A friend asked me if I wanted the tree that fell last Sunday, into his yard. Its a bit of a travel, but his friendship is important to me Headed over today to find 1. A 1-cord EAB kill Ash, snapped off about 15' up, with 15' on the ground (30' of trunk) closing on 20" dbh. 2. 2 more EAB kil Ash trees, standing, years dead, and unidentified by my friend, each about 30' of straight trunk. 3. He has a 12" dewalt chainsaw. His dear wife made us Challah french toast for breakfast today. Their 2 kids are just the cutest things. Split 1/2 cord by maul and loaded it up. Prolly half a cord left from the trunk pieces. The remaining 2 trees hopefully come down monday, neither will hit much, neither particularly technical.
Jackpot! I've come into some dead standing ash, over the past few years. I like the way it burns. Happy processing!
Good stuff there Dave. You have a knack for finding good ash scores. Was junior around to help? Give him my best when you see him.
Merry Christmas folks! Some of the sap wood is a bit punky, I might leave some behind. No SCA Jr Brad, I wish he were here though. He was a machine with the maul. The other 2 trees haven't fallen yet, I'm hoping the wood is still good. One or both have bark peeling off. Stumpy and I stacked the half cord from the trailer today, and there's room for maybe another cord on the rack. I'm short on space though, not all this tree job will have room at the inn. When I pull wood off a stack this spring (to the shed), stack room will open up. Funny thing: my friend is Jewish, so spending Christmas day with his family will be fun. He swung the maul, and sounds like he is looking to order onefor himself. He ran my saw, and sounds like he wants an upgrade to a larger saw. He doesn't burn wood, but seems to enjoy cutting splitting . .
I guess I'm lucky, I still get a fair amount that is still solid...maybe a bad spot or two in the tree, but just cut around it, or not in some cases
I took two more trees down Christmas day (pics later). 3 total on the ground. The first had some rot lower in the trunk. I might be able to cut around too, or leave it for my friend's campfire. Rotted bits split funny.
I hit an ash score about a month ago too. A tree service buddy of mine called and said he was taking down 31 dead standing ash trees. The job was about 30 minutes from me and I spent two days just traveling back and getting the trees. Best part is I used his dump trailer and one of his guys loaded me with a mini skid steer. I've probably bucked, noodled, split and sold half of it already....I'm always looking for ash and find it some, but this was truly a blessing from above.
The first tree I cut: Got a line 25' up, just to sway it away from branches of another tree. The one to the right was the one that snapped in the storm a week ago. Ended in a perfect fell. Second tree. I don't think we needed the rope, there were enough other trees to aim it right. but it went where I wanted it just the same. Both trees shattered on impact. Heading over today to buck the last one on the ground, and hopefully split a load. I'm maybe a cord from having all my stacks full, and looking for another place to build a stack. I'm enjoying getting to know this fellow and his young family. I miss my kiddo being that young. I'm there for a tree job, and don't know that we'll have much contact outside of work. Not too sure how attached I want to get with the little ones. My dad-heart loves every minute though.
I hit an ash score about a month ago too. A tree service buddy of mine called and said he was taking down 31 dead standing ash trees. The job was about 30 minutes from me and I spent two days just traveling back and getting the trees. Best part is I used his dump trailer and one of his guys loaded me with a mini skid steer. I've probably bucked, noodled, split and sold half of it already....I'm always looking for ash and find it some, but this was truly a blessing from above. Well, I figure I ended up with about half of the trees for myself. I took one load of logs to my tree service buddy's uncle (least I could do) and split the rest with another tree service friend of mine who's got a $90k firewood processor. He gives me good logs a lot (hickory, red oak mostly) and has let me setup shop and do all my firewood work on part of the site he cleared for the processor. I probably ended up with 10-12 pickup truck loads of split wood. But that's just a guess because some of the logs are still in a pile.
I've been very blessed with some friends who help me be able to cut and sell firewood that helps provide for my family. I always try to repay them whenever I can.
I'm sure there are kiddos in the future, but they'll be all the way in OH. My dad-heart is NOT happy about that, but there might be other kiddos who need dads around these parts. I'm finally learning to fell with some accuracy.....being here reading has had some influence. But so does skipping jobs that exceed my equipment and abilities.
