These were starting to really bother me having to mow around them. They grew in the fence line when we had the cows and they would eat the tops off them and keep them in check. It's been a few years now since we got out of cows and they're starting to get pretty big. The first picture is after I already pulled three of the posts and cleaned up the fence wire. The wire became embedded in some of the trees. Got them all down and the brush hauled by hand to the far end of the old barn. I was lucky the bottom of the wire was above the ground level so I was able to safely cut the trees low and avoid the fence wire. I spread some topsoil over the stumps and put some grass seed on top. I should be able to mow right through this summer instead of going around the mess. The rounds in front are what I got from all of those. Good SS wood for this fall.
Around NW Wisconsin box elder is plenty good for the start and end of the burn season. I burn some every heating season.
Looks sooo much better now. Glad that you could get them cut low to go over them with loam. How old is that barn, sure has some character to it.
Wow Chris. That looks just like some box elder I cleaned up for my father-in-law when he stopped milking cows. That id the last box elder I've cut.
Looks good. It always feels good cleaning up an area and getting it looking good again. Great job. I keep a little Box Elder in my woodstacks, but most of it here is pretty knarly and scragley so most of it goes on the "nature piles".
Ya gonna needs mo topsoil. Dem stumps gonna rot in a couple years a leaves some big sink holes. Big improvement! Looks great! Well done.
It was old and decrepit and falling down when we moved here 32 years ago. I shored it up a bit when the animals were living in it and stored the tractor in there for a few years but there's nothing of value in there now. Except for the manure pile which will go on the garden over time. The frost over the years is raising the pilings and will eventually collapse the thing. The former owner kept horses in there and he built it from dismantled buildings that were here at the time. I would say 1970's
I like the wind whipped branch scars left behind. I’ve got something similar on my garage from years of Christmas wreathes left to brave Nor’Easters
Yeah, it took quite a few hours to get it all done. Saved some time by not having to split any of it. I have a couple more along another fence line that are bigger and I think I'll take them down too in the next couple of weeks. The branches are really hanging down and I have to duck when cutting with the mower.
Just an update. The grass is growing great. I've changed my mowing pattern somewhat but it's nice for a change.
We call that Manitoba maple in Canada, well in southern Ontario at least. Its called box elder because they use to use this type of wood for wooden storage boxes which were ahead of the plastic container revolution. It's also called maple ash because the leaves and bark are somewhat similar to ash. As for the steel fence entwined, Ive seen that a million times in back alleys and backyards
It's called Manitoba Maple here in Saskatchewan too. It's also good at falling down under it's own weight, although ice storms speed things up. The old Apple Tree took a hit too.
Yeah, I call it Man. Maple at home all the time but most on here are American and can relate better to Box Elder. I didn't even know what that was until I came to this site.
