Remember me talking about those "rocket furnace" precut wooden log fragments you can buy that burn from the inside out?
I found free logs!
Right now, I think I am ready to cut up three nice sized logs I scavenged yesterday. Then drilling them, I will have eleven easy burn log remnants to use when the time is right. These are maple logs, so quite a bit more here than the ash we usually find for sale.
The reason that most of those logs are ash is because of a bug, commonly called ash borer, that has infected almost all ash trees across the mid and eastern USA. The Department of Natural Resources searches out infected ash trees and cuts them down to help curb the continuing threat of ash borers. So lots of ash logs out there in the market.
They process them by heated kiln drying which kills larva, eggs and burrowing adults, so they are then safe to resell for firewood. BUT, you drill a hole partway down the center and another onto the center hole from the side and you have something you can sell to modern suburbanites for fifty times what the wood is worth for firewood.
Enter the modern suburbanite "with tools" and he can do that himself after acquiring free logs from an aged maple in my case.
My son and I loaded up three great logs into my SUV on the way home yesterday. HEAVY!
... but we did it and now it is chainsaw time.
The logs are fourteen to sixteen inches across, so lots of good fire wood there. We also managed to have them save a thirty two inch diameter hollow portion (the reason this huge tree had to come down) that I am going to use as a fire pit for a while.
I intend to fill the hollow part with wood and just burn that until the center is burned so much its structure fails. Then, I'll just split that all up and throw it into the grill as smokers when grilling time happens.
Going to be a fun day. My daughter uses my little chainsaw with no worries, but my son has only barely touched it, maybe three times.
He will get a bit more experience using a chainsaw this afternoon! His fear seems to be mostly gone, but he needs to get some more "hands on" and from his enthusiasm at finding this tree being cut down, I believe he is ready to butcher some wood.
We'll see. Wish us luck!
