Sunday morning looked like this after localized 60 mph winds. A neighbor said that there were flames coming out of the electrical mast until it shorted. The inside of the mast melted. Thank goodness for stucco. Power company rolled in about 1pm Sunday to drop the line so I could feel safe starting on the tree. Got the crown cleared off the line by evening so they could get the line back up. I sent my wife and daughter to my MIL's for the night and stayed at home without power to keep working.
Those storms are some scary stuff. Glad all is well and all are safe. Couldve ended a lost worse. BE is a wood ive never scrounged save for a piece or two from the dump. Some good rounds to come from that tree.
Boxelder usually grows in lowland heavy soils around here, but we're on the side of a sandy hill on the edge of its common territory. I won't miss this one as a yard tree. Boxelder is usually all crooked and asymmetrical. It dies from the top down, shedding branches the whole time. And the bases of the trunks rot, until one day it's laying on your lawn. Don't plant one. As firewood though, I'd say they're underrated. They're in the maple family, and I think they smell nice burning. I grew up scrounging the branches for campfires in the river bottoms my our house as a kid, and I think I have a deep memory of their smoke. They throw reasonable heat, and they dry in a single season. I wouldn't pass it up if it were an easy pickup.
They don'e like the wind too much, that's for sure. Good job on clearing it up. Is the mast your responsibility or did they fix it up?
The one in the background to the left of the power pole with the Y is also a boxelder. Might be the biggest, straightest boxelder I've seen.
They grow around here, but im not that good at IDing them. Ive been told its lower btu wood, but some guys on here like it for firewood.
Same here then. With the exception of the meter near the bottom of the mast, their problems end with the connection at the top of the mast and from that point on it becomes my problem.
By Monday morning my beer fridge in the basement was warm, which meant my deep freeze with a couple hundred pounds of local beef was on borrowed time. I had left messages with several local electricians, but I didn't get a single call back by 10am. (Must be a good time to be a tradesman.) Fortunately, family called in a favor, and I had an electrician on site to fix the mast by 11:15. The power company passed him on his way out, and lit us back up before 1pm. The beef was saved, and I now have cold beer. But you want to hear about the tree. After an afternoon of cutting limbs and hauling brush, it's sure satisfying to cut into the big wood. I was having a couple issues with chips getting stuck under the chain and the chain seizing up in the groove, like I had pinched it. I must have pulled it apart three times before checking to see if the little oiler hole in the bar was plugged. Bingo, problem solved. Finished the afternoon by getting the stump cut down low. Any guesses about how much wood will come from this tree?
Those winds rolled through our area yesterday. Power off and on for several hours. Lots of limbs and trees down. Hopefully some of the local tree services will see fit to bring some by my place. Good luck with the cleanup!
This is the nicest box elder I've seen. Also, I am surprised with only a faint hint of red in the wood.
I'm with a cord and change maybe a 1/4 cord. Glad you got the power back and everyone is safe. Some of us like to hear the adventures while wood is a bonus you get to keep as a consolation prize. When I hear about box elder, it's got the pretty red inside when split or turned. Is that grain in yours?
Yes, but it's mostly inside the knotty "burls", the limbs, and the stump. The straight sections are pretty clear.
I got some interesting history on this tree from a neighbor. Apparently this is just half of what used to be a big V-shaped tree. The other half came down years ago. The stump won't win any beauty contests, but it tells that story.
