Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

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Anybody ever cut down a tree that had been hit by lighting? I cut down a sugar maple for a buddy on Sat night and the tree had a healed crack on one side but it was the hardest wood I've ran across. It was like cutting a 36" piece of ironwood. It died this summer so it wasn't like it had been standing dead. It literally was sparking the whole time until you got 25' up the stem.
Don't say that, I have a oak I'm supposed to be taking down before winter that was hit with lightning beginning of the year. Nit looking forward to it for several reasons and now you've said this makes me want to do it even less, lol.
 
Was it on the edge of a field? Maybe filled with grit? How'd your chains hold up?
No it would have been in the middle of a woods before it was cleared to build his house. Tree was really clean. Just some of the hardest wood I have ever cut. I have to sharpen both chains I used after cutting it. Thought maybe it was a chain but I used a X-cut and full chisel stihl chain so two different varieties. The edges go smoked pretty good.
 
Don't say that, I have a oak I'm supposed to be taking down before winter that was hit with lightning beginning of the year. Nit looking forward to it for several reasons and now you've said this makes me want to do it even less, lol.
Lol! I got through it but I only brought one extra chain and no sharpener. I usually have the stihl two in one for quick touch ups but I left it on the work bench. It was better the further up I went so hopefully yours isn't bad.
 
Anybody ever cut down a tree that had been hit by lighting? I cut down a sugar maple for a buddy on Sat night and the tree had a healed crack on one side but it was the hardest wood I've ran across. It was like cutting a 36" piece of ironwood. It died this summer so it wasn't like it had been standing dead. It literally was sparking the whole time until you got 25' up the stem.
Last one I cut wasn't bad. But then it was a HVBW. So not real hard wood to begin with. Cut a few others but don't recall how they were.
 
Total MN talk when saying you "ran" into. Same with "bumped" into. Has about 10 different meanings here and this case it just means found.
Maybe you and the guys could "hook up" and cut that one down :surprised3: :lol:.
That is a ginormous tree, maybe a red cottonwood from the lineage of the redwood lol.
Anybody ever cut down a tree that had been hit by lighting? I cut down a sugar maple for a buddy on Sat night and the tree had a healed crack on one side but it was the hardest wood I've ran across. It was like cutting a 36" piece of ironwood. It died this summer so it wasn't like it had been standing dead. It literally was sparking the whole time until you got 25' up the stem.
Yep, probably much like cutting those ones that Nate and those guys in the PNW cut that were in the forest fires, cooks the sugar in them nice and hard.
Some of the worse I've cut were mystery wood up on the hill at @Armbru84 place, the stuff was hard! The best cutting saw I had was a 2152 iirc, set up with a 325 chain, seemed the narrow kerf was able to get a bite and keep cutting, the others just bounced off it. Another was cutting beech with @Honyuk96 :baba:, I think I had a new x-cut chain on the ported ms261 that did real well.
I used a X-cut
That's some pretty hard chain, I really like it.
Keep a few on hand, just in case!
Screen Shot 2021-08-16 at 11.40.19 AM.png
 
Toughest wood I ever had to cut was the Black Locust in Garrison NY where my brother built his first house. Was not too, too bad if you just cut it all the same day, but if you dropped a tree, then came back for it another day you had to sharpen your chain every 2 or 3 cuts!

I have heard that in some places they absorb the sand from the soil, and if you don't have "full sap" for lubrication, it is just murder on your chains.

We did not know much about wood and BTU's back then, but my Brother did tell me how hot his double barrel drum stove used to get when he was heating his house, likely due to the abundance of Black Locust there. This was back when Mechanic Matt was just a little tyke, and too young to be running saws.
 
Cut into my new scrounge yesterday. Around a 1/4 acre willow bush terribly overgrown, dead fall everywhere. Can't even walk between the trees. I tried for it about 30 years asgo but she didn't want trees to be cut and I was looking for firewood then. Now all I want is an excuse to fire up the saws for a couple hours. 3 hours work yielded on big pile brush 20'diameter circle cleared around it and a couple huge branches growing horizontally along the ground ready to buck. Those will be firewood. Nice part was it being a hot day and all the work was under the shady canopies. If I don't do something stupid and lose cutting rights there I'll have work as long as I can swing a saw. At 86 now that may not be very long into the future any more.

