I have a couple acres of Red Pine on the East end of my property. They were planted by my grandfather when he was a teenager working for my great-grandparent's orchard. They're much too close together now for their current size and about every 4th or 5th one is dying or dead. I cut this one down a couple weeks ago. It was right at the edge of a ditch line that runs diagonally though my property and it was standing dead. It's got a twin that I also plan to cut this year. I'm planning to burn some red pine this shoulder season - and probably the rest, cause there's about a lifetime supply. I already have a couple trees worth of rounds in my log pile from a couple that came down last year. That's not something my grandfather probably would have done with them, but I know he would have loved to get some lumber out of them. I think pine was his favorite to work with too - his wood shop always smelled like it. I sawed up the first 3 cants in place out in the field. Two of them are now in my basement, and I stashed the third one in the garage. I think my grandfather would be thrilled to see the quality of this lumber. I know I am. I loaded up the last 40' of the tree yesterday. The logs were getting light enough to lift one end my myself, so I took the rest of them in one load. I turned a lot of it into firewood before taking any pics though - I was on a roll... I'm going to mill these 2, but I'm not sure if ill get much out of the other one. I think there might be a new sawbuck in this one.
Seems pretty dry too... I can probably saw it into lumber today and it will be drier that what you get at the store.
Nice work Shawn! I have some Red Pine on my property but most has been hit by Porcupine and is dying. I will take the worst ones down for firewood. I have burned a few of them after I let the splits dry a good while. A few were standing dead long enough that with 4-5 months of being in the stacks they were dryer than a popcorn fart. (Not that I would know how dry that is. smoke show told us.)
We had a bunch of trees dieing off a few years ago so made short work of them with some big equipment.
I think it's some type of bark beetle that bores in there, and the blue staining is a fungus that follows them in and ultimately kills the tree. I tried looking up info on it; sounds like its native but it can wipe out a stand like mine if its not kept in check. They recommend harvesting and getting rid of all the dead and slash, but that's going to be a mammoth task. It might just take some heavy equipment like that I think. I milled one of the logs tonight after work. Having them up at the house is so much more convenient. It seems like I always forget something when I'm trying to do it in the woods, and I have to walk back to the house or go without. Tried to get a little more accurate this time about sawing square to the heart center, and making the biggest cant possible.
Nice lumber! I don't think we have red pine out here, but I've milled some Ponderosa Pine and it has the blue staining from beetles.
