Snagged a fair bit of wood this last weekend. We live across the street from a recently widowed neighbor. I offered to take down what looks to be seven or eight Ponderosa pines that have died in the last year or so. Part of a windbreak planted years ago. I told her I wouldn't take a dime, but I'd keep the wood and it might take me a few weekends before it's all said and done. This weekend was the first chance I've had to get started. I've dropped nearly two dozen dead Ponderosa, Red, and Scot pines plus a few Bald Cypress in town over the last few months. They all died within the last year, maybe a little longer. But real fast. I have found what appears to be blue stain fungus in most of the dead specimens. Can someone else confirm that's what this is: I've heard of it being an issue up in the mountains, spread by boring insects as I understand it. That said it's a few hundred miles between here and even the foothills of the Rockies. The first tree yielded a little more than I could fit in the trunk of our car. All of it very dry except the bottom couple of feet. Given our dry climate and the neverending wind I give it a month or less before those remaining wet splits are as dry as the rest of the gang. My wife wasn't feeling well, so Stinky came along with me. We made a fair bargain to go to the playground when finished with that first tree. On Saturday I got a heads up from one of the older gentleman that works down at the tree / yard waste dump that there was some fruit wood that had been pitched in recently. I loaded up Stinky again, but this time with a neighbor's borrowed truck. Found a little Apple and Pear that he was mentioning, but also a pile of Silver Maple and some Cedar that was easy to access. I brought my maul along and just went ahead and split most of the Cedar and Maple as I went. I've found Maple to be one of the easiest splitting woods that I find with any consistency around the area. They've all been yard trees, never seen one out in the wild, but it sure is nice to hit something with a maul that just pops apart like that. We followed up with another trip to the park, and on the way ran into someone in town that was taking down a couple Siberian Elms. Unloaded and returned for a couple loads of that stuff with a couple more to go later this week. This is where I generally process and stack everything. I don't own the field behind the trees. But there's enough space between my pine trees and the edge of the field to fit a few cords. It's been fuller than this, but since I've started selling to a few folks around the area I notice it ebbs and flows. I'm learning not to get too worried about it all and just enjoy it. Right now for hardwoods I've got a pretty good mix of Elm, Honey Locust, Black Locust, Silver Maple, Apple, Black Walnut (highly valuable I hear!), and a little Pear for now. For softwoods it's Ponderosa, Red, and Scot pine with a smattering of Eastern Red Cedar and some Bald Cypress.
Looks like Stinky has had some fun painting your nails High Plains Hoarder . That puts you up for great dad of the year award
I made bargains with my kids when they were that age. Who am I kidding—I still do. But when it comes to how hard work benefits the family, they get that and are willing to chip in without a reward. You’re on the right track, IMHO. Nice job, dad.
I've lost quite a few eastern white pines to some beetle. Full of exit holes. The recent droughts doesn't help the trees fight them off. Plus afew down to past northeasters. I can't keep up with cutting them for my own use so the earlier killed ones are starting to drop and rot on the ground. I've lost about 1/3 of the pines on the couple of acres that are not swamp.
Cleaned up some pine storm damage a while back with no idea what to do with it. Friend with a OWB is running a little low, so I decided to help him out.