I'll try posting a pic in a day or two. Just bought a new camera and got a quicky lesson in how to transfer pics from it to the 'puter.
 
Hello? Anybody out there?
Cool here today finally after what seems like a month of 90s-100s. Went to the small locust find. Cut and loaded what was good from a fair size locust I fell a week ago. Got almost nothing from the bottom 8'. It was just a ring about 2-3" thick.

Moved on to the next one - dead standing about 20' butte. Nice tree. Seems solid all the way a very minimal work brushing it out - only took about 15 minutes and a very small brush pile. I left the bucking/loading for my next trip. Where I am working is up a draw with about a 30% slope. Gets very tiring fighting that slop. Was nice today, Back up to the tip, cutsome and toss downhill into the truck, repeat. Very nice being out there swinging the saws again and cool.
 
Well, here we go again!!! This is from NYS: FYI, Putnam (the County I live in) is between Westchester and Dutchess. Ulster is the SE part of the Catskill Mtns, my property is in the NW part of the Catskills, near the PA border. A lot of areas down near here got hit very hard last year. In a lot of good hunting spots, there were no deer and no tracks. If you hiked, biked, or drove with your windows down the distinctive smell of dead animals was all too common.

"Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) Confirmed in Ulster County​

DEC has confirmed that three white-tailed deer in the town of Esopus, Ulster County, died after contracting Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD). DEC is following up on reports of dead deer in Dutchess, Ulster, and Westchester counties.

Whitetail doe looking at the camera in the snow.
EHD virus is an often-fatal disease of deer that is transmitted by biting midges - small bugs often called no-see-ums or 'punkies.' The disease is not spread from deer to deer, and humans cannot be infected by deer or bites from midges. EHD was first confirmed in New York in 2007 with small outbreaks in Albany, Rensselaer, and Niagara counties, and in Rockland County in 2011. From early September to late October 2020, a large EHD outbreak occurred in the lower Hudson Valley, centered in Putnam and Orange counties, with an estimated 1,500 deer mortalities.

Once infected with EHD, deer usually die within 36 hours. EHD outbreaks are most common in the late summer and early fall when midges are abundant. EHD symptoms include fever, hemorrhage in muscle or organs, and swelling of the head, neck, tongue, and lips. A deer infected with EHD may appear lame or dehydrated. Frequently, infected deer will seek out water sources, and many succumb near a water source. There is no treatment or means to prevent EHD. The dead deer do not serve as a source of infection for other animals.

EHD outbreaks do not have a significant long-term impact on deer populations, but deer mortality can be intense in small geographic areas. EHD is endemic in the southern states where there are annual outbreaks, so some southern deer have developed immunity. In the northeast, EHD outbreaks occur sporadically, and deer in New York have no immunity to this virus. Consequently, most EHD-infected deer in New York are expected to die. In the north, the first hard frost kills the midges that transmit the disease, ending the EHD outbreak.

You should report sightings of sick or dying deer to the nearest DEC Regional Office or Environmental Conservation Police Officer. DEC will collect samples from deer and analyze data from deer reports to determine the extent of the outbreak. In addition, DEC has alerted Department of Agriculture and Markets veterinarians in the region to be aware of the disease and to report suspicious cases among captive deer.

For more information on EHD, visit Cornell University's Wildlife Health Lab website.

Photo courtesy of David Huizinga"
 
I did not go out at all in bow season last year because of this. Was very lucky the little spot I hunt down here still had deer last year. (I took a doe with the MZ in regular season, and had 5 deer in sight when I took it just before dark). I purposely waited till after there was a good frost to go out.
 
Don't say that, I have a oak I'm supposed to be taking down before winter that was hit with lightning beginning of the year. Nit looking forward to it for several reasons and now you've said this makes me want to do it even less, lol.
I took 2 red oaks apart 2 years ago one of which was hit by lightning. I could tell no difference between the 2 so maybe you job won't be hard after all.
 

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