Maybe 3/4 load today, because of the hill and not wanting to get wrecked New oak variety (black oak) I’ve had little of, hence the appeal to scrounge on such a steep bank Probably 2 more loads there when I can make time.
I haven’t heard that joke in years! Yeah ummm… hmmmm…. I guess I did get these beauties in the bed, and it’s only a matter of time before I get down to splittin’
That’s not a bad idea Mike. I do enough roadside salvage operations to where it would come in handy. Amazingly only 2 of these got away from me as they went tumbling down the hill. I had to run after them in case a vehicle came (in the 40 minutes I was there, only 1 truck drove by)
I have a 12v remote control ATV winch that I mounted to a steel plate with hooks on the front of it...I just attach the winch to the hitch of my truck with a short chain, then hook up some long and heavy duty jumper cables to the battery, and winch away...it works good for felling wrong leaning trees too...cut, evaluate, add tension, cut evaluate, so on and so forth...I've used it to skid some pretty big logs out of the edge of the woods too. IIRC its a 3k lb winch.
I was really motivated for this one Yep I’d go as far as to say I’m currently in oak mania for better or worse. I do think (for me) this is the best way to hoard oak. Go after the ones that were standing dead a couple years, then were either cut or fell down. They dry faster and the trade off of dealing with the punky sapwood is worth it IMO.
You thinking next year for burning it? Did you check MC? Will you store them in the weather to help wash more punk off? Separate out heartwood splits? I have a cord and a half of white oak like that from last months cut. I saved the heartwood in its own stack (well it will have its own stack)
I’m eventually stacking all this dead stuff for 3 years out, tentatively. If I needed to I would burn it in 2 years though. Moisture content felt as high as fresh cut although I didn’t bother using the meter. The black oak didn’t have a thick punky sapwood ring so I’ll leave it alone. On some of the red and white oak I’ve been getting, it’s about 2-3” thick, so I’m going to knock some off with the splitter for cleaner splits. Save the outer punky scraps for outdoor burning (and fuel for maple sap boiling next year)
I split yesterday’s black oak and have it stacked temporarily on a couple cedar sleepers, just so it’s all up off the ground as we get into mud season. The right side of the stack looks to be leaning way more than I like, but I do have another long cedar pole buried in there, tying the ends together. It just has to stay upright for 2-3 weeks. I really need to start tackling my pile of rounds I’ve accumulated over the past few weeks. I’m not done hoarding dead oak though Good problem to have I suppose.
Probably hydro so I can strategically remove the outer punk layer better. Yes definitely more black oak soon I like it so far. It’s just like regular red oak splitting it, but smells better. Almost sweet actually.
I've left the sapwood decay before. It burns right off if you can keep it dry. Makes a trail of mess every time you handle it though. It's worth chopping off if there are small pockets of carpenter ants.
The sapwood ring on this black oak is very thin so I won’t bother trying to remove it. Some of the moth killed white oak on the other hand has 2-3” of outer punk, which is a bit much for my liking. There’s an almost unlimited amount of dead oak in my scrounging area so I can get a little picky.
Nice score. I prefer Black and So Red to the others. Imo they are straighter grained and easier split than Northern, Pin, Willow, Scarlet…. Has the deep red color to it too. Love having cords of oak in the bank
