One of my uncles told me I could have all of the Osage I wanted from the ditches in his pasture. I am hoping I can get a few hundred fence posts from it & as usual there will be a chit load of firewood. My uncle is furnishing all the diesel for the track loader that another uncle is furnishing the track loader. There are some nice straight ones, some clustered multiple trunks, some growing at almost parallel to the ground & some that require a lot of examination & thought about how to cut the them. This is what I have limbed & laid out so far: This was a nice one from today, my 661 with 28” bar : Some previous stumps : This one actually had 4 trunks grown together & twisted up, plus it was in a chitty location: A couple multiple trunk trees :
Some of them are nice & straight, a lot of old timers would cut the Osage & leave the stump, 2nd growth Osage is usually nice & straight. If these stumps don’t get treated there will be 5-10 shoots starting to grow from the cut stump. I am doing it more for the fence posts, should be around $5-6k of fence posts in there.
Today was a rough day for chains & bar, I threw 2 chains & scuffed up some drive links. I pinched a bar also. On day one I hit old fence wire 3 times & the bark holds a lot of dirt. Those hollow spots hold a lot of frozen dirt this time of year.
Know all about that and can relate. Black locust does the same and was killer on my chains last weekend
WOW!! What a score! That is amazing firewood, from what I hear. I've seen it in SE Colorado, while bird hunting. But I've never burned any. I'm so jealous!
Well, thrown chains, pinched bars, multi-flora rose bushes, several other thorny shrubs you have to go thru to access the trees then there is the Osage tree/limbs themselves. They grab you & don’t like to let go. They also get intertwined up top & sometimes you have to cut 3-4 tress to get them to drop. Makes dropping them an interesting adventure sometimes. Hopefully the reward is worth the bloodshed.
You make sound like it's a difficult task! I understand it's work, but sounds you knew that going in. Keep the adventure updated and the pictures coming.
Wow, you've hit pay dirt, literally! I've seen fence rows of osage, how they intertwine and grow in all directions, it looks quite challenging. I could see how it would keep cattle in. And the thorns... It seems like a pole saw would help get started into a new tree, to be able to stand back and make an opening. Great score, that'll keep you busy for a bit. A few weeks ago I found out I will have access to a small amount of dead osage, but that's for a future post.
Wow, that’s an impressive score. Do you split or cut the the fence posts or just looking for the right size and length naturally?
Green they aren't as bad to cut. Now those on the ground if he doesn't process them before mid summer, they'll throw sparks off of the teeth of his chain!! Those twisted together ones could make an awesome bowl if you know any wood turners. Dried correctly they make beautiful wooden ink pens. I couldn't afford to buy that quality and quantity of fence posts you have lined up in that field. Good job!
Wow, what a score. That looks like some tough work. I know that was hard on the chains having to cut those trees apart. I would need leather chaps and coat...lol... Great job.
Great pictures JimBear So how are you turning them into fenceposts? I don’t have osage here but want to turn locut into some
JimBear that looks like a nasty job especially being in ditches. Tough on body and equipment. Yet it sounds to be well worth it! Enjoy the firewood. Will you be selling the posts or using them yourself?
I have more than enough fingers to count the number of Osage I've ever seen around here. But everyone of them looked like your last pic! That's a lot of good, hard wood.
I have scrounge a couple limbs, some of which have large enough sections to try to make a small bowl (angle grinder method) or board type serving pieces/trivets. Any tips on how to dry Osage for such possible projects? I assume I should work the pieces sooner rather than later...though it may already be "later".....
