You make some fine farwood yourself, my friend. It split good, even with the 4-way, but most still had a twist to it. I don't think we will search it out, for sure.
I think that's a crabapple, although the little spots don't look familiar, but then again that fruit is pretty old and I'm sure there are different species. My grandmother used to make jelly with those. I do remember those thorny sprouts on them when we picked the apples. We used to have a lot of hawthorn scattered around too, but they're so hard on tractor tires that most of them have been eradicated around here.
There was an old crabapple at my grandparents house. That one had different bark, and the fruit was a dark red. But I guess that could differ among trees / varieties. When I get the time, this one's going away from here... When I was picking up the fruit while ago my hand brushed a limb on the ground and a thorn got me...sob.
That's definitely pear, there's 2 varieties of invasive pear. Some make fruit, others don't. They can be nasty for sure. I don't know if you dig it up, but at least soak the stump with brush killer as soon as you cut it down. Very hard to kill. In fact, mix a little diesel with the spray, that's the way they treat mesquite.
I will definitely treat it with some bk when I cut it. While it will be a pain to cut off all the little branches and twigs etc, the main stem pieces are big enough for some firewood. I know it would be good firewood, but does 'pear' = 'pear'? Meaning would this kind of pear be any good for using to cook/smoke with?
Our Bradford Pear has no thorns and just small fruits more like a berry. We have to continually prune it and honestly it should just come down but provides much appreciated shade on the SSW of the house in summer. Branches are not fun to deal with and the burnable wood from limbs is not much. We will burn it in the woodstove as a shoulder season type of wood. There will be a significant amount of firewood when the tree is finally downed as the double trunks are at least 24” diameter. Another reason the BP is a nuisance is that the birds eat the fruit and “replant” more BP all around the acreage especially end up in the pastures and fieldsIt burns good but has grain twist so splitting is interesting!!
We planted this Bradford Pear around 25 years ago. Tree guy said look at the crotch where it is getting ready to split. Guess Bradfords are noted to be top heavy and sometimes prone to breaking. Since it was hanging over the house we made the decision to take it down.
1) Hazard gone 2) More firewood inventory and you didn't have to go far to get it 3) One less invasive pear feeding the birds and spreading the seeds all over kingdom come That's all a win
