Ash Firewood Rounds (Firewood Hoarding) - December 2019

Remember the post from back in November when I showed off one of my neighbor's poor Ash trees that had been ravaged by the Emerald Ash Borer?  When I posted the photos (with patterns caused by the larvae), I mentioned that since we burn so much wood (and I buy it all!), it might be interesting to see if I could score any of it for free.

From that post:

Maybe I should go talk to the builders and see if we can harvest some of it for firewood? I have to think that the larvae are long gone, right? We're only moving it 100 feet (so no cross-border movement!) and I would be seasoning it for the better part of a year before we got to burning it next year. Maybe it is something we could burn in out outdoor fireplace exclusively? All wishful/hopeful thinking of course.

Welp, wishing and hoping turned into some reality recently.  I happened to be home on the day that the tree company was on site cleaning up the dead trees and managed to talk the crew into dropping some of the wood over the fence into my yard.  And they even cut it up into 16" to 18" long rounds.

What you see is all Ash tree wood - which is good burning wood in the fireplace.  According to this story, it is good firewood - and some think it is 'great'.

Ash is good for firewood because it is a clean burning hard wood that produces an adequate amount of heat. It has a neutral aroma and won’t leave your hands all pitchy. Some argue that it is the best firewood to use!

That photo above shows the Ash rounds - which I count to be about 45 or so.  At 5-6 pieces per round, that's 225 to 270 pieces of wood.  A full Face Cord.  That, umm, requires me to split it.  The last time I split firewood was back in 2017 when we inherited a couple dozen rounds of wood and after letting them 'season' on the ground, I got around to splitting them with an axe.  But, this full face cord will get me about half of a season when it is ready.  Coupled with the downed oak wood that I harvested (and make up about a 1/4 rack at this point) will be useful down the road.

I'm going to get started on that and split up a little bit at a time to get it stacked over the course of the Winter.  Ash firewood can season in a year it seems (research says anything between 6 and 18 months), so once I split and stack this wood, I'll grab the moisture meter and see where it is sitting.  Since this tree has been dead for a number of years, I'm wondering if it will be ready to burn next year?

Also, since it is filled with Borer (or was) and likely larvae (or was), I'm NOT going to keep this with the rest of our firewood - but rather I'll stack it outside in the far back yard.

Oh...and one other note:  I also took a couple of large rounds of another wood type;  I think it is Mulberry - based on the color - and is another hardwood.  More on this when I share some pics and split it.