I got a little over one cord out of three trees in the first post. I'll go ahead and assume that your 9 trees were all a bit closer to the size of the tree I dropped today.
They were very tall and straight with lots of usable wood and very little 'burn pile' leftovers. I don't know why these trees grew so tall with so few limbs. Maybe because they were so close together or maybe because the had to push their way through honeysuckle bush and Russian olive to find daylight.
Every ash we have is at least 2 years dead because of tbe EAB. The only living ash I have is 3 blue ash trees. For some reason blue ash is more resistant to the EAB.
We don't have EAB yet, at least not officially. The closest confirmed location is about 50 miles away, so it's probably just now getting here. Might be five years before we start the widespread die-off. Five years to stock up.
Last estimate I heard here was something like 11 million dead ash trees in the state. I would have to think it's more than that. In the peak of summer there miles and miles of forests that look like winter forests because of the dead ash. It's a sad sight to see. Hopefully researchers will gind a way to stop them before you have see it.
And the live ones can split too. Sort of goes hand in hand with how they split easy using axe, maul or splitter. Splitting so easy means they will also split when felled should they hit something or have weird shaped tops.
Much more than 5 years. EAB arrived here in 2002. We're still cutting but are just about at the end now. Some have already gone to waste and others aren't far behind. Naturally the wood is not as good as it was 10 years ago but still burnable.
What were your dominant ash species? We have mostly green ash, which isn't as dense or durable as white ash. They seem to rot fairly quickly once they die, at least here. There's a nice ash tree on the other side of that river that I know blew over in the late spring of 2016. It had fresh leaves on it when it fell over. I scouted around there yesterday, and it appears to be rotted beyond what I'm interested in for firewood.
They declared the EAB here late 2016 so the city is starting to take down a lot of theirs. Looking good Coyoterun
All white ash here. But I disagree about the rotting fairly quickly. I find the exact opposite. I also hear people say it rots fast if left on the ground. Not so in our experience as I've even left wood laying in wet for 2 years after being cut and the wood was just fine.
I meant that our green ash seems to rot quickly. I well believe that your white ash would last much longer than our green ash.
Looks great. One tip on wedging. Keep them together. And at the farthest point from the hinge. Plus it's easy to smack them like your playing keys As long as the back of the tree and stump is sound. I like how the wind drifted the snow away from the wood pile.
Thanks for the tip, I'll keep that in mind. We're just a bunch of grain farmers out here that trim brush away from the fields. There's a lot I could learn about wood-cutting.
Good for you. I really mean that ! Several years ago I went back east for my mothers funeral. My sister took me for a drive around where I grew up. I was TOTALLY disgusted to see that the fields we had worked as a kid. Had been allowed to completely grow over with brush and trees. Hundreds of acres. Same is happening around here. Places that were homsteaded as farms. The old timers have passed and their children have left the country to live down south or in the city. With no one mowing the fields. They have been taken over by willow. Which will give way to poplar and spruce. A field is just a nice big clear cut ;-)
When you say "back east" what area are you talking about? It's always interesting to learn about farming in different regions.
Save an old nearly worn out or rocked chain and go after the trunk - if you hit metal, no big loss! Cheers!
Use an old crappy chain to cut the trunk where there might be nails. For the BTU's you could get would be worth the loss of an old chain on it's last leg.
