Supposedly black locust was pushed down to that southern Appalachians by the last glacier and was once more widespread. It is all over the place now because it was spread by settlers/early farmers. Being that it is quick growing and resistant to rot it was a good tree to have around for someone living off the land. It also can fix its own nitrogen which allows it to grow in super poor soils like mine tailings which gives it the ability to grow where most trees can't.
Shawn, that is one of the nicest finds I've heard of. Congratulations on that one for sure. That BL may be wide spread but we don't find much of it around these parts. etiger once gave me some so I could try it. Burns nice and heats long. The only thing we did not like about it was the smell. My wife said, "No more of that!"
Hauled load #2 today. So that's about 2.5 of them out of there. Not sure where the top of the one tree was; a lot of the brush from the tops was already cut off and piled up, probably by the town or electric company or whoever had to push them out of the way. I think I misidentified one of the trees; it was awfully punky if it was BL. I'll skip that one. But I found 2 more on the ground a little further in; the one still had bark and it was one of the biggest I've seen in this woods. It had double leaders about 10 feet up, and the trunk was probably 24". This stand is going to be a gold mine of BL for years to come. There's a bunch of leaners near the road (and cable lines) that I'll let mother nature shake loose, and a bunch further in as well. Couldn't get any decent pics of the stack; it was too dark by the time I got it all bucked up and stacked. Hit a bunch of dirt in the bottom-most rounds of 2 of the trees and dulled 2 chains, so I had to sharpen one before I could finish bucking. I'll snap a pic in the morning.
Here's the stack. Neighbors probably think I'm just hoarding at this point... View from the other side - I gotta get splitting!
Sweet! My only gripe about free scrounges is the lengths are usually all over the map. Yours look very even - did you cut all of it to size?
Yeah these were whole trees for the most part, just topped off a little and then pushed back into the edge of the woods apparently. From the looks of this stand, they probably fell across the road or took out the cable lines. There's a few more dead standing, and leaning precariously towards the road. I'll wait for mother nature to take care of those ones.
Took some pics of my little gold mine. This stand is thick with them - 90% of the trees in this pic are BL: Lots of leaners: Some are close to the road though. No hurry to deal with those just yet. There's plenty on the ground already:
You Suck No, really That's awesome, that ought to keep you busy for a while and warm you twice. GIBIR
I was showing my wife the pictures on this thread and a few others.... Her response.... "These guys are just like you.. Don't you understand it's just gonna get burned." My response.. A blank look and a few blinks..
You know the best part? It's about 700' from my stove!! I'm really glad I found this place... It's like a support group, except it encourages our particular obsession!
Actually there was a firewood processor back there... But he was behind the camera!! Maybe I should have taken a selfie??
