Walked the property a few weeks ago before the leaves started and marked all the ash with no leaves at all. Took my time and made a plan and dropped it exactly where I wanted Oh and I was playing with picture filters and this pic came out pretty cool and then I finished off the day with a Saranac pumpkin
A straight Ash like that is so nice to split, makes for some nice even stacking too. I marked all of my Ash trees about a month ago. Cut down a few small ones so far, but that's it.
Nice reckless. That also is a very nice size for easy splitting and easy handling. As for making the dead trees, I've never seen a need of that but several folks do. Most times I can tell in the winter that they are dead but also remember if I see one in the summer, I keep it in mind for winter work.
The issue I have is with the ash and EAB its hard to tell if its recently dead. I for sure am not wanting to cut down ANY Ash that had signs of life (even if they appear to be on their last legs) I have a huge mix of live and dead ash in my forest so just taking precaution to try to preserve what I have left.
Actually they are not hard to find at all. Usually by December or even earlier they will begin to look like this. That is, the bark starts chipping and the trees will begin to send out new suckers. Once they are at this point, they may as well come down but if you don't have time, worry not. We started cutting ash that was damaged by the EAB and we're still cutting. We've had only one fall so far. Even that was still good wood to burn.
Norky, I have wondered about woodpeckers. West and north of us (quite a ways from us) they have the pileated woodpeckers. We never had them until about 3 or 4 years ago. But, I have not seen one in about a year now. I wonder if they just could not find enough of the right bugs for them but did like the EAB. I sort of miss them as they are so much different from redheaded or red breasted or downy like we have all the time here.
Dennis I have 2 nesting pairs in my bush each of the last 4 years. It is a hoot to see the mother bird bring the current year younguns out onto the lawn and teach them how to pick bugs off the ground. Last year, Ontario hydro erected a brand new 90' heavy transmission pole across the road from our property. This pole was new and treated. Within 3 weeks they had to come out and replace it as the Pileated's had puched a rectangular cavity 10" x 3' about 2/3rds of the way up it. Needless to say, they weren't happy. They are neat birds to watch in action though.
Yea these aren't the ones I see on the dead ash or thumping my clap board siding either, its the little black and white ones. I would rather watch the pileated woodpecker do his thing any day, heres one inspecting one of my oak trees.
Weird, since the day I cut this tree I think it had cracks. Im gonna get a moisture meter on it to see what the deal is, dead standing 20%?????? hehehehe
Our Pileateds are kind of elusive. We sometimes see them at the edge of the woods, but hear them more than see them, very squawky birds. We have a lot of Red Belly Woodpeckers too. I don't know which ones are doing it, but when I find a lot of Woodpecker holes on an Ash, it's usually dead or almost dead. They must love those bugs. I've been splitting a lot of EAB Ash lately and the are loaded with Larvae. Wife wanted to try and save our Ash trees, I told her, have at it. I think she meant she wanted me to save them.
A lot of the dead standing Ash I've been cutting looks like that too. I don't think it's seasoned yet, but I bet it will be by spring. I have a barrel full of end chunks from a dead standing that I cut up recently and I've been throwing them on top of my dry wood in the stove and they seem to be burning decently.
We see a pileated woodpecker two or three times a year. We can hear him in the trees in the mornings. He's usually pecking at the utility pole in front of the house when we see him. One year he spent most of a day trying to peck into the lid of the electrical transformer on the pole. Neighbors and I got a kick out of it.
