way better.

 

[JustJeff]

Poplar and cottonwood and the like are still hardwoods. Yeah the BTUs aren't super good but here's what I like about them and why I like to include some in my mix. Normally they split well and easily making it easy to split kindling/smaller pieces. They dry well and quickly. I use these woods for the shoulder seasons and for kindling. Or those nights where the wife stoked up the fire too early and it's hot in the house but if you don't put something in the stove before you go to bed, it'll be cold by morning, a hunk of poplar works here You come home and the house is cold, it's late so you want to get a fire going quickly so you can set it and go to bed, some cottonwood sticks to get er going quick and burn down to coals so you can stuff in a load of sugar maple. These woods are perfect for these scenarios. Also makes for great campfire wood. Nothing I hate more than seeing sugar maple and ash etc being burned in a fire pit. Go far enough north and there's nothing but birch, aspen, spruce, pine and fir. Coldest places don't have maple and oak and they seem to survive.

Sent from my CLT-L04 using Tapatalk

 

[chipper1]

Coldest places don't have maple and oak and they seem to survive.

When it's real cold I don't venture out as much, when you're around the house it would be easy to drop a few pieces of softwood into the wood stove.
I have some cherry I brought in for tomorrow and the warmup they are calling for, no need to burn up the locust on mild days.

 

[bob kern]

I keep all kinds around for various reasons. Mostly because if I gave the wife hickory in October the paint would be sliding down the walls by the time I came home!!! She likes it hot! Similar to the surface of the sun!
no hickory or oak for her til December or January!!

 

[SS396driver]

I'm burning hickory and oak right now its all I have seasoned ash is done for the year . Plenty for next year but I've used relatively little wood so far this year been warm here as of late with no end really in sight. Guess who's been shopping for tires

 

[chipper1]

I'm burning hickory and oak right now its all I have seasoned ash is done for the year . Plenty for next year but I've used relatively little wood so far this year been warm here as of late with no end really in sight. Guess who's been shopping for tires View attachment 947419

That seems a bit mild for you.
It's been lower than average so we are owed a bit of a warm up now. They are calling for mid 50s here next week.

 

[djg james]

Fog your two strokes. Crap happens and if it ends up sitting longer than anticipated fogging is good rust prevention.

Can you explain the fogging procedure?

 

[djg james]

I remember sawing Cottonwood when at the mill. Smelled like a swamp, came off the blade with a fuzzy surface and would always twist while drying. Of course it wasn't stickered but instead tossed on a stack of other boards. Used for horse stalls, lightweight with some give.

 

[3000 FPS]

Yep that sounds like cottonwood for sure. Smells when wet and not dried out. I burn alot of cottonwood and so cut alot of it up.

 

[SS396driver]

That seems a bit mild for you.
It's been lower than average so we are owed a bit of a warm up now. They are calling for mid 50s here next week.

Very mild . Should be in the 30s for highs in the mountains 61 in December is just wrong

 

[Brufab]

I think fogging is you use fogging oil and spray it into the cylinder and point the bar down and cycle the piston a couple times to disperse the oil evenly throughout but i could be completely wrong.

 

[sundance]

I'm burning hickory and oak right now its all I have seasoned ash is done for the year . Plenty for next year but I've used relatively little wood so far this year been warm here as of late with no end really in sight. Guess who's been shopping for tires View attachment 947419

Impressed with the current tire prices? I know my set of All Terrain TA's were eye opening a couple months ago.

 

[SS396driver]

Impressed with the current tire prices? I know my set of All Terrain TA's were eye opening a couple months ago.

They are up there have Coopers on it now 305/70r17 e rated good tire but even though it's still got tread it gets stuck easily in snow or mud . Had Bf Goodrich TAs on it before that but the price was way to much . Truck came with 265/70 on it but looked way too small . Looks like I'm going with the Goodyear wrangler AT Adventure in 285/70 and ironically the best price was from the local Goodyear dealer.
Still looking at 1400 all in . Just spent 650 on the driveshaft still cheaper than a new one

 

[sundance]

They are up there have Coopers on it now 305/70r17 e rated good tire but even though it's still got tread it gets stuck easily in snow or mud . Had Bf Goodrich TAs on it before that but the price was way to much . Truck came with 265/70 on it but looked way too small . Looks like I'm going with the Goodyear wrangler AT Adventure in 285/70 and ironically the best price was from the local Goodyear dealer.
Still looking at 1400 all in . Just spent 650 on the driveshaft still cheaper than a new one

Dropped ~$1300 on a set of LT275/65 R18's for my 2013 F-150 about 2 months ago.