After spending spring, summer, and most of fall splitting 9 cords of wood, nice to be back cutting again. Worked on this ash tree today. A tad punky, but solid wood around the edges. Pretty typical of ash that I have cut before that has already fallen over. Those ash borers sure have killed a lot of ash trees. Beautiful day, sunny, 33 degrees. First cut into the trunk stirred up a possum who came barreling out of a hole in the trunk just two feet away from my running saw. Sorry little buddy--destroyed your home today. Plenty more trees for him to choose from. I have a lot of ash trees to cut up between now and next fall. Certainly enjoyed the afternoon; I am in a good mood!
Did more burnin' than cuttin' today. Cold, windy and snow on the ground here...plan to cut next weekend
Yep, ash is all I'm cutting. There are still a lot left on my place but few of good firewood size. I've got my eye on a big guy of 26" DBH and somewhere around 90'+- tall. Because it's in a hillside I can't use the sitck trick with any accuracy. I think most of us will cutting and burning ash for some years to come. Nice work and I'm glad the opossum made a safe escape. They make a miserable saw clean-up job. Ever eat one? Not my favorite!
After hearing ya'll sing the benefits of burning ash wood. I've yet to ever burn any. It is around, but not a major tree in the woods around me. There is some in town around the common, but not much chance of getting any. Maybe someday, the EAB is supposedly been seen around here, and the state is worried.
Nice work! Ash is good burning wood, but I am doing everything I can to keep my yardbird ash trees healthy and pest free. I don't mind burning the occasional branch, but I'll not be happy if any of my ash trees become firewood. I give any dead ash that is on my woodlot to my buddy, since he lives a half a mile away. My woodlot is about 25 miles from my home. I won't spread the EAB.
Brett was that tree full of ants too? Certainly a good sized tree and a shame for it to go bad. You'll not forget that possum for a while. I've came close to them a few times and did cut through a coon once (might have a possum too but don't remember right now). I could hardly believe it when blood started pouring out with the sawdust. Nasty!
No ants that I could see. But it was cold...there may be some in there yet. Just soft, punky centers. Will see how the other ash trees are that I cut on this property. Hopefully more solid. It all burns. Yikes, have never cut into an animal yet, no blood on the saw. Have just watched critters scurry out of holes a few times. I am sure it could happen sometime to me though.
