This has been a crazy year for wind. Frankly I'm tired of it, but you may get that oak after all since the wind storms have been relentless. Too bad for them they had 2 nice trees die in their yard. Ash is almost expected, but oak?
It's one of those neighborhoods that was carved out of woodland. Random forest trees left in decorative clumps, and wooded buffer zones between and behind houses. There are always trees falling down.
Dandy score there! What fun. Easy to get to and buck up. Now you get to make order out of chaos by loading it out and then splitting and stacking into nice, tidy rows!
So far, 2 days of splitting the ash... Got to pace myself. If the weather is good on Saturday, this catalpa with the cut limbs will arrive, bucked up, on my front lawn. Not great wood, but OK for shoulder season.
I'm not surprised that you have another handsome stack developing. I've gotten used to your aesthetically pleasing wood seasoning. That's a mighty big catalpa! I had one on my property like that, but had to eventually have it cut down. Too close to the house and the weak limbs were starting to crack off more and more becoming a concern. It was a gorgeous tree though that spiraled upwards like a Dr. Suess tree which I would often call it. Yes there is something to be said for shoulder season wood that you don't mind burning when you don't need a heck of a lotta heat. I hate when I just need to take the chill out and all I have is Ash, Oak, locust and Maple to toss in the stove. It kinda breaks my heart. Anyway I don't have much experience splitting it so not sure how it would be to hand split such a large amount. I would fear it being soft and annoying like poplar absorbing the blows or swallowing wedges before splitting, but I just read up on it and people with experience are saying they enjoy the way it splits easy so there you go. Good luck and happy stacking!
I've read that it's easy to split, I hope so! I also read that it's good for carving and turning, if the trunk isn't hollow.
So just thought I would post something lite here. As some of you know on here already I had a house sold next door to mine where there is now construction going on and thus some of my wood sheds/shelters were affected. A few weeks ago they were tearing up the the driveway and this particular shed I have right on the property line that acts as a sort of buffer or fence was called to attention. Well with the heavy equipment and backhoe they needed more space and so asked me to temporarily move it. I had to unfasten it from my Black locust log pilings (nothing fancy, just 16 inch logs buried vertical under the shed wall support studs) which the legs are screwed into to hold the light structure down. In a hurry I also had to clear out about 3/4 cord of wood (which was actually the big part of the job) while they stood and watched...Annoying! I didn't appreciate the immediate pressure and they should've given me more notice than right then. That said they weren't acting put out or pushy, and possibly they only just discovered while working that the shed was in danger of their backhoe and decided to get me Anyway, I got the shed emptied and moved it in a foot into my property (temporarily) and an hour later they finished chewing up the black top, left and never returned. I since moved the wood to my other shelters in various places on my small property. I didn't reattach this shelter because I wanted to see the finished driveway line first and assumed this would be completed in a few days. I never expected that was going to be the last I saw them for weeks! That encounter was 4 weeks ago and the partially new construction which is basically a shell of a house is sitting there like a a ghost town. Now 4 weeks ago was right at the start of the Corona Virus shutdown around here. Maybe they were told they cant return for health reasons till shut down rules lift? This silly shot my wife took a few years back and I'm putting it here just to show you guys the shed when filled with wood ...along with other dense material. So since I expected them to return the next day or soon after to finish the job I left the empty shed standing un-tethered in limbo mode. I didn't want to tie it back down to the the posts only to find I would need to move it again. I also planned on moving it closer into my yard as to avoid conflict with new neighbors who might move in and decide to raise a fuss if they didn't like its location. I really wanted to get a look at the new driveways final trimmed edge to see where it meets on property line before committing to dig up pilings and move everything in closer. Well as I mentioned in previous posts it's been "The Windpocalypse" this late Winter/Spring season and a week ago I awoke to find this pleasant site. I shoulda tethered it down! The trellis with a honeysuckle vine was wired to it and so that got ripped down with it. I never expected it to be left waiting that long and never expected the crazy winds either. So yesterday I decided to forget waiting for them to return to see the final driveway line and decided to dig up the BL pilings and move them into new holes 1 foot closer into my yard. Once again I shored everything back up and for my troubles (because I never like doing a job over exactly) I added 7 inches height with those front 2 x 6 leg extenders. I also added another wall slat across the whole bottom to fill the void. I think this final location will give the workers enough space for the driveway, but regardless I wont be moving it again. Now all I need is either buZZsaw BRAD, MikeInMa , or Midwinter to come and help fill it back up for me. Its a little over a cord when filled and at the speed I've seen you guys work it shouldn't take any of you more than 2 hrs ...Including hoarding, bucking, splitting and stacking! Haha ...not really even exaggerating! The good news is the pizza oven is only a few feet away and who knows what will come out of it? Well I gotta do Something while you're working!
