When a neighbor calls and says the power company took down some trees on his property that were killed by the Gypsy moth caterpillars and do I want some of them...well, sure. Fired up the tractor, hooked up the trailer, and made easy work of my first scrounge in over a year. The weight was getting up there on the utility trailer, so I finished the scrounge with the ATV trailer. Everything was good red oak, so even though the wood is all different kinds of lengths (as is typical for tree company cut wood), I am pleased with the scrounge. As the last picture shows, I definitely need to get splitting (and I have wood waiting to be processed in two other locations as well). Life kind of got in the way of doing just about anything firewood related over the last year but not here to bitch about it. That's just life.
Awesome score. I hear ya on tree service cut wood. Bet it felt great to hoard again after a lay off. If you ever need a hand making firewood let me know. I's be glad to come up for a few days and help you catch up.
Possibly, and I hope so considering how many red oaks we have that were killed off over the last couple years. These trees died off about two years ago (and were cut down two days ago) but judging by the wood, they sure weren't anywhere near green anymore. The caterpillars do something to the tree where the sap runs in a weird way and does something funky to the wood. I talked to a mill operator earlier this year who has been felling and processing a lot of gypsy moth caterpillar killed trees (of multiple species) and he said the wood is no good for commercial milling due to whatever it is that the caterpillars cause to happen internally to the trees. Great for firewood though.
Yeah, I don't (usually) turn down tree service cut wood, but they do make it more work for us. It did feel good to be out again finally, even despite the humidity and wildfire smoke. Nice having A/C in the tractor considering I haven't put them up in the house yet. I appreciate the offer for assistance. Might have to do a small GTG someday. Absolutely. Even though I didn't get any firewood split last year, I still had enough for last winter and enough for the upcoming season. Now I need to build that 3-year plan back up again so I'm definitely appreciative for today's easy donation to my hoard.
Nice score! That's a good hoard going on there. What's the brand of tandem trailer behind the atv? I like that.
“I am pleased with the scrounge.” Haha yeah I sure hope you are! That’s a tidy little sum for a local pickup. Nice job!
Like you, I try to wait three years for red oak (only kind of oak I see up here) unless it is old and long dead (either standing or down), in which case I've been able to use it within one year sometimes. With these oaks being an in-between situation (not long dead, but not green), it will be an interesting experiment with the moisture meter. I'll still stack all the oak separately and tag it for a 3-year rotation, but maybe it will be useable before then. Getting there. The downside is that almost half of what I have to split is red oak, so no immediate return on investment due to the lengthy drying time (especially considering it has been raining for almost the last two months here, so summer isn't helping much). I'll need to augment my hoard with some lower BTU but faster drying species for at least the next couple years. With all the red oak I'll be getting due to the caterpillar killed trees, I'm thinking I may try a homemade kiln in the future. Thanks. A couple years ago I was closing in on my goal of having 20 cords CSS. Way behind now but at least there is progress. The trailer is a Polar HD 1500TA trailer with a coupler kit. My old Agri-Fab trailer finally gave up the ghost last year, so I made the investment into the Polar after a lot of research and reading a lot of recommendations on this forum. I have the side rail kit for it as well. It's a beast, and hopefully will last a long time. HD 1500TA Trailer (polartrailer.com) It was definitely a good return for not a lot of time, travel, or effort invested. I helped them out over the winter with the snowblower on the tractor, so this was a nice way to get paid back. It was all of a 2-minute drive. Can't beat that! He also showed me a large silver maple blow-over that I can go get when I have the time (and energy). It's insane the amount of damage caused by those caterpillars. From my deck I can see over 30 trees that have been killed (not all on my property) and most of them are tall old red oaks. While I like the idea of the future firewood, I hate that I've lost so many of the shade trees around the house.
