This Slippery (Red) Elm had been dead for several years, and finally fell last year. Unfortunately it fell downhill and I had to hump the rounds from the top up out of a ravine. Luckily most of the trunk was up far enough so I could get the quad pretty close; Wouldn't have wanted to walk up the hill with some of those 18" rounds! <> This is the biggest Red Elm I've come across so far. Most are closer to 12" by the time Dutch Elm Disease gets 'em. BTU on this stuff is between Cherry and White Ash, so it's decent wood. The grain and color are pretty. User nrford trimmed the interior of his house with it. I wasn't in a big hurry to get it because it doesn't have the punky sapwood like Oaks do after standing dead for a while, and holds up well on the ground. It should stack out to 2/3+ cord I think. Trying to get my SILs a full two years ahead. I just might do it, unless we have a cold winter. ;lol The darker gray wood under these fresh rounds is Red Elm as well, from another tree which was pretty good size.
You've heard the horror stories about splitting regular Elm. The Red is a bit stringy, but not near as bad. Still, it's more than this old man wants to split by hand. Not sure how it would split if fresh...I've only harvested dead Reds. The Red is also a notch better in btu. The charts I look at have it at about 21.6, compared to 19.5 for regular Elm.
I feel for you humping the rounds up the hill. Great work on bucking, you also have a nice and clean work area
I've read that red/slippery elm is much less susceptible to Dutch elm. I drive by a couple of nice red elms on my way to work, both in excess of 3' diameter. The bark is usually darker and deeply furrowed, almost like a siberian without the white streak, plus "normal" sized leaves instead of tiny ones. I would have called that one an American elm based on the bark.
Luckily, I only had to bring the smaller top branches up the slope, I could get the quad down to the big rounds from the trunk. As for the work area, that's at my SIL's house...my work area isn't quite as clean. OK maybe it's not DED, and the Reds just get out-competed for light in the woods here and eventually die off. Pretty sure these are Reds, though, based on the color of the wood. I will check some leaves on live trees when I go out today; Red leaves are supposed to be doubly-saw-toothed. As far as leaf size, my Audubon Field guide says American and Red are pretty close, American 3-6" long, 1-3" wide, Red 4-7" long, 2-3" wide.
These pics are of another batch of "Red" I got in the past. I tried to split that one by hand but gave up and sent it to the power splitter.
I love burning elm, I think it smells borderline nasty though. Most dead around here are under 12 inches haven't been worth cutting yet. I savem on the stump just in case! There are a few around that are 20+ inches. One(I call it the liberty tree) where we used to dump horse manure under is knock on wood doing well.
I'm a big fan of standing dead elm like that. Burns hot and has nice coals. Hard splitting by hand, but usually not quite as stringy than when green. I cut it down to like 2 inches, whole pieces burn nice and long for their size.
I too thought that when I saw the bark but the grain tells for sure. Here are 2 pictures (one by Woody and one by Dennis). One red elm; one not. btw, notice the date on the picture on the right and then wonder where the snow is!!!! I hope for a repeat this year.
I didn't want to get off the quad and walk around looking for a larger specimen so I found this small one (5") near the road. The bark is chunkier than the bigger ones I usually see, which have more of a flaky bark. As you see, the leaf is doubly-saw-toothed. I also saw a Sugar Maple that had been sheared off by the wind. It was down in the same ravine, so I guess because it was a two-trunker and about 50' tall, the wind was still able to take it down (about 12" or so diameter.) I chopped into both trunks with a hatchet; Fresh wood. Definitely live when it came down. I will be grabbing that soon, for sure.
Another indicator is the ring of sapwood you see around the Red. And after the bark falls off, the surface of the rounds looks blotchy; I don't see that on Dennis' rounds.
Well, my SILs stacked Big Red yesterday, plus some miscellaneous soft Maple and Red Oak. About a cord, all told. The top 3/4 of this shed bay. This is some of the weathered stuff you can see in post #1, from another Red: The new wood here... And the main stack where I went from two to three rows wide: I was pleasantly surprised how easily the splits peeled off the big rounds; Not stringy at all:
They usually don't smell after they die but cut one green and you are very correct. Nasty sticky stuff it can be.