Typical contractors, inconvenience you and then disappear! Do you know if the property was bought by a flipper? I don't know the NJ pandemic restrictions but I imagine you are correct in assuming that renovation work has been shut down. Who knows when they'll be allowed to resume. I'd love to help you fill your shed! I've been splitting all week and am in prime condition. My ash project is more than half done. Maybe we can take a field trip down the railroad tracks, we can each take an end of a 6 foot log!
Sorry to hear about the inconvenience to all the dense objects there. Here you are, trying to be a good neighbor, and you get nothing back. You were smart to move the posts and put the shed back up. Let's see... New Jersey, eh? 2weeks quarantine in NY, then 2 more weeks in NJ. Spend some time moving your firewood around. Say, an overnight stay. Returning, another 2weeks in NY, before getting back to Ma. As much as I'd like to help, I don't think it's going to happen. The homemade pizza would be good, though. Keep us updated as to when the contractors return. P.S. both my wheeled tools for moving wood, would be left here.
You would would go on a hoarding trip with me Midwinter ? I would be thrilled! I can see you've been a busy beaver with that ash. Looks like you found a nice dedicated corner for it all. How great it must be to have wood categorized by species! Thats when you know you've mastered hoarding. As you can see by my stacks in this area there rarely is an opportunity for a huge score of any one tree. Everything I get in this region is piecemeal with the one great caveat being its often fallen off dead and half seasoned and the hardwood varieties abound so its always interesting. You have pretty much the same available by you so also fun on a larger scale. Amazing you're still car hoarding because you move so much wood! The guy who bought the house next to mine is a contractor. He is a flipper, but doing a soup to nuts job with the house since it was a small drab house by today's standards. Also the people who lived there left it abandoned for a year and it got moldy. He made 50% larger no surprise. He's a nice guy, hard working and a family man, but says he wishes he could afford to live in this house, but claims my area is too expensive for him since he lives in Elizabeth where he has a bigger situation for less . That city is a more questionable city in NJ than my town. Mind you my place ain't much better, but depending on exactly where you live in these cities prices can vary. My Town suffers because we are bordering Newark, but the town is rather crime free barring car break-ins occasionally and the like, but we also don't have a Starbucks haha! I hope this contractor doesn't get burned by falling house prices after all this. I would be very scared investing in properties at the moment, however in my experience after a disaster event I usually see short term dips and a quick rise back up to newer highs. I remember thinking Sept 11th was the end of NYC property values. I sure called that one wrong! Hurricane Sandy? Try buying waterfront now! Not sure if this world viral pandemic and shut down can be compared to natural disasters though. I guess we will have to see?
Yeah MikeInMa I hear you. We will have to continue to hoard separately yet together on this site I suppose...Oh and thanks for hypothetically leaving the carts
I hope your flipper friend will come out ok in the end, it must be nerve-wracking to have money tied up in a property and no progress happening! What happens with the real estate market will be very interesting once the economy restarts. One one hand there may be pent-up demand, but on the other, will banks lend to the recently unemployed? Will people have down payments after living off savings? I'm thankful that I can watch from the sidelines.
Excellent points Molly. I'm also just closing in on being mortgage free and if I wanted I could just pay off the rest now. Doesn't pay though since I already payed back the interest part, but it was a real low rate I got 10 years ago when I refinanced for the addition. Now they are talking about having no interest mortgages. Could this be the cure for a potentially crippled real estate market? who knows?... I'm an art teacher and always hated math and world finance. I Do like looking at aesthetically pleasing stacks of firewood though!
My catalpa got dropped off this AM! It's the southern variety, which pleases me, since I already have some, and I can make a rack full.
Congratulations! A few knots, but nicely cut to size. I think they'll split nicely. You've reached the zen level when people start to see you dealing with firewood so much that they start bringing you wood... So whats getting dropped off next?
Catalpa has a "split" personality... if it's straight, it comes apart like a charm, but the knots are killer! Multiple wedges, or noodle it. Most times the whole ugly knot has to pop out of its socket. I fought a few this afternoon, will tackle the rest tomorrow. What comes next... wouldn't we like to know.
Well I saw those knots and was unsure if they would make a dramatic difference since I haven't really split big catalpa diameters, just small shoulder season branches. I read where people said it splits better dry than fresh cut, but not sure if that would matter with crotch. As you said the straight grain splits easy. What I would do is split a few logs at a time or here and there in between splitting other stuff. It can be your therapy or "take your anger out on things" wood
Another note in a mailbox pays off! I left it before Easter, and I got the callback today. A techie kid living in a big house had the tree dropped, but didn't want to pay $800 to have the trunk removed. He cut it up, but all he has is a fire pit, so he only wants to keep some of it. It's all in short lengths, of course. I don't mind. Two trips today, I'll go back for one more tomorrow. The pile at his house... Chunked up in my driveway.
