Tuesday's haul

[craigs]

One of the strip mines I work at has trees lining the haul road and I've been meaning to take the saw with me for at least 2 months. Things never worked out - I'd go there without remembering the saw, or I'd have the saw and get detoured. After getting my big wood stove recently and desperately needing to play catch up on firewood (bigger pieces), I decided to put the saw in the truck and leave it there. Tuesday I had it planned out to be at that mine at the end of the day and actually got to do it. Told the truckers to leave the gate open when they left and sent a text to my wife telling her where I was, the phone number for the foreman that lived the closest, and what time to call him if she didn't hear from me. In 20 minutes I cut the bottoms from 2 medium-ish trees and had 1/3 of a pickup load. The rest of the truck bed was covered with snow and it had already started to get dark so I decided to just quit and get home to start a fire. The tons of snow didn't help, but I need to get as much as I can to start on 2012's wood. If I could just get a pickup load per week I'd be Mr. Firewood.

Here's what I "grabbed", literally. Any ideas as to what it is? The bark had a red oak kinda look to it, but I'm about as good with wood as foreign foods. Also, here's a Youtube link so you guys can see what's laying around. This is just what's on this stretch of road. Around 0:16 you can see the trees that I took. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM-8ck-YtZM

Craig

 

[rdust]

A lot of BTU's in those piles, what a great source!

 

[WoodPorn]

Can't help with the ID, all looks like heat to me. You near Waynesburg?

 

[bogydave]

Looks like good wood.
The best kind of course is "Gotten wood"
Looks like your gonna be busy, as the days getting longer & the snow melts.
Great score.
Good luck, Have fun

 

[SolarAndWood]

Time to put some boards on that truck, looks like you have some haulin to do.

 

[craigs]

I'm about an hour and a half east of Waynesburg. I really don't like that part of the state - anything west of I79 is kind of like "no mans land" where it's hard to reach if you gotta get there. Not that the rest of the state is easy to navigate, mind you LOL.

With my job I doubt I'll stay long enough after work to really load up the truck. We start at 6 and quit at 4....M-F. All my sites are at least 1 hr from home and some are 1.5. A couple are 2+. So you can see I have long workdays if you count my driving! After I've been gone from home for 12 hours and have a 2 hr ride home yet, I don't wanna be cutting wood for 3 hours, nope. Sometimes dad will go with me on a Saturday and then we'll load up the pickup and a 1 ton trailer. We did that a couple times last year and that's how I have a nice big stack of red and white oak in the back yard for my shop's woodburner. Sure doesn't take many of those days to get a couple year supply of wood, so I'm hoping to do that again this year with bigger splits.

 

[bigtall]

Looks like cherry.

 

[Wood Duck]

I can't tell what the wood is, probably because I tend to look at bark, not at wood. You have a nice picture of the wood, but the bark is not definitive. Could be Balck Cherry, Black Birch, or maybe some of each. Both are very likely to grow around a strip mine in western PA. Where is this mine? I am from western PA (Johnstown).

 

[SolarAndWood]

With my job I doubt I'll stay long enough after work to really load up the truck. We start at 6 and quit at 4....M-F.

I heard ya. I try to grab most of my wood and mulch on the way home from work and don't always have the drive to fill every last inch of the trailer.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Looks to me like you could be busy for a long, long time.

 

[craigs]

The only downside to this is knowing that 99% of what gets knocked down goes back in the hole. I saw huge oaks, maples, and others disappear at the last job because I could only cut so much at a time. But since then I've discovered that donuts or pizza every once in a while can get trees directed off to the sides. That at least makes the job easier even if I can't get it all.

 

[craigs]

Here's a better shot of the bark. I'm starting to think this is Cherry or something other than Red Oak for the simple fact that the trees haven't been down all THAT long and when split, these pieces seem quite dry inside. Any guesses?

 

[golfandwoodnut]

Looks like black cherry, we have alot of it in western pa, great firewood, seasons fast. Alot quicker than the oak, just not as many BTUs.