A dozen standing dead ash in my woods. Wanted to fell and process some of these a year ago but it never materialized...well sort of as i felled a couple smaller ones and CSS there. Pulled some out recently and today. NOTE: stacked on sleepers. Some trees to come down. I opted to start on this twin. Lots on fungi and one broken off maybe 40' up. Woodpecker activity too. Felled the spar first and hung it up. Couldnt do it again if i tried. I couldnt believe it! Bucked a couple 4' sections off and no go. A walk back to get the cant hook and roll it (thanks for the tip imwiley1) which worked great. Bucked it up, a little splitting & debarking Then felled the twin. No hang up but lack of meat at stump level had it fall not exactly where i wanted to despite a lean. It started over and i got out of Dodge quickly. Bucked till i nicked a rock and split some more. Not the meatiest dead ash ive cut nor the worst but some decent wood to be harvested. Nice to leave the mess behind too. Ill nibble away at this until Spring. A dozen trees to fell. Ill add to the thread as i work this.
Sheesh, you amazing, Brad, with what you find and your activity level. Although, I am keeping up with you lately! I wish I could find ash. Kind of rare here. What is a sleeper?
That last pic appears as though it's getting along in the cycle of life. Lotta wood though. Should keep you busy for a minute.
Just be careful of those branches up top. As the tree starts over, they will tend to break off and come straight down... And, as you saw, sometimes there's also not enough weight left in the stem to keep them from hanging up. Since I'm at GZ of the EAB infestation, I have not seen an ash tree in a while. Cut a lot of them when they were dying and dead and rotting.
Sleeper is a log/board etc laid on the ground to keep stacked wood off of it. All of this wood will be CSS there. Some will be brought to the trailhead and stacked. Im wondering if ill see a living ash tree anywhere when the leaves come out in the Spring. Rather rare sight here now. Most are standing skeletons. One tree may still be alive in the group im working.
I was very mid full of the limbs on top. Soon as the kerf starts to open i looked up and beat feet. None fell any where close to me. Have all the ash been felled or fallen over?
I figured that is what a sleeper is. Do you find that firewood does ok stacked in the woods? Concern here is mold/fungus problem.
Normally i dont leave wood like that but no room here to stack it if i wheelbarrow it out. Ill bring some to just below the trailhead stack and cover. The stacked split pictured are from February splitting. Yes mold/fungi are a concern. The oak from my other thread was hastily covered with bark scraps and as you know oak sapwood loves to grow fungi. I may get some cheap painters plastic sheeting and cover what i leave there. I imagine in your humid climate fungi pops up fast. Try to keep it higher off the ground if possible, but it makes a big difference in keeping the wood clean.
[QUOTE="buZZsaw BRAD, post: 1325419, member: 6376" Have all the ash been felled or fallen over?[/QUOTE] We still have some very large ones on our property that are doing well. It's of course just a matter of time though. I was spying one the other day, rough guess 30" dbh, and its straight as an arrow for 40' up. beautiful tree, such a shame to see them all go.
We logged off part of our timber that yielded 200+ Ash logs this year and sold them. I have been processing the tops for firewood and piling the brush for critter habitat for a couple months and only half done. This next couple years we plan to select harvest the remainder and mill for lumber. I can't believe how much beautiful firewood the tops yield. It splits so nice and makes a great looking stack. Not that looks matter, but it's still nice to see uniform stacks.
Get as much of it as you can you'll miss it when its gone. Im going to be a bit depressed when all my ash is burnt up. I still have a few downed trees to tackle but nothing like several years ago.
We still have some very large ones on our property that are doing well. It's of course just a matter of time though. I was spying one the other day, rough guess 30" dbh, and its straight as an arrow for 40' up. beautiful tree, such a shame to see them all go.[/QUOTE] You could attempt to treat them. If I still had any I would at least give it a shot.
Woods trees vs yard trees. I have a lot of ash in my stacks, and almost all are yard trees. Lots of twisty stuff that doesn't really split, but rather shears. It's great firewood regardless.
Good move to get out of there quick. I did the same thing when I was cutting them, but still had a few times of a closer call than I wanted. In my area, the only ashes left are some residential trees that are being treated. Most of the other ones that I know of in the woods around here(and there's not many) are getting so rotten that they are rotting off at ground level, or breaking maybe 10-20' up the trunk. The original thought to contain the infestation was to cut all the ash in a big area around it. Like miles around it. 1000s of ashes were cut to try to put a ring around the problem. Didn't help one bit, but produced a lot of ash lumber and firewood for a few years... I just found some of that ash at the bottom of one row that had been stuck in the back of my piles. Probably 10 years old! Still in good shape, and I'm burning some tonight, as it's dropping to about 15 tonight. The last of it that I'll probably ever see.
Spent a few hours in the woods today. Finished bucking the second tree. Felled a third and bucked most til saw ran out of gas. Todays tree had solid meat. 028 saw action today. Cant believe i hit a nail/metal Didnt even feel or hear it. WTH...its a tree in the woods! Still cut okay after as the chain was semi chisel. Split some and pulled several loads to the trailhead with the wheelbarrow. Over a cord bucked so far for three trees.
Sad to see it go. Take some pics of the final batch. Yeah i shouldve cut a little more hinge on the second tree but didnt have a great escape path with rocks/roots etc. Tree on ground. Saw and user safe. All is well! Todays went over perfect and didnt even have to wedge the back cut.
