A year and a half ago, someone took down a red oak and gave it to me. Someone just a couple of weeks ago had a dead oak of some kind near his house, cut it down, and invited me to haul it off. He cut it into max 6.5-foot lengths.
That enabled them to fit in the bed of the truck with the tailgate closed. The tree was fairly small, so it fit easily into my log rack for bucking--and the individual segments were easy to handle even before cutting.
Bucking them only took 30 minutes or so.
It was described as being "dead but not rotten," and that looked pretty correct as I was bucking it. But it's definitely not ready to throw in the stove next month. As I started to split it, some sections had the feel and smell of fresh oak, and the moisture meter gave readings of around 24% (though some were higher). That's similar to the freshly cut (as of July) maple that I also have. Maybe by early 2023 some will be ready (if needed).
