Fallen tree branch

I've got a tree out back that isn't doing very well. It has several large branches that are completely dead.

In fact last week my wife and I were talking about having it trimmed. And then with all the rain Tuesday and Wednesday, one semi large branch fell.

I've got a small electric chain saw and got to work on it. I now know I'm glad i didn't become a lumberjack for a career.

But now it's Friday and I just fired up the fire pit. I bought some mushrooms and peppers and sausages to cook.

I'm just shocked how fast the small kindling started on fire and how hot they burn. Far hotter than just normal pieces of firewood.

It's an Oak tree and Oak Wilt is very common in our neighborhood. We've had two trees in the front yard die from it already.


Here's the fire pit all good and hot.

They are going to come out and trim the rest of the tree in a couple weeks. I think I'm going to tell them to just set the wood aside so I can use it for the fire pit.

I get the question all the time, "what is the best wood to burn?"

the answer is simple... "free wood."

I guess as I was writing this I was thinking about the fires out west and how fast they burn. It was just amazing how quick the kindling caught on fire and just blazed up so fast.

And yeah, free wood is good. But I've already spent thousands over the years treating this tree trying to keep it alive. A long time ago they put in a steel cable between the branches so it wouldn't rip apart in a wind storm.

A good half of what I burn in my firepit comes from my small fruit tree "grove" and some even goes in the smoker.

Speaking of free wood, the first house I lived in had a fireplace. We burned everything in that from old white picket fencing ( probably lead based paint and all) to Christmas trees. Several neighbors didn't have fireplaces so we often had ten to fifteen Christmas trees come January.

Oh by the way early fire retardant that was sprayed on the trees made pretty colors when they burned. And it didn't retard one darned thing. Wonder how many carcinogens were in that stuff.

Curious as to which type of oak that is; red oak, white oak, live oak, or what else?

woodsy said:

Curious as to which type of oak that is; red oak, white oak, live oak, or what else?

Click to expand...

I believe it's either a white oak or live oak. I'm not certain though.

One Oak that has always confused me is Post Oak. I don't know how it got that name or why.

Post Oak was perfect for making, um, posts in the old days. We have tons of them around here and even have a street named after them.

Red Oaks keep their brown leaves over the winter and shed them over several months, especially when new buds push the dead leaves off. They're year round gutter cloggers and I loathe them near my house.

Free wood, basically at our camp site whatever it is, it burns from old decks to blowdowns to misc pallets etc. as long as friends can all sit around the campfire and enjoy friendship and the beverage of choice, we are good.