Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[James Miller]

Probably Pin Cherry - Prunus pensylvanica, not black cherry - Prunus serotina. Pic of the twigs also helps. If you can't reach the twigs just fire up the old Homelite super XL.

There's a ot of other busted up trees along the property line that would come down before that one. Lots of mulberry and other cherry down there. The one in the pic is a healthy tree. I do like the idea of an old Homelite but don' own any .

 

[Cody]

Someone pulled a good one there

Ya know, there's people in this world that would be, well, "gullible" enough to attempt to cut that, and possibly even split it, fully believing it's firewood.

 

[Cowboy254]

Stopped by the pile to check on things today since I havent been there in weeks since the weather has been garbage. The last time I talked to the foreman of the excavating company he said he was going to try to get some wood up by the entrance so I could get to it on sloppy days. I forgot about it but he actually did it. And I showed up with no saws. So back to the house I went. Told the 445, 550 and the 395 we were gonna take a walk and they jumped in the truck. Got there and forgot my gloves and all my newly neatly organized tool/chain bags I put together, so I only had one chain per saw and no files. The wood must have been put there before we got all the rain because most of the mud was washed off. Chains stayed sharp way longer than they normally do, but I grounded the 445 so I grabbed the 550 and it never made the 1st cut. I dont know what I did the last time I filed it (if I even filed it) but it wouldnt cut cardboard. So out with the 395. The small pile he set there didnt look like much but I ended up cutting the whole pile and didnt even come close to being able to fit it all in the truck, and I packed it full. Heaviest load in that truck yet I think.

Nice looking wood there. That yellow one - hedge is it? That foreman is really looking after you moving it up the front there where you can just cut, load and take off. I hope you put some wood in the passenger side of the truck. That's what proper scroungers do.

Slight change of subject.

I like it when you get to burning wood and you can remember where it came from and when. Now that the sting has gone out of summer and bushfire risk is on the wane (thanks to @woodchip rookie stealing our sunlight) we moved 4 cubes or more of dead dry peppermint (or was it cherry or even black birch? ) from where it was stacked out in the open into the top shed which is in the fire path close to the house. Back in September 2016, some of it was in the pile in the background on the Lady Farm...



Some of it was here...



And I transported it using one of these to get it to the trailer...



And ultimately stacked it here in February last year...





Where it has stayed for the last twelve months. We have had a very dry couple of months and the wood is about as dry as it is possible to get. Today with the help of Cowgirl and Cowlad it was moved into the top shed which is not really intended as a wood shed but since I haven't yet filled it with other stuff, wood can go in there to keep dry for early season burning. Peppermint is probably the best all-round firewood in my immediate area with reasonable BTUs and very little ash. This stuff had termites in it and was stacked out in the open near a meat ant nest which cleaned them all out nicely. So it lost a few BTUs to the termites but the trees were ridgeline trees exposed to the elements so there were probably a few extra BTUs to begin with.



Cowlad is not the most motivated 10 year old but once he got going he was a good help and enjoyed achieving something worthwhile.

 

[Cody]

Scrounged up some more red elm, and just a bit of american it looks like. Ok, two or three of them were still standing under their own power but they were likely to fall on the road when it came to that point so down they came. The rest of it was already felled by mother nature, except that little american I think. Have I mentioned before that I bring home ALL of the red elm? Hard to beat kindling there, and it just needs some attention with the sawzall and thrown in a container.



There's about a half a cord of rounds already cut up.



Then there's these logs that'll need cut up, some split, and all of it stacked. In the one picture you can see almost half the row on the bottom is red elm from the last time, and some oak on top of it, thought it made more sense to stack the dry wood down low for now.



We did however, scrounge up this little fella today.

 

[farmer steve]

i had been saving this ash tree to use as an anchor point to pull some leaners. mother nature had other plans. cut 1 bucket with 1 more to cut monday. almost dry enough to burn.

 

[rarefish383]

Probably Pin Cherry - Prunus pensylvanica, not black cherry - Prunus serotina. Pic of the twigs also helps. If you can't reach the twigs just fire up the old Homelite super XL.

Just one question, is that the Super XL12, XL101, XL700, or XL924 , I don't want to leave them all sitting around idling,

 

[rarefish383]

There's a ot of other busted up trees along the property line that would come down before that one. Lots of mulberry and other cherry down there. The one in the pic is a healthy tree. I do like the idea of an old Homelite but don' own any .

I'm going to an auction next week, how bad do you want one? XL12's usually go for about $10. If there is anything over 70-80CC's, I'm keeping it.

 

[James Miller]

It would need to be a runner as I'm a failure at finding time to work on the old saws I already have.

 

[dancan]

I had a friend that needed a few trees taken out of his back yard with a couple of oaks that needed to go . The problem with the oaks was that the bigger of the 2 was leaning towards his house .
Saturday morning was blowing gusts up to 50 mph here , my buddy thot "**** , too windy " , I called and told him "**** , is it ever windy with this NorEaster we're on the way !"
The winds were in our favor because it blew everything away from his house .
The first couple of sugar maple went right in the hole

The oaks , well we were prepared

The first one didn't need any help , in the hole it went and then we rigged up the second one , we set a sling up high

And set the Tirfor and a second line for good measure

Crank like a SOB on the Tirfor and presto , in the hole .

Twas a great day !

 

[dancan]

Oak shmoak , to make it a proper scrounge we cut some nice spruce there as well

 

[dancan]

I'll go back to block and load that stuff later , but since we had daylight left and it was nice out we headed to the woods

I picked up a load of the crappier wood

We also blocked up some tree length stuff that we had drug roadside earlier this winter and stacked it in the racks for drying .

Then cut some dead standing spruce and a bit of maple on the way out

White core and dry so good to burn

 

[MustangMike]

FS, may want to consider milling some of that Straight Ash. We may never see it again (like Chestnut, etc). It also makes great handles for shovels, wheel barrows, etc.

 

[woodchip rookie]

The ash is starting to come back here.

 

[woodchip rookie]

Nice looking wood there. That yellow one - hedge is it?

I wondered that also but I think its mullberry. We have alot of that here and until I cut what I know for sure to be hedge I wont know what it looks like.

 

[woodchip rookie]

I guess Osage is in the mullberry family so it might be, but the growth rings looked a bit wide for a super hard/dense tree.

 

[farmer steve]

FS, may want to consider milling some of that Straight Ash. We may never see it again (like Chestnut, etc). It also makes great handles for shovels, wheel barrows, etc.

stihl quit a few around that haven't died from the EAB yet. this one wasn't more than 12-14" at the base. plus it is nice and dry and i'm running low on firewood for the shop.

 

[James Miller]

I know where there' a few in town that don' show any signs yet. And at least 3 that should come down soon.

 

[captjack]

I need some help identifying this wood - I say Its "Golf Course Oak" Must say, a buddy with an excavator is the way to go ! Had this all cut up in 3 hrs and loaded. One landscape trailer and 4 14x7 dump trailer loads. The bases are about 28 inches around so perfect to run through the timber wolf !!!

 

[woodchip rookie]

Thats redbirchcherry oak. Duh.

 

[woodchip rookie]

Here ya go @Cowboy254 . Two pics of the same piece of wood. The white wood is hackberry. Mulberry or Osage?