My neighbor asked me to remove some dead ash trees on his property awhile back. My woodcutting partner and I took down three last weekend and ended up with 4 facecords and a load of wood chips to top up my landscaping gardens. Great score and a really great couple of days. So there was one tree left, quite large, with several large limbs hanging over his century old farmhouse. The tree itself was also very close to the house, an outbuilding with an antique car inside, pool, pool house/kids playhouse. So a lot to consider. I suggested that he have a climber come in to remove the limbs hanging over the house and we could do the rest. Mission complete. Another 3.4 facecords to split with my partner. Just have to go back and chip but we have 3 days of rain here so I thought I would post some pics of what went down. My cutting partner with his gator getting ready to install the pull line.
Couple more pics: so we thought that it was another eab kill, but tree was actually full of carpenter ants and rotten for the first 3 feet off the stump. A wise choice by the homeowner to take it down!!
Nice work. Always nice to have some toys to give you a helping hand. Some good looking rounds there...
Nice set up Helping a neighbor & scoring some great fire wood. " Merry Christmas " A really big tree close to several obstacles, Very nice job! Bet it woke the neighbors when it hit the ground !
Good thing you got that one down and you did it right. So far we've had only 2 ash that had carpenter ants but that has been before the EAB came along.
I love the Splitfire. I rented one when I first started out and fell in love with the double wedge. Couldn't afford to pull the trigger on one of my own at that time so I bought a new Wallenstein 22 ton which was really nice but quite a bit slower. As luck would have this Splitfire came up for sale a few years after I bought the Wallenstein and I couldn't pass it up. I'm a 50% owner with my cutting partner. I wouldn't want to own another splitter now. We are the second owners, and not a word of a lie this thing has spit hundreds and hundreds of face cords without any problems. It's all original except for a few pull cords, spark plugs, and hydro. filter. It's only rated at 14 tons, but with the knife wedge it will cut through anything!
That's cool, I haven't seen one before so I looked them up on YouTube after seeing your picture. My husked does what I need but I would live to have one of those kinetic splitters. Only downside to the kinetic style is it won't go vertical, and I am always one that ends up with some giant rounds so will probably stick with my 22 ton.
Most of the time I will noodle up the really big rounds to save my back, or if there is some extra help around I like to use the tractor grapple. The verticle splitting is a nice option though. I've got some really big beach wood that needs to either be noodled for splitting, or chainsaw milled for some live edge tables. I've never made any furniture but wood this big doesn't come along too often for me, so I may join the dark side and try to turn it into something that can be appreciated for more than just heat.
I have been burning a lot of Ash the last three years, I like it a lot. I know everyone thinks Oak is the gold standard for firewood, but the Oak coals seem to not burn up as fast. I don't get that with Ash not to mention Ash dries in 1/3 the time as Oak
Pun intended there! Seriously though there is a lot to like about ash as you mentioned. Splits easy and burns clean. Plus around me everyone is pretty much begging me to take down their EAB standing dead. That bug is a scourge and its really a shame! Sorry for the thread jack carry on.
Everywhere I look there are EAB damaged trees standing here. Just noticed 4 more here next to my driveway. One is probably 30" or so. Sickening, but I guess it's good for us wood burners...
QUOTE="TurboDiesel, post: 426408, member: 353"]Everywhere I look there are EAB damaged trees standing here. Just noticed 4 more here next to my driveway. One is probably 30" or so. Sickening, but I guess it's good for us wood burners...[/QUOTE] Around here the townships are cutting every ash tree down dead or alive. I guess there's no turning back. Apparently the tree companies won't do any climbing in a ash with the eab because the wood is too brittle, so if you have a back-yarder, it's a crane job for the removal, so people are cutting them down out of fear of a huge bill for a removal. At my work we have 10 acres of forest and a lot of ash trees on the property and management tried to be pro-active with the injection treatment. They started about 6 years ago when the news of how destructive the beetle was going to be. Big money has been spent, but the trees are starting to show the signs as well, so it will probably just be a matter of time for the treated trees as well. I just hope the beetle doesn't look for another food source when the ash is gone!!!! On the upside, it sure does burn nice.
