Why I Oughta...

Back in October of last year, I posted some photos of a pile of Ash (or what I thought was Ash) firewood that I grabbed off of one of my neighbors who was taking down some trees .   After letting it sit around in the back of the yard for a few weeks, by the end of November, I had a couple of 2x4's from our basement project that I hauled back there to use as a sort of rack and stacked the rounds up on them to get them off the ground .  A lot of this stuff was wet and needed time to just dry out up off the ground.  Well...a month later, I found myself needing to get outside for 30 minutes or so and I decided to start to process some of this stuff.   Some of the rounds are cut to length.  But, a lot of them are not.  I don't have a chainsaw, so I decided to take a shot at the ones that were both small enough and cut to the right length.  I split them open and what I found inside looked a lot like I was expecting based on the previous pictures.  REALLY dark heartwood.  And lighter

  Here's a look at some of the Ash Firewood that I processed last Winter.  You can see the checking that is taking place as the log dries out and has properly seasoned.  I recently brought some of this in the screened porch to begin to burn along with the Cherry, Oak and Birch.  This is the same wood that I showed stacked on my far backyard rack .  It has come a long way since Summer with a much darker look and checking along the ends.

 Last month - right at the end of October - I posted a couple of photos and talked about how I had sourced some Ash firewood from one of my neighbors .  They had a crew there to take down a dead Ash tree and I was able to get some of the wood dropped near by so I could get to it.  I left it just laying there for a couple of weeks, but recently, I decided to tidy the place up and get it stacked to it can begin to season and put it in a spot where I can start to process it.  I ended up laying down a couple of 16' 2x4's and rolled the large rounds on top.  Everything (well...almost everything) needs to be cut down to size, so I'll need a chainsaw.  Then, from there, I'll need to split the rounds.  This is one tree, but here's how it is looking all stacked up with some longer limbs that I've sourced from around the yard laying on top.   I have one rack in the back of our lot that is 3/4 of the way full, but I also have the lumber to make a companion rack that I'

  A week or so ago, it was warm enough to have our windows opened.  And as is the way these days, I was working from home in my office.  We have construction going on next door to us, so it isn't that weird to have heavy equipment running and noises coming from various forms of trades and construction.  But, what I *thought* heard wasn't construction equipment, but what sounded like chainsaws.   My firewood hoarding antenna shot up.  And I went out to see what was doing.   Sure enough, there was a crew of guys taking a couple of trees down in the yard behind us (and one to the south).  I walked over there and asked them what they were doing with the wood.  And what kind it was.  They said it was a mix of Ash and Pine.  They said that I could have the Ash. So, over the next twenty minutes or so, the guys proceeded to bring the rounds and drop them over our fence into the far part of our backyard.  You can see what I received in the photo above.  This tree is really chewed throug

A few days ago, I showed off some photos of a firewood rack that I built from scrap lumber in anticipation of our annual Fall firewood order .  In that post , I mentioned that I had some additional scrap lumber around (some treated, some not) around to build a few more racks.  This post, shows at the top another rack that I built from the same basic plans.  The photo above, shows this second DIY firewood rack that I built and placed along the fence in the far back part of our yard.  It is holding just about a face cord of mostly Ash and a little bit of Hackberry/Osage Orange firewood that I acquired form next door in December of 2019 .  I started processing the rounds and by March of this year, had the wood stacked on itself along the fence.  You can see that firewood stack in the post here .  It was fine.  But, it was mostly laying on the ground and I thought I could do better.  So, I took the lumber and got started.  The bottom ledge in this version is large - a 2x10 and I had e

One of my social distancing projects has been to keep working my way through the processing the firewood rounds that I picked up late last year.  Right after Christmas, I posted some photos of some of the split rounds and mentioned that some of them were very yellow and believed that they were Mulberry wood .  That belief (that it was Mulberry tree wood) was based on a couple of posts on the Firewood Hoarders Club site.  This one .  And this one .  Both have photos.  Have a peek at those posts.  Then come back and look at the photos in this post.  Same wood, right?  Down to the more whitish ring that appears at the very outside edge.  The white line is more prominent in the photo below: The Hoarders Club members say that it burns long and hot and makes great firewood.  I have a few rounds that I've split and a couple more left.  Unlike the Ash trees that I took, this Mulberry tree was live when it was cut down.  So, it is VERY heavy.  And wet.  The Ash can be burned almost

A color/aging check-in on the Ash Firewood that I acquired last year.  I still haven't split all of the rounds, but with the social distancing experience going on, we're going to have some good backyard time in the next week or two.  I first covered this wood - when it was standing as a (dead) Ash tree last year in November .  The full archive of ash firewood posts are here .   I had the rounds dropped over the fence late last year .  And started splitting and stacking it right after Christmas .  Head there to that post and see the color. There's been a change and I think darkening of the wood since this was first split.  I know that I kind of have a 'golden hour' thing going on in the photo at the top of this post.  But, to my eye: it seems to have aged/seasoned. I haven't put a moisture meter to any of this stuff yet, but it seems that I should be tracking it going forward.  I've actually brought in some of this wood and have burned it at night -

This is the fourth in the series of posts about the Ash trees that were taken down next door that I've been processing with what they call CSS (cutting, splitting and stacking).  And this post brings us full-circle.  From tree to firewood.  Well....I guess, technically, "full-circle" will be when I actually burn this piece.  But...for now, let's call this 'full-circle'. Back in November, I posted a photo of my neighbor's Ash tree with a pattern under the bark .  In that post, I remarked that because they were planning on tearing down the house right next door, I wondered if I could scavenge any of the wood.  After talking to the crew taking down the trees, I ended up with 45-or-so Ash tree rounds.    After a few days of splitting and stacking, I have about 2/3rd of the wood processed and just about a Face Cord of wood put up . And in that post from a few days ago, I mentioned that there were a few pieces that showed off that same pattern we saw on t