It was a beautiful fall morning around 9:30 am. Temperature is mid 50s, a heavy layer of dew on everything, crystal clear blue sky, and not a breath of air moving. The water in the gravel pit is as smooth as a mirror. Just a sweet Sunday morning. Then my phone rings…. It’s my good friend and village maintenance guy. Him, “are you around?” Me, “I’m out at the pit, getting ready to haul dirt into yard with the dump truck.” Him, “Seth had a huge branch come down off that big tree in front of his house. He is there right now cleaning it up. It’s not a cottonwood or elm, I don’t know what kind of tree it is but thought you might want it for firewood.” (I know it’s a MASSIVE maple of some sort) Me, “thanks for the tip, I’ll go by and check it out” So I get a load of dirt on and head to town. I arrive at the tree and see this but Seth is apparently taking a load to the tree pile with his tractor. He returns in just a couple minutes and we talk. He said that I could have it. I didn’t think he would be able to handle the bigger part of it with his saw so I told him I would go dump my load of dirt and grab a bigger saw and be back to give him a hand and haul it off with the dump truck. I don’t think it took me 30 minutes to dump my load and then run out to the shop and grab my 372, start it, top of the fuel and oil, snug up the chain and get back to the down branch with the truck. This is what I see then. Again Seth and the tractor are gone, but not for long and he is bringing back the other log that he already hauled off. He loaded up the rest ( 4 logs ) and we visit just a little while, I tell him thanks again. And I’m off to the house with my SWEET SUNDAY MAPLE SCORE I’m thinking it should be close to a cord once I get it css. And I never laid a finger on any of it to get it home
Silver Maple is good ss wood, usually easy to work & dries quick. I think you hit a great score there for sure! Probably oughta by Seth a 12 pack of the beverage of his choice.
That’s a monster!! I have a huge one in my back yard, not quite as big. Heck of a score too. Saw should cut through like grease lightning. Hoard on!
That is a BIG tree! Awesome score! Do you all release the tension on your chainsaws when not in use btw?
I don’t. The chains are just usually ready for an adjustment when I park em. I think I tend to run my chains looser than most people.
Fantastic! Great tools too! The size of that beast reminds me of the oak we cut down at our last GTG. Limbs as big or bigger than some trees most folks cut. Lots of wood in those.
I made a circle through the tree dump this evening, there’s a couple pretty fair sized branches in there that I would have held on to if I was doing the cleaning up on this. Not complaining a bit I got a bunch of free easy wood. He just wanted it cleared ASAP and wasn’t wasting any time with the small stuff. a couple of you said it’s silver maple, I’ve never had any before. I’m guessing the dry time and btus might be close to the same as river birch?
River Birch...is that the same as white birch? If so then the BTU charts show it has a bit more punch than SM...both will dry in a year if CSS though...SM is great SS wood...and I like to mix it in with other heavier species, it light easily and burns hot...it will get a load going right now! Great with the "hard to light" woods like Locust, and some Oaks, etc...
Nice silver maple score there SHB! Great that the machines were at you disposal. CSS and itll be under 20% MC in 8-10 months.
Yeah that's silver maple. It's low BTU for a maple at ~17 mbtu a cord, but it dries quickly. It will be ready for next year if you get it SS this winter. It's not low BTU like cottonwood though, and it splits easily too.
I do, but only because it is a good habit. I've never had/seen a warm chain cool and get tight on the bar and I probably never will because I always loosen the bar nuts when I'm done cutting. Also look for jammed/packed chips, etc.. Plus it's one more time to know where your scrench is/was.
