Off topic I know but maybe you would like to see what a tree looks like after a lightning strike.
This tree was about 150 m from our house and the largest part of the tree landed about 100 m from it.
This was a BIG tree and the little one leaning died in fright. Another big one (out of camera) which was touching at the top had its bark blown off and also died.
Probably not. The strike killed the little runty one beside it and quite a big one next along (all the bark just exploded off one side) and were the first three in a line of 60 or so Karri trees planted in 1986. The sad thing was that there was a huge canopy about to flower and as they only flower every 8 to 10 years the flowers were precious.
I digress a little. There was a huge branch which extended some 20 m or so and I had arranged for a lopper to come and take it off as it was just over the power lines. When I first looked out after the strike and saw the tree down and not far from us I noticed this branch was still up. Wife went out took some photos, came back in and then the branch just cracked off took the power line down snapped a power pole off at the ground but we did not loose power.
I generally cut green in Winter/spring and burn that cut after the 3rd summer. So there is always 3 or 4 wood piles around drying out.
That aside , there is an old tale still floating around that the wood from trees struck by doesn’t burn and just chars.
I put paid to that straight away and put a green chunk on the fire. It burnt up no problem. Mind you Karri is not a very dense wood so a bit of slowing down of the burn would be handy.
Ah ha! You are an Aussie and know all about Eucalyptus! We have it here in CA but I had never had it as fuel and the first time (and last) it arrived green and when we tried to burn it a year later it popped and snapped and crackled more than a piece of raw tamarack, which is pretty pitchy wood. It was like fireworks in the fire place! Even a year later, when we could burn i,t it burned so hot we had to dilute it with other wood. I am guessing it is because it is a pretty oily tree.
Eucalyptus oil comes from the leaves. The timber will snap, crackle and pop if it is burned green, it needs a year or two to dry the moisture out of the wood till it can be burned and it does give off a lot of warmth. Eucalyptus trees are a lot of our firewood here in Aussie.
Cheers
I remember in one cafe I used to work in, someone said - “I can smell something bad/burning”.
My boss said “that’s probably my rash” bahahahaha
I have since used the phrase wherever possible (and I am keeping it polite on the public forum @Dawn_SD ) well trying to anyway, seeing as I’m supposed to
I suspect you were burning that weed in California called E. globulus or Tasmanian Blue Gum. One of the worst for fire wood. There are over 700 different Eucalyps and around 200 closely associated species in Australia. The key to good firewood is density. All the great firewood comes from trees like E.camaldulenis, meliodora, marginata, cladocaclyx , sideroxylon, leucoxylon to name a few and they are all very dense. The quick and hot burners like the bluegums and marri are good for pizza ovens but not much else.
As has been said all Eucalyptus woods should be dried 2 or 3 years before burning.
(and I am keeping it polite on the public forum 
