This is the tree that snapped in half during Hurricane Isaias Aug-2020. I took care of the top half of the tree myself and my favorite tree service really hooked me up. Didn't charge me anything and took the tree down today. 30" in diameter at the base. Beautiful white oak. The smell of whiskey was unbelievable and there was only one limb infested with some ants. So far everything else is just absolutely beautiful stuff. I'm having a neighbor over on Saturday who said he wanted to chop wood, learn how to use a chainsaw, etc......so he'll be thrown right into the fire. I'll also have him split some maple so it will be ready for next winter. He bought a cord of wood in January that burned like crap (I'm sure it was wet) so that should be dry by this winter unless it's also oak. I haven't seen it yet.
I got a beautiful bottle of Caymus cabernet sauvignon I'm going to give to him....and will also get him a Makita 18v cordless blower.......
I also saved a bitternut hickory sapling that was growing right below the white oak. Transplanted it to the spot where I had taken down a diseased japanese maple.
Really great you got them to cut that down like that. Also good that your neighbor is wanting to do some work! Best is that you get some great firewood!
That's some big wood there, nice White Oak. Great job on the take down, you'll love that heat in the future. Glad to see you saved that Bitternut, I have a whole stand of it and cut some every now and then, great burning with great heat. But that little fellow won't be ready for for quite a while.
Yeah it's awesome to share my experiences with them even though I'm still a neophyte. He told me he was a 9/10 in terms of excitement....and then I sent him the pics and he was a 10/10. I have a huge 80' or so bitternut in the back of the property. Thanks to the squirrels (or what's left of them) the nuts got buried and sprouted heh heh. I used to collect the hickory nuts and use them for batting practice for stickball. Super nice and hard so you can whack 'em, collect 'em, and then whack 'em again multiple times. Turns out my property was once a tree nursery.....and then the owner sold the entire lot and they built these two huge houses up to the corner. Absolutely disaster. They cleared out all the trees on those new lots but at least I still have a mini-forest on mine. Obviously the only reason I took down this white oak was because of storm damage and damage to the house.
You can have as much as you want to split and/or haul!!! That's the deal I have with my neighbors. Heh heh. I've been holding off on scrounging and/or getting tree service dumps because I knew this was coming and I knew it was going to be a lot of work. I am running out of space but luckily have two stacks empty and ready!!
Thank you sir. Look, I think I found THE most perfect 30" x 16" round of white oak I've ever seen. No knots, just deliciousness!!
Missed this thread and late to the party here. Yes there is something special about any knot free oak round. I always enjoyed splitting them, but the multi year wait has made me fall out of love with oak. Looks like the tree guys did a nice job keeping those evenly sized too! If you need more meditation LOTF you can come here. Plenty of round therapy here for you. Black locust, sassafras, red maple, sugar maple. The shagbark hickory can wait for the hydro unless you need serious therapy or you may need a different kind of therapy after splitting it!
Thanks man we should definitely hang out. We are so close to each other. Too bad it's illegal to transport firewood across state lines but I'm happy to come help you split and hang out for a day and vice versa happy to have you come over as well.
Made a nice dent in ginormous white oak rounds. Hit 'em hard with the wedge and sledge and did end up noodling one super knotty extra tall round. Only 3 rounds left intact and one of them is the base of the tree and it's still sitting on top of the stump. Nice cooler weather today with a nice breeze as well. Much better than working on it last week. That was brutal. Got about a cord stacked already. Probably less than a cord left.
Thanks. Those rounds had a tremendous amount of knots in them. I saved 3 or 4 burls for wood turning purposes. I've never turned a burl......well, I really have hardly turned anything yet.....but that's the plan! My neighbor was supposed to come over today at 2pm and he cancelled on me.....Good thing too because I was spent by the time 2pm rolled around.
