Oaks

[svk]

Most of the trees in the stand get so big and then they just kind of stunt and get hollow. There are squirrel holes galore.

OP, is the soil real sandy?

Even the trees that reach daylight only grow about 35 feet or so tall.

Soil is all sand. Coarse sand on hills which turns into ultra fine sand on the base of hills. The biggest trees are in a combination of rock and sand.

 

[hardpan]

The significant trade off is that we waste BTU's when we burn partial seasoned wood. I am not saying that you, in particular, do.

I know I'm guilty of it as are many on this site are. When we burn wood that still has too much sap or "oils" left in the wood, it just increases the burn rate of the wood, hence burning up faster than seasoned well, and thus increasing the creosote output.

Guilty as charged. I burn the oldest wood I have (white oak) and it is often too young and I have creosote problems. Now I know we are virtually neighbors and you experience the same general drying aggravations with oak as I. I spent last fall, winter, and spring building a woodshed, my first, but the effort put me once again behind on seasoned wood. I am sometimes envious of the guys that cut in the early spring and burn the following winter. I have never heard of the accelerated burn rate of green wood, interesting.
Has the EAB hit you yet? Now that is a drying time I could like.

 

[svk]

looks like there are a good amount of tree's that need to come down in that first pic though it's unhealthy to let them grow like that, you need to level them and start over. spacing won't help

This is on public land behind my cabin. This is one of three 40's that hasn't been logged yet. 95 percent of the public land has been logged in the last 25 years here. The original cuttings from 91 are starting to look like a nice forest again.

 

[hardpan]

Even the trees that reach daylight only grow about 35 feet or so tall.

Soil is all sand. Coarse sand on hills which turns into ultra fine sand on the base of hills. The biggest trees are in a combination of rock and sand.

I kind of wonder if it is a combination of too much sand and you may be near the natural northern limit of oaks in general. I don't know, just a wild guess but I bet a learned tree guy in the AS family could educate us in the matter.

 

[svk]

I kind of wonder if it is a combination of too much sand and you may be near the natural northern limit of oaks in general. I don't know, just a wild guess but I bet a learned tree guy in the AS family could educate us in the matter.

I'd bet you are right. We don't have any sugar maple either although you only need to go an hour southwest to start getting into them. The few bur oaks we get are also stunted.

 

[fearofpavement]

Dayum, that is big. Is that a "water oak"? That is what I call them but I think I am wrong. They get big here and grow relatively quick. Look at the space between growth rings.

Yes, that one is a water oak. We also have willow oaks which exhibit similar growth patterns (both are in the red oak family)

 

[c5rulz]

Even the trees that reach daylight only grow about 35 feet or so tall.

Soil is all sand. Coarse sand on hills which turns into ultra fine sand on the base of hills. The biggest trees are in a combination of rock and sand.

Here are the trees from the sandy area, The one that fell down while healthy is much nicer than typical so I cut it up:

Me cutting a log:

Typical woods my logger buddies cut: (In the good soil areas)

A few crumbs they throw on my trailer:

Still not bad stuff:

 

[hardpan]

With friends like that, big saw noodling must be a daily routine.

 

[fearofpavement]

interested in pics of the stump! i bet it's ugly! LOL looks like you cut that thing right off except for the one corner! did it go where you wanted? that's all that matters. pretty decent size wood.

Here's stump pics. This was a sectional take down and the stem needed to go a particular place so it had a rope on it.



In this picture of the face cut, what appears to be the back cut is where I removed a flare.



Here's the stump itself and a very whupped tree guy. I was up in the tree for quite a while turning it into a stem and it was about a 4 hour deal to get everything horizontal.




"Earlier that day..."

 

[c5rulz]

With friends like that, big saw noodling must be a daily routine.

In tops, 50 & 60cc is just fine.

With log cut offs, 70-90cc is in order.

 

[fearofpavement]

The large water and willow oaks almost always are hollow at the stump. It was rare to see one solid all the way through. The little bit of fiber pull was from the only hinge wood left. Everything else was cut off. If we didn't pull the tree with the truck, it would probably still be standing... Next time I'll make a deeper face cut.

 

[Greenthorn]

Damn nice work FOP.

 

[fearofpavement]

This is a willow oak. Another yard tree. Took some branches off one side to weight the tree in direction of fall and got it down where it needed to land. Not visible in the pics are the house, shed, wires, etc. Taking down residential trees is a completely different game than falling them for logging. I don't care if I get fiber pull, crack the stem, or "ruin" the wood in any way. It just absolutely, positively has to land on target. The ramifications are severe if you screw up. Advantages are I don't have to lug stuff into the woods, usually not working on steep slopes, if the weather's ugly I will delay until it's not, etc. Some disadvantages are hitting buried "stuff" in the tree. (not sometimes, but often), having an audience, dealing with all the potential ramifications of the tree falling on someones yard. ie, where are the gas and water lines buried? Sprinkler system? I've had pieces of trees get driven so deep in the ground I had to pull them out with a Bobcat. (3+ feet).
As soon as it dries up I have to take down two large Loblolly pines that someone built a building next to. One of the trees is literally touching the roof of the brand new structure. Last week the building wasn't there. It would have been an easy take down. Now, because they did things in the wrong order, I have to pull the pine against its weight and lean into a very poor target area. I'll charge accordingly.

 

[Hinerman]

Yes, that one is a water oak. We also have willow oaks which exhibit similar growth patterns (both are in the red oak family)

Thanks. I got 2 monster water oaks last year. Hard to tell but I think both of mine were just shy of this one. One had multiple limbs that were 20-24". The limbs were bigger than some trees. I got 11-12 cord from those 2 trees, and gave away several truck loads and trailer loads of chunks, smaller limbs, and scraps. I do NOT take them down. My friend has a tree service. Once the limbs and stem is down I go to work. Those big trees are a PITA to process but they produce a lot of wood in a short amount of time. It would take 20 smaller oaks to get the same amount of wood...Have a good one and be safe.

 

[sb47]

Trees can grow at inconstant rates all in the same location.
I operated a Big John tree transplanter for 20 years before I moved to management.
We operated about 40 tree farms in different locations around the area.
I have personalty hand planted thousands of saplings and cared for them till the mature at 5" to 6" trunk size and about 20 feet tall with heads about 15 feet around.
Having watched these trees grow, some irrigated and some not and they all are the same spices.
I can tell you that under the same conditions, they all grow at different rates.
It's kinda like children of the same parents, one kid is skinny and one is not, or one is tall and one is short.
Where I live you can drive just 30 miles and the trees change from all pines to all oaks. There is defiantly a boundary line where different species of trees tend to grow and how well they mature.

 

[fearofpavement]

Forgot the pic of the willow oak, here it is being blocked up by the Stihl 070 and the 41" bar.



And for the stump critics,

 

[svk]

The desired spot on the ground is more important than a pretty stump!

 

[sb47]

Since were posting large oaks, Here's a red oak over 50"

 

[fearofpavement]

That is where the big saws earn their keep.

 

[fearofpavement]

This one was rotted so badly I debated climbing it to section it out. It was leaning/weighted directly towards a house and would have destroyed it for sure.