Thanks for watching! Being a New Englander, I’m not familiar with west coast species when it comes to firewood. I know Douglas fir is nice lumber, and I do have a few planted here to try as Christmas trees, but they aren’t thriving compared to the native balsam fir, and even Fraser fir. Your description of big leaf maple sounds like how I feel about poplar. It’s impressive how different the maple species can be. Sugar maple is amazing, and sometimes called hard maple or rock maple.

Thanks for watching! For the most part I do the same - if it’s dry, burn it. I occasionally mix in softwood if a tree had to go, but it burns fast… Firewood is definitely productive recreation - saves on the heating bill and a gym membership. Plus it’s fun to be outside doing it.

Thanks for watching! I have a splitter, but I prefer not to burn gas and listen to it if I don't have to, so for straight grain trees I don't use it. I've also got a tractor to put things where I want them when I need to. I usually try to operate on the simple/frugal side. Mostly I take trees under 16 inches in diameter for firewood (12-14 inches in diameter is perfect), and I enjoy the exercise of hand splitting. I wish we had hickory here, as that's better than oak from a BTU standpoint. While it could grown in my area, I'm at the northern edge of its range and we just don't have it in the woods here. As for characteristics of softwood for firewood, I really only have experience with eastern hemlock and a little bit of pine. You can see BTU values for them in the link in the video description. Finally, I also love my Woodstock Soapstone. It's burning nice and toasty warm right now 🙂.