....would a woodchuck chuck if.............. well you know how the rest goes and I don't really know the answer but I do know that if you're going to have a southern BBQ you need a source of good hardwood to burn. So what this post is about is the connection I made and I must say I certainly made a great connection with a great local businessman. Introducing Mr Beetlestone of Beetlestone Stump Grinding.
The story goes like this a friend of mine who has enjoyed several delicious meals from our BBQ had to take down one of their cherry trees and want us to use whatever we could so I offered to help the guy who was doing it in trade for whatever wood I wanted. In comes Mr Beetlestone who is also a friend of my friend. After we had finished disposing of the tree we got to talking and it turned out that Mr Beetlestone had no outlet for the myriad of wood he cuts down in the course of his work. Of course he cuts down many types of trees and of course some of them are excellent woods for cooking in a BBQ. Maple, Oak, Black Locust, Elm etc.
It so happened that Mr Beetlestone attended the thank you BBQ for the Rev. Wayne and tasted first hand the product of a good long slow cooked pork shoulder.
I don't know if this encouraged him to call but yesterday he did to say he was taking down several trees. (& lucky for me only a few blocks away) One tree was a Maple tree and the other a Black Locust. Both were quite large, 18 to 20 inch diameter trunk. He advised that I was welcome to load up all I wanted. I wanted it all but could only really deal with about 90% which turned out to be 2 large pickup truck loads. The large trunk sections with several branches coming out in different direction would be too difficult to split or even saw in to proper pieces.
This is work I benefit from quite awhile from now........you see this wood can't be burnt in the Q until it is well seasoned, hopefully in a year. One thing I learned from my Dad is that hardwood is best split when it is green otherwise it simply gets too dense and very hard to split without a hydraulic wood splitter. The density of the wood is what makes it so good for cooking or heating. I found out yesterday that splitting some of the pieces is easier said than done so I purchased myself a splitting wedge to go along with my large splitting maul.............the work proceeds. Luckily some of the branch are small enough they won't need splitting but may take long to fully dry and be ready for cooking with.
The smaller diameter pieces have been left long so I piled them in different place and I break out the chain saw to make them into lengths more suitable for stacking, splitting and burning.............a year or 2 from now.
Out heart felt thank you goes out to Mr Beetlestone of Beetlestone Stump Grinding.
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