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Locust in the woodshed right now.
Cleared a lot full of it for two houses last year. [bleep]'s hard as woodpecker lips right now.

I have gas. So does my fireplace. And my forced air furnace.

Old multi-fuel furnace blew a blower a year ago, dammit. Obsolete, couldn't get parts.

Gas bill dropped 20% with the new one - we only burned wood in the multi-fuel when it dropped below -10.

I liked that old furnace!

At the remote cabin, of course, all we have is wood. Got more blow-down spruce on my 5 acres than I can burn in 50 years at the rate we are using it! ( a week or two in residence annually) Some birch. Skinned a couple logs last summer, for future use. Keeps them from rotting if the bark is off.

OK- I lied. it's nominally 5, but less than 5 acres -- it depends on how high the river is.... One corner is across the river...

Hey- I could put up a river toll booth on my upstream neighbors!

and the dog has become pretty rectangular since.

self loading!

I've burned a lot of Poplar at my cabin in Ontario. It lives up to its name - it pops. Sometimes it pops when you open the wood stove door, sending a hot coal quite a distance. My preference is paper birch. I don't think it has that much more heat than poplar, but it wins the contest for the best smelling firewood.

Dunno about poplar, but birch definately has more BTU's than Aspen, in my case. And I think spruce. Isn't birch a hardwood?

Googled it. As I thought. I knew it held the fire better than spruce...

When I was using it in the multi-fuel furnace, I'd load it at night, before bed. If I really wanted to hold it, I'd put in some less seasoned birch on top.

Creosoating was increased but I had/have two good sets of chimney brushes. Selling cheap - you pay the freight.....

Yes, birch is considered a hardwood, but just barely. I'm sure someone will post up a chart of the BTU's of various firewood.

Appropriatley named. Pops like crazy. Not for open fireplaces. Burns fast, lots of ash, blows hot coals out. Keep it.

I miss having the hardwoods available I grew up around in deepest, darkest Appalachia. About the only thing we have in abundance in AK is spruce and birch. A friend of mine burns a lot of tamarack. It's a little denser than spruce and holds a fire pretty well. There'll be coals in the morning from tamarack that won't be there from spruce. Most folks burn mostly spruce and hold their birch supply in reserve for those -40 F cold snaps.

A load of tamarack


Split, in the shed, and ready for winter. Have about a 6 years supply curing around the place.


Yes, there are many superior hardwoods, but we live in the PNW.

Wow I would need a lot of wood to last 6 years.

SEVEN wood stoves??? Yikes. I've had exactly two - and the second one that I use now is only about 3 years old. The first one lasted over 40 years.....and frankly, I still miss it because it would really, REALLY put out the heat if it was necessary..

Poplar's not used around here simply because the area is rich in oak, maple, ash and ironwood..

Yes, y'all boys in Oregon and Washington have it tough. I lived up there for a year, in eastern Washington near Idaho, all they had was pine to burn. They thought I was making it up when I told them about oak.

I am in the North Carolina mountains. I burn lots of oak and hickory. The bad news: Twenty years ago the locust blight killed all the locust trees. The good news: There is lots of dry dead locust. Locust is the best firewood in the state.



Last month I cut up this big boy. This is the biggest locust I have ever cut, usually it runs 10 to 12 inches.




I cut it and my brother split it. We both got a truck load. This is the finest truck load I have ever gotten, locust with no rot and nearly dry enough to burn. Moisture content 21 percent, we need 17 percent to burn well.

For the task of creating heat and holding a fire, tamarack is hard to beat. (not putting it up against oak, elm, ash) just from what I have an abundance of which would be jack pine, tamarack, spruce, poplar and birch. Birch is my fav to burn and to cut. But I can't beat the overall efficiency of tamarack.

Did.....did....you put all them logs back together in the wood shed after you split them or are my eyes deceiving me???

You are hilarious.

What kinda brain germ did you pick up down t' the Golden Corral or China King buffet?

Burning "popular".

Yep, that "popular" does burn better than sissiyfied fir and juniper..........................burns right up, little heat per cord comparatively.

Like I said......................hilarious!

Geno

PS, you won't run this old guy.

PPS how many ricks you figger in that big ol' tree?

I've still got 3-4 years worth of standing dead locust, burned mostly oak last year that was gifted/delivered in pole lengths.
Could hardly believe the difference in how much faster the stove filled with ash with oak vs locust.

Hey Geno, does that juniper make a man's house smell like cat piss when it's burning??

😄😄

We use black locust for fence posts.

Honey locust has those big thorns on it aka Debble's walking stick. I leave those for the deer. They eat the bean pods late season.

Nope, all that stuff I stacked in the woodshed smells like cedar. Which is probably why folks like to call it that.

Beware the "Cedar People" living in N AZ, out in the junipers. On 40's they bought on a broken up subdivided ranch. Some of 'em live in teepees and tents .................20 years after they bought their property.

Geno